The DePaul Humanities Center launches its 2016-17 series “The Humanities in Spaaaace!” on Monday, October 17 with an exploration of our neighbor Mars. The DHC’s “yearlong investigation into the relations among the humanities, arts, and space-sciences” will bring together experts from such varying fields as music, geography, political science, environmental science, history, and literature to have lively discussions about the challenges and inspirations that come with the examination of interplanetary landscapes. The DePaul University Library is pleased to provide a few suggestions for materials to supplement this investigation.
The night devoted to Mars will begin with a screening of the 2015 film The Martian. Did you know it was a novel first? Check out Andy Weir’s 2011 story of astronaut Mark Watney and follow every twist and turn on the page. When the novel gets you curious about the most recent scientific advances concerning the possibilities on Mars, take a look at the Federal Depository Library Program, our digital collection of government publications that includes the latest reports from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. One NASA-sponsored publication, Astrobiology Magazine, offers articles in a popular science format accessible to anyone from the curious middle school student to the advanced researcher. “Study Predicts Next Global Dust Storm On Mars” and “Rover’s Panorama Taken Amid ‘Murray Buttes’ on Mars” are two examples of articles published this month. Keep checking back for the latest accomplishments and studies that bring us closer and closer (“Researchers Explore Martian Farming,” anyone?) to the reality of an adventure like Mark Watney’s.
You may be familiar with Mary Roach’s intrepidly investigative nonfiction from her forays into “the curious lives of human cadavers” or “adventures on the alimentary canal.” She takes her investigation to space with Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Roach meets with specialists in all aspects of space travel, from nutrition to toilet seat design, to find out what it really means to put human beings in outer space– biologically, emotionally, and physically speaking.
New books about Mars are being published every year. Here are just a few more from the last ten years that highlight Mars from different angles. Rod Pyle, an award-winning science writer, focused on Mars for his 2012 work, Destination Mars: New Explorations of the Red Planet. With dozens of images to accompany his text, Pyle traces humankind’s expeditions to Mars from Mariner 4 in 1964 to Pathfinder and beyond. In Weird Life: The Search for Life That is Very, Very Different from Our Own, writer David M. Toomey explores the most extreme environments in our universe and the possibility– or in some cases, the confirmation– that life exists there. Mars is one of those places. What Toomey learned about the permafrost on Mars will resonate with the DHC event’s lecture concerning the geopolitical ramifications of the Martian landscape. Likewise, Janet Vertisi’s 2015 book, Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars, will pair nicely with the lecture that considers the intersection of science and art where interpretation and visualization of Curiosity rover telemetry data takes place.
One of the highlights of Monday’s event will be a live performance, on period instruments, of “The Descent of Mars” from Jean Baptiste Lully’s Thésée (available at the library as a print score or a CD recording by the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus) as well as music composed by Vicenzo Galilei, astronomer Galileo’s father. To hear more orchestral music with planetary themes, look into Gustav Holst’s work The Planets, available to stream from Naxos Music Library. Completed in 1916, Holst’s piece gives focus to one planet at a time, evoking its image and mythology through his instrumentation. “Mars,” the opening segment, uses persistent drums, strong brass, and dissonance to evoke the Red Planet’s association with war. (Astute listeners will also hear the influence on John Williams’ Star Wars score.)
We hope you’ll join the DePaul Humanities Center for this first stop on an intriguing journey into the final frontier. The DePaul University Library may not yet have a branch on Mars, but our resources will get you as close as possible– no space suit required.
“The Humanities in Spaaaace!”
Event details:
DePaul Student Center
2250 N. Sheffield Ave, Room 120
4:30-7:00 pm – screening of The Martian
7:00-9:00 pm – live music and lectures
Free and open to the public.