Starscapade

Cassini:

Unlocking Saturn’s Secrets

by Carolina Martinez, Jet Propulsion, Pasadena, CA.

Sizing the Universe

Dark Matter

by Andrew Chaikin

Sctellar Studies

How to study variable stars

by John R. Percy

Return to the Moon

Space Studies

Photo courtesy of NASA

Cassini Mission Report: A new perspective from NASA

Rough, slender, and ghost-like are sculptures Alberto Giacometti left in his wake. The stretched limbs of these figures created between 1948 to 1960 reach out desperately from a heart of tension while pointing to their creator’s personal interpretation of the frailty of human life.

Life on this rock covered with water and dust is far more than a physical existence, there is a magic at work in the soul. And as Giacometti saw this frailty in sought to capture “...the true semblance of the human being...” through his sculptural works.

Giacometti’s intent and inspiration for his creation, his desire to portray reality, and his views on humanity will be made clear through a close study of three of his figural sculptures.

Investigating his sculptures helps to give viewers a look behind the eyes of Giacometti, as well as an understanding of the events in his life which influenced his thought process and affected him during these works (Dust of Space and Gonzalez 143). In this analysis will be looking at how Giacometti deals with unique individuals in his sculptures Walking Man I, Three Men Walking, and Woman of Venice I and also with the relationships of human beings.

The year 1948 marks the time which began Giacometti’s Page 13

Rough, slender, and ghostly are the things Alberto Giacometti left in his wake. The stretched limbs of these figures created between 1948 to 1960 reach out desperately from a heart of tension while pointing to their creator’s personal interpretation of the frailty of life.

Life is far more thana physical existence, there is a magic at work in the soul. And as Giacometti saw this frailty in sought to capture “...the true semblance of the human being...” through his sculptural works. Giacometti’s intent and inspiration for his creation, his desire to portray reality, and his views on humanity will be made clear through a close study of three of his figural sculptures.

Investigating his sculptures helps to give viewers a look behind the eyes of Giacometti, as well as an understanding of the events in his life which influenced his thought process and affected him during these works (Dust of Space and Gonzalez 143). In this analysis will be looking at how Giacometti deals with unique individuals in his sculptures Walking Man I, Three Men Walking, and Woman of Venice I and also with the relationships of human beings.

The year 1948 marks the time which began Giacometti’s figural pursuits which appeared as “...arrestingly thin silhouettes...” closely following Hitler’s defeat in World War II (Gonzalez, 87). It was this time that Close capturing of Saturn’s moon Calypso Photo courtesy of NASA

Page 14

Page 15

Photo courtesy of NASA

marked Giacometti’s return to the human figure in his sculpture. Created in 1948, Three Men Walking is one of the first pieces which began Giacometti’s time studying human form.

Three Men Walking is a painted bronze sculpture that portrays three men in a walking stance. These figures appear in a form which, when compared to normal human beings, is elongated or “stretched”, but they are images that bring forth reality as Giacometti saw it (Sheridan, 71).

World events of the time bring about the question of whether Giacoetti’s figures created were as a response to the oppression of the Jews

by Hitler. But despite having seen “horrific images of near-dead people and piles of emaciated corpses...” these sculptures were only the culmination of Giacometti’s attempt to portray human reality through his eyes (Myth, 199). The slight limbs of the figures is the detail that has made so many people question if the figures were meant to represent the prisoners of Germany in the concentration camps. However, the limbs of the sculptures are not only unusually thin, but they appear as if their limbs were hacked or whittled away. An understanding of how Giacometti worked .

The year 1948 marks the time which began Giacom-

Enceladus, one of Saturn’s many moons Photo courtesy of NASA

etti’s figural pursuits which appeared as “...arrestingly thin silhouettes...” closely following Hitler’s defeat in World War II (Gonzalez, 87).

It was this time that marked Giacometti’s return to the human figure in his sculpture.

Created in 1948, The slight limbs of the figures is the detail that has made so many people question if the figures were meant to represent the

prisoners of Germany in the concentration camps. However, the limbs of the sculptures are not only unusually thin, but they appear as if their limbs were hacked or whittled away.

Alberto Giacometti was a near maniac in my opinion, but one who I respect both for his work, his ideas, and his struggles. He went through periods Wilson

Photo courtesy of NASA

Photo courtesy of NASA

Behind the Wake:

Tracking NASA’s Cassini Mission The American nation has grown very dependent upon the images fed to us by the media. We are kept on track with world events, btu do we condiser the bodies ouside of our world? Americans began to realize the importance of photography as a news tool as adventurous men like Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O’Sullivan captured Civil War events onto their film (PBS). These men used the photographic process to capture and portray the realities of war in it’s heat. Since that time, the media has moved away from using photography as a translator of truth. The images that are now being allowed to reach the public are untruthful, because they no longer follow the faithful example of relaying reality to the public.

During consequent wars, photographs continued to be shot and then passed along to the American people in their newspapers for their enlightenment. It was not until the second World War that the American Government began putting constraints on the photographs that were being published in public newspapers. Images that were appearing from our fight in Vietnam had begun to seriously disturb the Ameri-

can people, Seeing the negative response of the American people to the actions carried out by their troops, the government stepped up to take control of the situation by screening When truth is hidden, the outcome is never positive.

Our nation has moved away from a truthful realization of our power into a false sense of confidence. are to truthfully display reality.