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Honestly, I don't see how this is any bigger of a deal than going to the moon in the first place. There is a level of forced sentimentality here, as if a painte

Honestly, I don't see how this is any bigger of a deal than going to the moon in the first place. There is a level of forced sentimentality here, as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut, because they're just special. Any time I see something like the level of response somewhere, I can't help but assume everyone thinks they're saying what they're supposed to say. "This is so beautiful, etc." It means I like art. I'm not an artist (I didn't take that risk with my way of life), but I like and can appreciate art which may as well be the next best thing, so I will post the comment saying I almost cried and everyone can know what a spiritual/sentimental/artistic person I am! Sorry, don't mean to be cynical. I just don't understand how this is a big big big deal to cry over. I hope they succeed and make something great out of it afterward, just some of the comments here seem way, dare I say, over the top.

ryanjmo 8y ago
These will be artists who are already famous and have fans and distribution channels and will be able to sell there art for lots of money, probably helping pay for the trip. Also their art will be viewed by many people, so it will impact many people that way. So it is significant in that way.
aaron695 8y ago
Kim Stanley Robinson's fictional "Antarctica" was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Reading his book made me see Antarctica in a way I'd never considered it. Ever time I see it on a map now I fundamentally see it differently to before I read his book. There is an argument "conservative" people biologically see the world differently to "liberals". These words aren't great because they are political but I hope you get the idea. I guess it's important for people to understand it's not something you and many others find value in and for you to understand it's very valuable to others perhaps. Meh? But I certainly fully agree space is mostly for scientists at this stage if that's your point, but watching a car in orbit live was much more memorable and inspiring to me than a lot of stuff NASA has done.
colordrops 8y ago
Its significant in that it's even happening at all. It wasn't expected that someone would fund artists as the first commercial passengers to the moon.
abdullahkhalids 8y ago
> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut A scientist, after years of training, can look at a physical system, break it down into its component parts, figure out how to model each part using mathematics, synthesize the models, and then do experiments to confirm the overall model. An artist, after years of training, can look at a scene from twenty different perspectives, understand the emotional impact of each perspective on different types of human personalities, can select a few that most appeal to them, and then synthesizes these selected perspectives into one whole coherent art piece. If you are not an expert at something, then don't reduce what they can see and do, to only what you can see and do, and declare that they are doing nothing interesting.
- lawlessone 8y ago
  Don't reduce artists and scientists to their professions? Scientists can be artistic and artists can be scientific. They overlap.
  - rbanffy 8y ago
    I like to say I write executable poetry.
  - abdullahkhalids 8y ago
    Sorry, when I said "scientist" and "artists", I didn't mean professionally, just someone who has spent a lot of time honing their skills in these fields. One person (say Lenardo di Vinci) can be both.
- chris_mc 8y ago
  >If you are not an expert at something, then don't reduce what they can see and do, to only what you can see and do, and declare that they are doing nothing interesting. Perfect, this is what I was thinking for years but couldn't put into (very good) words. If you don't understand something, don't presume to understand it via "common sense".
- godelski 8y ago
chr1 8y ago
> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut The point isn't that they'll see something else, but that they may tell about it better.
panic 8y ago
> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut It's very hard to see the world well enough to paint it. Anyone with artistic training will have techniques to see things more clearly. A painter will absolutely see something different than a regular astronaut.

ryanjmo 8y ago

These will be artists who are already famous and have fans and distribution channels and will be able to sell there art for lots of money, probably helping pay for the trip. Also their art will be viewed by many people, so it will impact many people that way. So it is significant in that way.

aaron695 8y ago

Kim Stanley Robinson's fictional "Antarctica" was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Reading his book made me see Antarctica in a way I'd never considered it. Ever time I see it on a map now I fundamentally see it differently to before I read his book. There is an argument "conservative" people biologically see the world differently to "liberals". These words aren't great because they are political but I hope you get the idea. I guess it's important for people to understand it's not something you and many others find value in and for you to understand it's very valuable to others perhaps. Meh? But I certainly fully agree space is mostly for scientists at this stage if that's your point, but watching a car in orbit live was much more memorable and inspiring to me than a lot of stuff NASA has done.

colordrops 8y ago

Its significant in that it's even happening at all. It wasn't expected that someone would fund artists as the first commercial passengers to the moon.

abdullahkhalids 8y ago

> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut A scientist, after years of training, can look at a physical system, break it down into its component parts, figure out how to model each part using mathematics, synthesize the models, and then do experiments to confirm the overall model. An artist, after years of training, can look at a scene from twenty different perspectives, understand the emotional impact of each perspective on different types of human personalities, can select a few that most appeal to them, and then synthesizes these selected perspectives into one whole coherent art piece. If you are not an expert at something, then don't reduce what they can see and do, to only what you can see and do, and declare that they are doing nothing interesting.

lawlessone 8y ago
Don't reduce artists and scientists to their professions? Scientists can be artistic and artists can be scientific. They overlap.
- rbanffy 8y ago
  I like to say I write executable poetry.
- abdullahkhalids 8y ago
  Sorry, when I said "scientist" and "artists", I didn't mean professionally, just someone who has spent a lot of time honing their skills in these fields. One person (say Lenardo di Vinci) can be both.
chris_mc 8y ago
>If you are not an expert at something, then don't reduce what they can see and do, to only what you can see and do, and declare that they are doing nothing interesting. Perfect, this is what I was thinking for years but couldn't put into (very good) words. If you don't understand something, don't presume to understand it via "common sense".
godelski 8y ago

chr1 8y ago

> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut The point isn't that they'll see something else, but that they may tell about it better.

panic 8y ago

> as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut It's very hard to see the world well enough to paint it. Anyone with artistic training will have techniques to see things more clearly. A painter will absolutely see something different than a regular astronaut.