Urania's Gardens: Les jardins d' Uranie, K- Droz France

Cadran solaire Clando

Urania’s Gardens

Terra Incognita Leyzour

K-Droz, our association of artists, organized a meeting on December 20 with the following agenda :

- to present the International Year of Astronomy 2009 and the Urania’s Gardens initiative,
- to awaken the interest of the audience (15 members present) and to encourage them to produce ideas – on the spot or later - that could be included in the Urania’s Gardens project.

Bir - touilon

1/ Presentation
The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is part of the U.N. The UNESCO has been designated to be the lead agency of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

See website:
http://portal.unesco.org/fr/ev.phpURL_ID=41550&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Under the theme “The Universe, yours to discover”, the Year aims at stimulating worldwide interest in astronomy and science. By encouraging the spirit of discovery and sharing of fundamental knowledge about the Universe and our place in its midst, it will provide an ongoing platform for international cooperation beyond all barriers including age, race, gender, status, time, place, and space.

tele - scoop

The group Urania’s Gardens is based in Athens, and was set up to produce objects or artistic events based on astronomy.

See blog: http://uraniasgardens.blogspot.com/
A reminder: do not mistake astronomy for astrology

2/ Astronomical objects
The following links give an idea of certain aspects of astronomy:

Object
Site
Astrolabe
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolabe
Sundial
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/blateyron/sundials/fr/index.html
Jaïpur, India
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Jantar%20Mantar_at_Jaipur.jpg
Dark matter
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mati%C3%A8re_noire
Eclipses
http://homepage.oma.be/eclips/Photo7b_fr.html
Comets
http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/~demoulin/cometes.htm
Eros 433
http://www.nineplanets.org/eros.html
Titan, satellite of Saturn
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x48kyp_rencontre-avec-titan_tech
Europa, satellite of Saturn
http://www.cite-sciences.fr/francais/ala_cite/expositions/vie-extraterrestre/dossier-cnes-exobiologie/la-vie-dans-le-systeme-solaire/vie-autour-de-jupiter-et-saturne-1.php
Andromeda or M31
http://jcboulay.free.fr/astro/sommaire/image_jour/andromede/page_andromede.htm
Collision between Milky Way and Andromeda
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~dubinski/merger/bigmerger.html Cliquer here to see film

But … SUBLIMATION

Works of art cannot be based on straight representation of objects. The artist must sublimate the subjects he wishes to share through his own vision and mind.
During a short exercise, the participants were asked to come up with words related to astronomy. Here is a list of words: