Don't forget that NASA's Deputy Chief Technologist, Jim Adams, will be introducing – via Skype – “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Interstellar” – the two movies to be shown at City Hall as part of Grahamstown's National Week events on Saturday (7 August).
Don't forget that NASA's Deputy Chief Technologist, Jim Adams, will be introducing – via Skype – “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Interstellar” – the two movies to be shown at City Hall as part of Grahamstown's National Week events on Saturday (7 August).
You might even get the chance to ask him about how onscreen space travel compares with the real thing.
Before his current role, he was Deputy Director of the Planetary Science Division which meant overseeing the Discovery, New Frontiers, Lunar Science and Mars programmes.
So he knows about doing things in outer space. As Director of Scifest Africa, Anja Fourie, points out, "The public really are quite scared of science so you kind of need to sneak it in there.
One of the ways is by using art". It will be a chance to compare the way in which space travel is treated in the two films.
Fourie says, “It’s very interesting to look at the technology that you find in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and to then fast-forward half a century to see what technologies are being portrayed in “Interstellar”.
It takes a quick internet search to find articles and blog posts dedicated to assessing how the innovations depicted by Sci-Fi film directors have become realities of every day life and, as Fourie says, the screening creates the opportunity for the audience to “take stock and to assess which technologies within these movies now exist. How far have we come?”.
She adds, “The artists are the ones who break the rules and the barriers, who imagine, who set the agendas for communities and it is then up to the scientists to come up with innovations and technologies which will solve the problems and help to achieve what has been imagined by artists”.
When it comes to the positive impact of artificial intelligence, Fourie imagines using robots to enter corners of the world that would be too dangerous for human beings, such as, in the fight against Ebola.
Join fellow lovers of science, technology and film – and, of course, NASA's Jim Adams – for the screening. Bring along a duvet, pillow and popcorn although a cash-only tuckshop will be available.
Seats are limited so it's best to book – R10 per person (for one or both films) – at 046 603 1106 or info@scifest.org.za. Or you can take your chances and buy on the door.
You can find the whole of the National Science Week Grahamstown programme here
