Please join us on September 10 from 5:00-6:30pm for a reception to celebrate the collaborative effort of Nitya Jacob Kallivayalil (Professor of Astronomy and Dean’s Research Fellow) and William Wylie (Commonwealth Professor of Art) in the production of the artwork, Firmament. The reception is on the 3rd floor at the Contemplative Science Commons and can be easily accessed from the Dell parking lot or the walkway over Emmet St.
In 2023, Professor Wylie and Professor Kallivayalil began collaborating on the art piece that would combine artifacts from the Sloan Digital Star Survey (SDSS) with a photographic process discovered in 1840. The SDSS is an encyclopedic all-sky survey created using telescopes in New Mexico and Chile in conjunction with custom spectrographs designed by UVA astronomers. Spectrographic plates from the survey were used to make hundreds of cyanotype prints, each unique print being exposed to the sun for anywhere from 2-16 hours. These prints render the process of archiving the cosmos in an expansive and approachable form.
Sponsored by the Art Department, the Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology (GECO) Initiative, and the Office of the Dean at UVa.