details
Art meets Science
Michael Buckler
Art meets Science
Michael Buckler
Art meets Science
Michael Buckler
Cut-outs / details
Painting ‘REDraw I’, 285 x 184 cm
1 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Ausschnitt aus ’REDraw I’
Michael Buckler, 2005
'REDraw I': Image space – Time period
Top left: Painting based on a historical photograph of the first solar collector (1957, NASA).
Top right: Painting based on a historical photograph (First tests of recoil drives on village roads (France, 1900) with slate and metal pigments.
Below: on a blue background, lines of text from original transcriptions of the air-to-ground communications of the NASA Apollo projects - painterly transformed between space shuttle line drawings from NASA construction drawings, which permeate almost all the pictorial elements of the work.
'REDraw I’, 2005
Malerei auf Freskogrund, 285 x 184 cm
mit integriertem Monitor / Rechner
auf Höhe der Malfläche
2 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Art in dialog with science
Central the visual quotation of a single chondrule (from thin section of meteorite ALLENDE, fall 1969, Mexico) - pre-solar genesis design structure painted using microscopy and CAD precisely generated masks, framed by associative motif elements and upside-down rulings based on original construction plans of the NASA space shuttle.
3 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
NASA space shuttle gold foil (insulation material from the cargo bay after STS mission stamped with “SCRAP”) becomes historically direct design material (‘traditio reliquiae’) as ‘flown material’.
Metaphorical material
Gold foil from the cargo bay of the NASA space shuttle (material exchanged by NASA ground personnel after the STS mission and marked 'SCRAP'), whose integration into the artwork is intended to resemble a modern form of the relic tradition. The background of a chondrule painted with metallic pigments is framed by brass rods soldered to fill the space.
4 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Stereoscopy in art
Wireframes painted according to the laws of stereoscopy. By fixing the eyes at a certain distance from the painting, they appear as one in space - close enough to touch. This motif section (see overall motif) is traversed on the right and bottom by a relief edge that crosses the entire picture format.
5 /13 – Close-up view’REDraw I’
Mythological figures
Painterly quotes: A bird motif of a woven poncho (Peru, 300-100 B.C.) permeates an Otto Lilienthal motif next to upside-down space shuttle construction lineage. The ready-to-fly pioneer of aviation: Otto Lilienthal crowned his theoretical studies (‘The flight of birds as the basis of the art of flying’) and his many attempts at flying with great success until his fatal crash caused by a gust of wind.
6 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Birdman – Otto Lilienthal
Pigment painting on fresco ground and partially primed textile (flight skin) after a historical photograph from 1898. What a dream, what a long way: from mythology (IKAROS and DAIDALOS) to Otto Lilienthal's imagination with his bird flight studies and successful flight attempts to air and space travel in infinite space.
7 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Above All Time: Nature, Technae, Culture
Painting based on a poncho design with condor motifs from the 'Late Paracas' culture, Peru, 300-100 B.C. next to an industrial PC flatscreen integrated into the artwork, which is currently reproducing transcripts of Earth-Moon communication from Apollo missions (whose view of our planet became an icon for all of humanity).
Malerei in Details
’REDraw I’ – Makro-Aufnahmen
8 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
'Genesis-Design'
Painterly citation based on a thin section of meteoritic material (structure transfer by means of microscopy of digitally generated CAD masks) using various mineral and metallic pigments (lapis lazuli, stone meteorites/stardust and aluminum powder)
9 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Visual language
This detail shows three motifs that intertwine in a picturesque way: A NASA solar collector with the sign ‘DOWNRANGE’ and original NASA transcription lines of the Apollo Air-to-Ground-Communications. Pigment painting with different binders on a mineral ground.
10 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Images in Images
Painterly quote of a weathered sign 'DOWNRANGE' on a historic launch pad of the early NASA Mercury program of the 1960s (NASA, Cape Canaveral, USA) interspersed with construction lineatures and other pictorial elements
11 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Painting in space
The entire surface of the large-format painting 'REDraw I' on fresco ground is traversed by a relief edge that rises from the picture ground and dips into it again.
12 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Painting - Construction
Lineature quoted from NASA construction dimension drawing of the space shuttle transferred by CAD-generated masks in painting over the painting surface integrated half-relief (pigment painting on fresco ground).
13 /13 – Close-up view ’REDraw I’
Painting - painting ground
Close-up of painting on canvas with fabric bindings and pigments (from plants, minerals, semi-precious stones) using water-soluble and water-insoluble acrylic binders.
Art meets Science © 2025 Michael Buckler | Art in Dialog with Science and Technologies
TriRegio – Art and Culture Freiburg / Karlsruhe, Strassburg, Basel / Zurich