=== NASA’s Inaugural Artist in Residence ===
For over forty years, Laurie Anderson has appropriated electronics, video, and sound, to create art that defies categorization. In 1972, Anderson ignited her career; by conducting a symphony using only car horns. Five years later, she invented a violin that clones as an audiotape player. Anderson went on to stage technology-enhanced performance art, direct music videos, and invent tools to manipulate sound. In 2002, Anderson’s fascination with technology contributed to her being named the first artist in residence at NASA, where she was given free rein to explore the facilities in search of inspiration. She found her inspiration in how technology has developed over time. When Anderson was growing up in the 1950s, space travel and artificial intelligence existed only in science fiction stories. A half century later, at NASA, Anderson witnessed the realization of both. During a visit to a virtual airport control center, Anderson viewed panoramic images of the red planet, courtesy from a video feed provided of the Mars Global Surveyor satellite. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, she was introduced to robots that function autonomously through control-and-sensor-processing software. Drawing on her NASA experiences, Anderson wrote and produced a ninety-minute performance art piece titled The End of the Moon. The performance features Anderson on a candlelit stage, standing in front of an image of the moon’s surface. Anderson begins the show by referencing the technology to which she was privy at NASA. Anderson then complements these references by subtly demonstrating its impact on music. While sweeping the bow over the strings of a viola, Anderson manipulates the music via a laptop computer. The string music transforms into electronic sounds, which then reverberate into futuristic, otherworldly music. The result is surreal and stimulating exactly what you might expect from NASA’s inaugural artist in residence.
=== StripeSpotter ===
The widths of the lines correspond perfectly to the widths of the zebra’s stripes. Providing the zebra’s “StripeCode,” unique to each animal in much the same way a fingerprint is unique to each person. The StripeCode is logged in the database, where a researcher uploading a new photograph of a zebra can scan the stored codes to find a potential match.
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Arles Young, however, was not deterred. The first black superintendent of a national park and a revered leader of the army’s all-black 9th and 10th Cavalries, Young had the experience needed to direct the completion of the project. In June 1903, under Young’s command, the soldiers began work on the road. Soon the eleven-mile route was complete. By the middle of August, vehicles could enter the park. Young and his troops had succeeded where no one else had; they enabled visitors to get to the giant sequoias more easily. Because he had his troops send most of their efforts into the road, Young was just as concerned with maintaining the park’s natural features. His troops guarded the grounds against illegal grazing, poaching, and logging. Nevertheless, since tourist foot traffic tended to damage some of the giant sequoias, Young had his soldiers place fences around the most damaged trees to protect them from future bad stuff. Over one hundred years later, the contributions Young made possible has been counted among the most significant in the park’s history. In 2003, the National Park Service decided to formally recognize Young’s contributions. Park enthusiast George Palmer was the one who petitioned the National Park Service to recognize Young’s contributions.