Outer Space

When I was 13 years old, I wanted to be an astronomer.  I read extensively about the solar system, the Milky Way, galaxies, the universe, and everything.  But one day I discovered that to be an astronomer you needed to study and know a lot of maths. Unfortunately I was terrible at maths at school – it was a closed book to me – so that put an end to the idea of pursuing a career as an astronomer.  A great pity!  as I still have a strong interest in all matters related to the universe – from spinning galaxies, red dwarfs and black holes, to the subatomic particles that are being discovered in the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva - like the Higgs boson.  I am fascinated by, and watch, and read, a lot of stuff on astronomy, geology, physics and chemistry – although I still keep well away from the maths.

Recently I saw the film Gravity, and I thought that if I couldn’t be an astronomer, maybe I could try being an astronaut? However, the risks are great, as shown in the film – from debris in space, and other things. 

I am not normally a person that takes serious risks - although I have done occasionally in the past – but if I could be guaranteed not to get hurt by being out in space, and that I will land back on my feet, that’s what I like to do – be on a mission in a space station.

My textile vision of outer space was achieved by printing on fabric, heavily photoshopped photos I took of trails of Christmas tree lights – achieved by moving the camera while set on a very slow speed.

Alicia