Abstract:
Stars, as the familiar and recognisable points of light in the vast cosmic darkness above our heads, have been mapped for millennia through constellation systems and cosmography. This thesis examines the ways in which three contemporary artists, Katie Paterson, Ruth Watson and Karel Nel create new forms of cosmography, blending subjective, artistic interpretations and cartographic methods of astronomical research. Through direct collaboration or interaction with astronomical institutions, these works enable an important interchange between astronomy and contemporary visual art, mediated through mapping. Through processes of translating and recoding astronomical data, each artist suggests new and interesting ways of conveying and perceiving scientific data; in addition to examining the relationships between astronomers and artists, mathematical data and visual cartography and processes of communication and interpretation. Furthermore, through the consideration of theoretical and historical implications of cartography, theories of power, knowledge and subjectivity are addressed in relation to mapping the universe. Focusing on multimodal examples of stellar cartography, this thesis examines how contemporary cosmography attempts to visualise the known, the visible and the luminous features within the darkness of the unknown, and potentially unknowable universe. Employing a wide range of materials such as paper, salt, dust and metal, these maps demonstrate a diversity of approaches to cosmography, offering embodied, phenomenal and imaginary experiences of the universe, along with the accurate mapping of astronomical information. These artworks question notions of representation by taking art historical abstraction into new territory through precise mapping of astronomical data in cooperation with scientific methods. Yet they draw upon expressionism by offering individualistic perceptions of such mapping. By depicting the known within the unknowable, the three artists suggest that through processes of cartography, information can be delimited and contained; within which more comprehensible perspectives of the immensity of the universe can be offered, as demonstrated by examples of contemporary cosmography.