Psyche Inspired: Ral Vandenhoudt

Institution: Emory University

Major:Biology, Economics

Psyche Inspired Class: 2019-2020

Reflections from Ral

Psyche through the Multispectral Imager

Psyche through the Multispectral Imager

Ral Vandenhoudt

November 4, 2019

Major: Biology, Economics

Genre/Medium: digital

About the work: My piece sees Psyche through the multicolored lens of time. Around Psyche, there are orbital spheres with formulas. Newton and Kepler’s original formulas zoom alongside Einstein’s and Hawking’s postulations. This piece highlights the scientific progress upon which Psyche is built and which the mission will help advance. The color palette reflects the upbeat and optimistic tone that the mission’s potential has. By studying Psyche, we can learn more about our own origins and Earth’s development. This is echoed by the scientific development pictured within the orbs.

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Psyche’s Psyche

Psyche’s Psyche

Ral Vandenhoudt

December 10, 2019

Major: Biology, Economics

Genre/Medium: digital

About the work: The goddess Psyche represents the soul. As such, I like to imagine asteroid Psyche’s soul as the quintessential Greek goddess eagerly awaiting the spacecraft’s visit. In a lighthearted inversion of this “soul within” idea, I present the goddess engulfing the asteroid. The soul protecting the asteroid seems a fitting allegory for the insights Psyche offers into earth’s own past. Psyche holds such scientific potential that it’s almost as if she (Psyche the goddess) mysteriously guards her asteroid, inviting us to gain understanding of our own planet’s psyche.

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Psyche Taking a Dip

A greyscale rendering of Psyche the asteroid is depicted with human legs, diving off a diving board into a spotlight provided by the Psyche asteroid. In the darkness around this light, dark creatures of the night lurk.

Psyche Taking a Dip

Ral Vandenhoudt

March 3, 2019

Major: Biology, Economics

Genre/Medium: graphite on paper

About the work: This piece depicts the Psyche spacecraft diving into the light of science, escaping the nebulous mystery of the unknown. The insights we stand to gain from investigating the asteroid can illuminate us as to the origins of our own planet.

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Modeling Psyche

This piece exhibits mathematical model codes for a dot, which represents the earth, orbiting another dot that represents the Sun. Mars is also represented by a dot orbiting the Sun. A drawing of the asteroid Psyche is shown orbiting the sun. Around that, the spacecraft orbits in an ellipse. The spacecraft is replaced with a picture of a hag-like beaked goddess pointing at the asteroid every half rotation.

 

Modeling Psyche

Ral Vandenhoudt

April 15, 2019

Major: Biology, Economics

Genre/Medium: graphing calculator

About the work: This dynamic piece is meant to be interacted with on an online graphing calculator. Click here to allow manipulation of the model with fun mathematics.

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