Blue Moon:
Lunar Orbiter Silk Cyanotype
An exhibition featuring a 60-foot vertical silk cyanotype, along with smaller cyanotypes, community event photos, and a video on the 1960s Lunar Orbiter Missions.
Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Exhibition
November 1-16, 2024
Gathered on Pembroke Field at Brown University by an open invitation, 30 Brown University community members assisted in creating this large-scale silk cyanotype. Using the sun’s ultraviolet rays to print pictures of the Moon from archival film, the main piece displays photos from Lunar Orbiter 2.
The five NASA Lunar Orbiter Missions from 1966—1967 photographed 99% of the Moon to survey for the Apollo Lunar Landing sites. The photos were shot on film aboard the orbiters, developed in orbit, digitally scanned, radioed back to Earth, and projected onto 60 ft x 10 in film rolls. This silk piece was printed in one exposure for its entire length to honor the drama of this technological feat. The Lunar Orbiter film rolls’ scale and images surrounded by descriptive text mirror the format of Chinese handscrolls with their inscriptions and colophons framing landscapes, a connection alluded to with this piece’s use of silk.
About the Project
The Community Process
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Students and volunteers set up the skeleton of a shade structure to prevent the film from being developed prematurely under the sun's UV rays
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First, they carefully unfurled long swaths of blue silk under the shade structure
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Then, volunteers unrolled the film scrolls on top of the silk, placed plexiglass over the film, and secured it all in place using clips
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After preparing the film and pre-treated silk for exposure, the group lifted and moved the shade structure. The imaged were exposed for 10 minutes.
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As some volunteers worked to rinse the silk, others held up the ready-to-dry portions to keep it clear of the damp grass
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The group worked in tandem to hang the silk — now boasting crisp white and blue images of the Moon — on a clothesline to dry.
The Exhibition
Up Close
Silk Cyanotype of Planitia Descensus and Galilaei Crater - Lunar Orbiter 3
Cyanotype-treated crepe de chine silk
19 in x 11in
2024
NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 Film Canister
Film negatives, 10 in film canister
1967
Silk Subframe Readout - Lunar Orbiter 1
Cyanotype-treated crepe de chine silk
11 in x 7 in
2024
Blue Moons - Lunar Orbiters 2 and 3
Cyanotype-treated cotton watercolor paper
5 in x 5 in rounds
2024
Silk Cyanotype Crater - Lunar Orbiter 2
Cyanotype-treated crepe de chine silk
13 in x 10 in
2024
In The News
'Blue Moon': Student exhibition of cyanotypes featuring NASA lunar images lands at Brown
NEWS FROM BROWN - November 12, 2024
A collection of silk and cotton prints created by Brown University students and community members is on display at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts through Nov. 16.
Photos: With cyanotype, Brown student uses the sun to visualize the moon
NEWS FROM BROWN - November 24, 2024
Inspired by Chinese handscrolls and NASA film of the moon’s surface, senior Logan Tullai used an 1800s technique to lead a community art project on campus on 60-foot-long swaths of silk.
Silk, film, plexiglass: How one Brown student printed the Moon with sunlight
BROWN DAILY HERALD - September 4, 2024
With the help of the Brown community, Logan Tullai ’25 created long silk prints using decommissioned Lunar Orbiter film and the cyanotype printing method.