Interstellar 8

Illustrations 

Today we took a look at several pictures we'll use for the tests.

H.R. Giger, Atomic Children, 1968 :

 

In this black & white sketch, science-fiction is merged with horror and eroticism in what Giger called a "biomechanical" fantasy. It looks like a nightmarish vision from a feverish dream. Giger was the designer of the Alien creature from the movies. An ombilical cord links the bottom of a hypersexualised alien to a strange looking moon. Surrealism, contrast, at night?

John Harris, Building the Ark, 2017 :

 

In the background, big open skies and fluffy clouds characterize this painting. Gliders and spaceships circle around a tower and a space station. The title hints at (evokes) a biblical connection : the Ark links men and God. Noah's Ark

Chelsey Bonestell, Saturn from Titan, 1944 :

Bonestell strived for realism (he wanted realism) in his work. We feel we're on another planet here, it has an alien, strange perspective, and it looks like a photograph. Author and scientist Carl Sagan said that Bonestell inspired him to pursue his career. Right now, rovers and robots take pictures of distant planets and send them to us.

Karen Thole, The Wound, 1969 :

It was made to illustrate a science-fiction novel. It describes a group of explorers in the foreground. They are looking at a cyclopean statue of a woman's head. It feels alien in its origin. Science-Fiction can also be about the hope of discovering a distant other, about the hope of not being completely alone in a huge universe. The unknown, terra incognita, Great Discoveries, Last Frontier

Wojciech Siudmak, Le Poids de l'Ame, 1970 :

 

Siudmak uses the surrealist imagery that Salvador Dali created in the 1930s. It's full of symbolism and mythology. Surrealism, balance, inner worlds

M.C. Escher, Belvedere, 1958 :

 

Belvedere tricks the viewer's sense of perspective. This tower is impossible in real life, and no character in the etching (gravure) seems to realize it or to care about it, but for the man in the prison cell, who might have gone mad because of it. The wild, alien looking background reinforces the imaginary power of that vision. Illusions, labyrinths, fake perspective, going mad

Moebius, Still from Timemasters, 1982 :

 

Humanoid winged faceless people carry a prisoner in the bottom of a cave. This encounter ended badly for the explorer. The vivid colours and the vast expanses of open landscapes evoke a foreign, unknown place. Menace, the other as a threat, fear

Frank Frazetta, Encounter, 1985 :

 

Frazetta created hundreds of very famous illustrations for pulp novels and magazines (among which Conan, Krull and many others in the Sword and Sorcery genre), inspiring many readers along the way. In this painting, a pilot stranded on an alien planet encounters a new lifeform (a fairy-looking extra-terrestrial). Sword & sorcery, science-fiction as a boy's genre