Richard Clar is a new media interdisciplinary artist and early pioneer of art-in-space. He founded Art Technologies in 1987 as a crucial liaison between contemporary art and leading-edge technology. Clar’s concepts took root in 1982 via a NASA-approved payload for the U.S. Space Shuttle. His philosophically oriented creations explore orbital debris, Earth water management, war, peace, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
“We communicate through art with symbols that transcend the boundaries of time and culture.” — Richard Clar
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![A footprint on the surface of the moon.]()
Giant Step
Giant Step is a personal response to an event Clar personally witnessed back in 1969, and he wanted to use his creativity to pay tribute to those who took part in the Apollo program, and especially Neil Armstrong for what he did on that momentous day.
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![Earth with surrounding satellite debris in space.]()
Collision II
COLLISION II is a dynamic site-specific orbital debris sculpture in Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 450 to 900 kilometers above Earth. Richard Clar has been intrigued by the problem of orbital debris in space since the early ‘90s.
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![A stage with performers and an audience watching a show or performance.]()
New Butoh Space Dance
The basis for the concept put forth in this paper—creating an interstellar message using art and technology—was presented by Richard Clar at the first workshop, The Art and Science of Interstellar Message Construction organized by the SETI Institute of Mountain View, California, held in Paris, in March 2002. Two artists, one from an Eastern culture and one from a Western culture—with a shared belief in universality common in art — have developed a modality for constructing a message directed towards an Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI).
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![A circular scientific device or equipment with multiple metallic and transparent components, including sensors, dials, and electronic parts, connected with wires and mounted on a round base.]()
Earthstar
The idea for EARTHSTAR was conceived in 1996. It began as a fascination with the process of eutectics1 and how heat generated on the surface of a spacecraft during re-entry might be used to create a ceramic artifact from specific samples of earth.
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![A 3D model of Earth with lines and shapes connecting different locations across continents.]()
Alma da Agua
The ALMA da AGUA water “sculpture” begins with the gathering of natural source water samples from the eight Portuguese-speaking countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guiné-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, and East Timor.
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![Colorful digital illustration of Earth surrounded by multicolored dots representing global connectivity or data points.]()
Collision
In this collaboration, a "site-specific" interdisciplinary artwork and performance will be created by using known data from orbiting space debris around Earth to generate musical and visual information through a shared computer program. We will then create aural and visual models-including a constellation sculpture-of this transformed data.
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![A digital illustration of a spacecraft in orbit above Earth, with a starry space background and a visible portion of the Earth's surface.]()
Space Flight Dolphin
Artist Richard Clar conceived Space Flight Dolphin (SFD) in 1982. Approved by NASA, SFD is an interdisciplinary art-in-space SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project designed to be deployed in low-Earth orbit from the cargo bay of the U.S. Space Shuttle. The dolphin sculpture/satellite will transmit a signal modulated by dolphin “voices” that may be detected or sensed by an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI).
