The City of Glendale’s Library, Arts & Culture Dept., in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an operating division of Caltech is pleased to present a new exhibition titled “Blended Worlds: Experiments in Interplanetary Imagination” at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, opening Sept. 21. “Blended Worlds” is presented as part of Getty’s regional art event PST ART: Art & Science Collide, which explores the intersections of art and science – past, present and in the imaginable future. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 7 – 9 p.m., welcoming guests to view the exhibition for the first time.

Through a series of art and science collaborations, “Blended Worlds” explores the landscape of human relationships with the ever-expanding environment. The exhibition includes artists collaborating with a team of JPL scientists and engineers to present a vision of the future that invites the viewer to consider the impact of greater connectedness with nature and its ability to foster a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity with the planet and the cosmos. Spanning a range of multimedia and cross-disciplinary works from 11 artists, “Blended Worlds” features contributions from David Bowen, Darel Carey, Ekene Ijeoma, Annette Lee, Ada Limón, Bruce Mau, Viktoria Modesta, Shane Myrbeck, Moon Ribas, Raffi Joe Wartanian and Saskia Wilson-Brown.

Some works on view incorporate publicly accessible data from missions that JPL manages for NASA while others allow visitors to experience Earth’s wonders through scents, utilize sound to convey the vast distances between our planet and those beyond our solar system and blend heartbeats and other Earthly sounds with sonified data from Europa’s magnetic field. David Bowen’s installation tele-present wind features grass stalks attached to tilting mechanical devices that move in response to Martian wind data previously collected by NASA rover and lander missions. For Seismic Percussion, Cyborg artist Moon Ribas creates an interplanetary drum score by translating seismic data from Earth and Mars, the latter via NASA’s now-retired InSight lander.

As part of PST ART, a number of public programs and community events will also accompany the “Blended Worlds” gallery exhibition including
“Blended Worlds: An Evening of Art, Theater and Science” is hosted by Reggie Watts at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Oct. 5. The evening features a number of special guests from JPL, artist talks and performances. More information on events to be announced soon.