• Public Art

  Filed under A Dude's Guide to Life
  Jul 5

  Normally I’m not a big fan of public art. I mean, how can you justify spending millions of dollars on a sculpture that looks like a stack of french fries or a lumpy potato? (Hmm, may be a theme there. Maybe I need to get some lunch.) However, there are exceptions.

  When I was in Florida last month for vacation, we stopped in Gainesville (home of the NCAA Football Champion Florida Gators) and I got to see my absolute favorite public art installation. I mean, this tops even Chicago’s preponderance of cows and that’s a pretty cool set of bovines.

  Along a street to the west and north of the university campus, there’s a mile-long stretch of monuments that shows, in scale, just how big our solar system really is. Hint: It’s really, really big. No, I mean bigger than that even. It’s huge. That’s what space is. And empty, but I’ll get to that.

  

  As you can see, the first monument is the sun. That’s at the start of the mile-long stretch of NW 8th Avenue. Just beyond that you can see monuments for Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars in quick succession. After Mars, it’s a long, long way to Jupiter’s monument, which just goes to show you how far it is from the sun to Jupiter. Pluto, which was an actual planet when this exhibit was created, is a little less than a mile from the sun monument.

  Here’s how far away the actual dwarf planet is from the sun. The monuments are about a mile from each other in Gainesville. Well, the scale of this little project is 4 billion to 1. That’s right: 4 billion to 1. So, if the Pluto monument is a mile from the sun monument, then the real Pluto would be about 4 billion miles from the real sun.

  That’s a long, long way.

  And that’s why I love this exhibit. I mean, not only does it look cool, but you can also learn a lot about the nature of our local area just by walking a mile or so down a lovely street. Now this was public money well spent.

  Are there any public art exhibits you think are particularly great? Let me know in the comments.

  – Richard

  • Spread the word, dude!

  Tags: 8th Avenue, A Dude's Guide to Life, Art Exhibits, Bovines, camp, campus, Cows, dude, Dwarf Planet, Earth, florida, Florida Gators, football, Football Champion, French Fries, Jupiter, Jupiter Pluto, Local Area, Long Stretch, love, Lovely Street, lunch, men, Mercury, Mercury Venus, money, Monuments, Nature, Ncaa Football, Preponderance, public, Public Art, Public Art Installation, Public Money, richard, Sculpture, Solar System, space, Sun, vacation, Venus Earth
  
  Tagged as: 8th Avenue, Art Exhibits, Bovines, camp, campus, Cows, dude, Dwarf Planet, Earth, florida, Florida Gators, football, Football Champion, French Fries, Jupiter, Jupiter Pluto, Local Area, Long Stretch, love, Lovely Street, lunch, men, Mercury, Mercury Venus, money, Monuments, Nature, Ncaa Football, Preponderance, public, Public Art, Public Art Installation, Public Money, richard, Sculpture, Solar System, space, Sun, vacation, Venus Earth
  
  2 Comments

2 Responses to “Public Art”

1. 

   Laurel Kornfeld said on July 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm

   Pluto IS still a full-fledged planet. Only four percent of the IAU voted on the controversial demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. One reason the IAU definition makes no sense is it says dwarf planets are not planets at all! That is like saying a grizzly bear is not a bear, and it is inconsistent with the use of the term “dwarf” in astronomy, where dwarf stars are still stars, and dwarf galaxies are still galaxies. Also, the IAU definition classifies objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. If Earth were in Pluto’s orbit, according to the IAU definition, it would not be a planet either. A definition that takes the same object and makes it a planet in one location and not a planet in another is essentially useless. Pluto is a planet because it is spherical, meaning it is large enough to be pulled into a round shape by its own gravity–a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium and characteristic of planets, not of shapeless asteroids held together by chemical bonds. These reasons are why many astronomers, lay people, and educators are either ignoring the demotion entirely or working to get it overturned. I am a writer and amateur astronomer and proud to be one of these people. You can read more about why Pluto is a planet and worldwide efforts to overturn the demotion on my Pluto Blog at http://laurele.livejournal.com

2. 

   Richard said on July 5th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

   While I have to applaud your passion on this, I am going by the current definition by the most widely recognized professional body. That is, according to the International Astronomical Union, Pluto is a dwarf planet. I know it makes no sense, but, well, there you go. That’s people for you. I am, however, hoping they will correct their cranio-rectal insertion and make Pluto a planet again. I’m not holding my breath, though.