Answer to your Questions Question: Would the difference in the atmosphere's color make a difference on the art of Mars? Answer: Probably. Everything we do would be colored by different light. Colors are very subjective, as I was reminded recently while looking at a show of paintings by a color-blind friend. We would adapt somewhat to the change after a while, but the different way of looking at things like color would be one of the great delights of the experience, I think! Question: What is the Martian environment like? Answer: It is dry, cold and dusty! Though it is more like Earth's than any other planet, it is still very hostile. Question: How would you go about if you were living on Mars? Answer: I would be very careful whom I brought with me in the first place! The community would be small and very intense. I would want a lot of variety and different age groups, but that diversity might make cooperation harder to achieve. Some major factors would be a person's openness to ideas and empathy with other people, and their confidence and discipline under stressful conditions. I would have some form of meditation or prayer as a routine, to help remind the members of the group to trust each other and themselves. Balancing responsibilities would be very important. Question: I am studying to be an astrobiologist and want to know if there would be a need for one there. Answer: I am sure that job would be one of the critical ones! And it would be vital, if I were doing the choices, to have a lot of people with the versatility and breadth of background you seem to have developed. Curiosity, very intensive knowledge in a specific area of science, and then a lot of personal skills to make the stay easier. Question: What is the latest invention in space technology? Answer: My nephew says re-usable spacecraft is his vote. I'm thrilled if that is the case, as I think we waste a lot of wonderful stuff by assuming there's always more where that came from. There isn't! Question: Was there any life on Mars? Answer: The best they seem to come up with so far is maybe. We'll have to go and see. Question: Can we have more than a hundred people go to Mars? Answer: I don't get to call that one, but I think a hundred is a nice number of people, and more than that would take a lot more room and resources than we might want to commit. Question: What type of recyclable materials on earth would be useful in building structures on Mars? Answer: Aluminum and titanium are some of the most versatile and lightweight materials we have, and I'm sure would play an important part in Mars habitat. Paper and paperboard are also lightweight and versatile, and I could imagine them both being re-melted or re-ground and formed into many useful and practical modular structures. Since all the participants (the ones I would get to vote for, anyway) would be selected in part for their improvisational talents, I am sure new forms would be developed on Mars which had not even been thought of before they were needed. Question: How many of the hundred people should be artists? Answer: ALL of them! Each of us is an artist in a different way, and I would want lots of kinds! Everybody should be able to improvise a new solution to a challenge, and think on his or her feet. The scientists and artists we know all feel that the same skills are vital to good science and good art. You should have a great foundation in the basic information and techniques, and then be able to question the assumptions about what the "right" way to do it is. There might be another way to get out of a jam, and finding it might open a whole new pathway. Question: If there are 100 people does everybody do the dances and sing the songs or should some people only sing or only dance? What if I'm not a good dancer? Answer: Anybody who would make fun of a dancer with two left feet would not be invited on MY trip to Mars. You should dance if it's fun, and not because you have to. A friend of mine uses the expression "Let the hands be hands and the feet be feet!" We all have our very valuable and different contribution to make! When I was working in theatre in high school they didn't take long to determine that I didn't belong in the chorus, but they sure could use somebody backstage who could sew! I could sew a lot better after five summer productions, and that's where I learned the skills I'm still using. Question: What would a house look like on Mars? Answer: It would be very clean and efficient! My favorite design theme is minimalist the one where "form follows function." I find this look very relaxing! Every bit of design on Mars would have a purpose, and spaces would be tiny but simple and flexible. Wall panels could be added or removed, rooms could be used for several purposes and modular walls and floors and furniture could be moved and rearranged in endless ways. How practical for us on earth to follow the same system so we could keep from having to landfill all the parts when a building comes down! Question: Were humans ever living on Mars? Answer: Probably not. For us to survive there would involve stretches of science and technology that we can assume have never been in place on earth before now. Every life form is perfectly designed for its environment, and if life has evolved on Mars it would not look like us at all! Question: Lets say the year is 2020 and that humans come up with a solution to go to Mars as a small colonial. What kind of government would you form? Answer: I'm a big fan of democracy, but keeping order in such a tiny colony would require some aspects of military discipline, and strong laws. There might also be some interesting aspects of a commune. Question: What might be the pros and cons for this mission to Mars? Answer: The pros and the cons are both very informative on this one! The cons, of course, are all the other things we could do with the money it would cost. We should study them carefully, and recognize what we would be choosing to give up to do this. It should be a very clear choice; supported by the people who fund it. Obviously the human race gets a big kick out of succeeding at a huge challenge like this one, and the opportunity for exploration on such a scale is rare. I think the main value to us, as a civilization would be the chance to develop the skills to use every resource we have to the fullest on our own planet. If we taught ourselves to do that, to change our perception, the value would be priceless. Question: Would you design all the costumes the same or would you make the leaders a different color? Answer: I love this question! Our clothing is such a great symbol of our identity, and thinking about its role provided one of my favorite moments in my education. I realized how enormous the changes have been in what we considered beautiful or fashionable from one century to another. So I would start with the given, what is the outfit that will keep everybody safe and comfortable, and how will it be kept clean and in repair? That basic outfit will probably need to be pretty similar for everybody, and would probably be a neutral color, the way we use black in a travel wardrobe so we don't have to make so many decisions, and so variations and layers all go together for different purposes. Flexibility and versatility back to the basic themes! Then there is the need we all have to play, and to feel festive, and to have ceremonies. I think we like having a garment that says "This event (or person, or moment) is important!" The leaders will change from time to time (Democracy has my vote even if the votes are sometimes hard to count!) and the people will not be all the same size, so the leadership stole or robe should be a simple one that should fit many sizes. Weight counts, so I think something in a colored silk (maybe organdy), which would be easy to layer and add to. I've been working a lot in this fabric lately, and love the elegance and texture of the silk. Strips of color like ribbons could have significance too. Different roles could be indicated by different colors, the way we did with the belts on hall monitors in school. I'm also a big fan of recycled polyester fleece, which is light and warm and very comfortable. People should have some room to show their moods and personalities in their clothes. I'd design some small part of the outfit that was totally discretionary. It should be simple enough not to confuse people or get in the way, but allow for fun. Question: How important is art in our everyday life? Answer: It is WAY more vital to everything we do than most people ever give it credit for! Art is not just decoration; it is the ability to look at an idea from a different angle and is the source of every discovery and transformation in our history! Figuring out that the earth is round, that a flea might carry bubonic plague, that we can graft a different apple onto an apple tree, these were all discoveries that started with our talent for imagining "what ifs?" As a quilter, I spend a lot of time using what I call value judgments. It is that squinting process that helps me figure out a design by trying to see just the composition of darks and lights, and helps me disregard the confusion and interference of pattern and color. These are also important, but not until I've got the general idea right! If everybody, in all disciplines,had more training in this set of skills they might be better at solving the big problems instead of getting tangled in the unimportant ones. Question: What artistic form would you use to communicate your knowledge of Mars? Answer: The great thing about being an artist is flying by the seat of your pants! I would hope to get there with my current "bag of tricks", and, knowing only what I know from earth lessons, I would develop MarsArt using my new awareness! My favorite recent form involves using quilt-like modular structures to combine two- and three-dimensional materials in various ways to make community works, and I'm sure my MarsArt would spring from this history. The quilt medium has such a rich background of storytelling, and all the inhabitants of this tiny brave colony would have plenty of stories to tell. Who knows where it would go! Question: How far is Mars from earth? Answer: "As Mars and Earth orbit the sun, the distance between them varies from about 75 million km (about 47 million miles) at opposition to about 375 million km (about 233 million miles) when the planets are on opposite sides of the sun." Question: What will you do if you found life on Mars? What will you tell the president and the people ? Answer: I would be sure to respect it and be careful of it. We have put too many life forms on earth out of business. We will want to remember that if there is life on Mars, WE are the guests, and need to behave ourselves! Question: What materials would be on Mars to make the layers of a spacesuit? Answer: I think we'd better bring our spacesuits with us! Some amazing high-tech materials are in use or development for their effectiveness at combining insulation and flexibility, and those technical challenges are likely to be the source of some useful developments here on earth. I can imagine the pioneers on Mars improvising space-wear by decorating their suits with various tape and color adornments, so the fashion effects would be an ongoing entertainment, as they have been for every earth culture. Question: How would you use the materials found on Mars to create art? Answer: I love the dust! Mud and clay could be made from it, and rocks and lava would be abundant and interesting to work with. Though few earth-generated scraps would be available (We're only bringing the most minimal essentials, remember!) the ones there are would be all the more precious and meaningful. Tape, thread, wire, or any used machine parts from repair jobs would be interesting and resonant, commemorating the experience they represent for the participants. Each team could leave a section of an ongoing group artwork for the new teams to add to, made of fragments from their stay, bound on Mars-dust clay tiles. Question: What kind of art material could we use that we could use over again to make different things? Answer: I love clay, and the new plastic kinds never dry out and might come in very handy for fixing things, too! Working with it could be a great exercise for our hands, which we might need if we're cooped up in small spaces at different gravity. The same goes for knitting. Women during the depression made lots of sweaters out of the same yarn, and it is such a meditative and interesting activity they did not have time to be depressed.   Back