Introduction The NASA Art Program has commissioned original artworks chronicling the wonders, risks and triumphs of space exploration. In Copernica, we invite you to explore a new universe created from a sampling of this art collection. Zoom in to a star to discover an artwork, or build your own constellation and watch the swirling forms take shape.

Launch Copernica (38K; java required) Launch Copernica (text view) Essay about Copernica by Jon Ippolito About the NASA art program

Instructions The NASA collection is represented as a constellation of orbital "spheres" that contain moving stars. Each star corresponds to an artwork. If you move your mouse near a star, it will light up and display the title of the corresponding work. Clicking the mouse will bring up a description of the piece. as well as an image of the artwork. The three buttons at the upper left of the page allow you navigate the universe of artworks in different ways. You can choose to arrange the orbital spheres by subject matter or artist. You can also organize the works by the first word in the title. (Although no title can be summed up in a single word, this view forms a kind of concrete poetry that provides interesting perspective on the language of the artists.) As you view artworks, Copernica will keep track of the stars you've seen. The most recently viewed artwork will be highlighted in orange. You can use this feature to connect the different views of the collection. For example, suppose you are in the "subject" view and you click on a piece by an artist who seems appealing. You can easily find all works by that artist by clicking on the "Artist" button and finding the orbit that contains the orange highlighted star.

Credits This work was created for the NASA Art Program by Martin Wattenberg, under the auspices of Rhizome.org Rhizome.org participating artists: Mark Tribe, Alex Galloway, Simon Schiessl. Thanks to: Mary Beth Smalley.

About the artist Martin Wattenberg is a digital artist whose work centers on the theme of mapping information. Recent pieces include The Shape of Song (most recently displayed at Bitforms Gallery) and Apartment, with Marek Walczak (most recently shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art.) Wattenberg also works in the field of data visualization and is known for the SmartMoney Map of the Market. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from U.C. Berkeley.

Copyright Notice Images in NASA's art collection are copyrighted and not in the public domain. For questions regarding reproduction, please contact: NASA Art Program, Public Services Division, Code PS, Office of Public Affairs, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546.