Collecting the Cosmos

Exhibition
January 23, 2014 - May 23, 2014
Doheny Memorial Library

The very vastness of the heavens calls out for many means of comprehension. Victor Raphael and Clayton Spada's artwork incorporates elements of materials from USC Libraries’ collections. These images remix themes of space and time, folklore and religion, quantum mechanics and microbiology, in the process uncovering a hidden universe of knowledge. Hidden Light,an installation by Dan Goods of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, simulated the process by which astronomers look for Earth-like objects throughout the galaxy. Also on display were rare books from our Special Collections that trace humanity’s attempts to make sense of the night sky, photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope that peer into the furthest distances of the universe, and an interactive experience developed by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which offers the viewer an opportunity to discover the terrain of Mars.