Summary
Our cultural concept of Mars has historically been entrenched with its possibilities of life since Percival Lowell gazed at Giovanni Schiaparelli’s canali over a century ago. Perhaps a small misinterpretation of language, an optical illusion, or the dream of an optimist, unlocked the myth of a war torn planet where unrivalled irrigation skills implied markings of intelligent creatures (Lowell, 1909). With new discoveries and the development of technological tools, Mars has become reduced from inhabiting man-like creatures to worms, plants and gradually only the potentiality of microbes. Indeed, many scientists shared this disappointment as the Mariner orbiters first laid their eyes on a hostile planet engulfed in dust. Beginning with the Viking mission, the raging dust storms’ settled and its two Landers unravelled for the first time the alien world of Mars—a dry rocky desert covered in iron oxide yielding the ochre-red hue as well as its name, the “red planet”. Hitherto the only set of tests for carbon life probing Martian soil showed incomplete but daunting results. Its controversy sparked a complete re-thinking of “what life is” and “where we can find it”. The robotic invasion of Mars has since re-awoken its potential, catalyzing a range of new research disciplines drawn to the possibilities of finding life. The red planet remains a frontier for life through its history both as a cultural and scientific space. Our engagement attempts to open artistic areas in primarily scientific spaces and to address cultural aspects and experiences that also take place. The Martian Rose is an artistic investigation into boundary conditions of life beyond terrestrial settings.
Date of Original
12-1-2008
Volume
2
Issue
1
Broad Type
Article
Specific Collection
Multi: the RIT Journal of Diversity and Plurality in Design.
Notes
Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to the RIT Digital Institutional Repository in August 2025; Some links embedded into the PDF may not work
