ARTHUR
WOODS initiated the O.U.R.S. - Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite project in 1986.
He personally
witnessed the beginnings of the US space program during
his youth (1959-1970) while living near Cape Canaveral
and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As a university
student, he worked two summers at the Kennedy space center
during the exciting Apollo program.
After completing his university studies in art and psychology at Mercer University
in Macon, Georgia, USA in 1970, he began an art career in California before
moving to Switzerland in 1973. This important early personal experience with
space led him to maintain an active interest in the latest scientific and technological
developments
associated with space development - experiences which he later integrated into
his art. Europe provided a deep cultural context for his artistic development.
For over forty years Woods has created a variety of artistic expressions
utilizing an unique pointillistic painting technique inspired by a description
of the microcosmos found in contemporary physics. He has also developed an
art of the macrocosmos in series of paintings about the Earth - our home planet
seen
from the perspective of space.
His most innovative and publicized activities have been the actual introduction
of art into the world's space programs and into the environment of outer space.
BEginning in 1984 he initiated and developed a series of art-in-space projects
which were designed to place large sculptures in Earth orbit. Developments
about these projects were often reported in the world media.
On May 22, 1993, the Cosmic Dancer
Sculpture was
the first of his artworks to be launched into space. Sent to the Russian
Mir space station to investigate the properties of sculpture in weightlessness,
the Cosmic Dancer Sculpture is the first three-dimensional artwork purposely
designed for and officially integrated into a human habitat beyond Earth.
In September 1995, in a cooperation with the European
Space Agency (ESA), Arthur Woods managed the organization and launch
of "Ars
ad Astra: The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit" also on the Mir
space station as a part of ESA's EuroMir95 mission. This project was designed
to open
the door to space to artists from around the world and enabled 20 original
art works from 20 different artists to be sent into orbit.
Since 1995 Arthur Woods has also been active on the Internet. In 1996 he
initiated the Swissart Network - a portal dedicated
to the contemporary arts in Switzerland.
He
is the initiator and designer of ars
astronautica a website dedicated to the astronautical arts
and is co-manager and webmaster of the ITSF
- Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction website
developed in cooperation with the European
Space Agency, the Maison
d'Ailleurs. Together
with Leonardo/Olats he
has been the co-organizer the annual Space
and the Arts Workshops and the "Spacearts
- the Space Art Database" project.
For
his pioneering work and active engagement in the astronautical
field he was elected to the International
Academy of Astronautics in 1995 where
he has served as chairman of its sub-committee on the Arts
and Literature and has regularly helped to organize various
symposia, workshops and studies. He is also a Fellow of the International
Association of Astronomical Artists and a guest lecturer
at the International
Space University.
