Psyche Inspired
Learn more about the Psyche Inspired program and view other works
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Psyche Inspired: Siena Smania
Institution: Arizona State University
Major: Astrobiology
Psyche Inspired Class: 2020-2021
Reflections on Psyche Inspired
Reflections on Project 1: In Her Orbit
In Her Orbit
Siena Smania
Major: Astrobiology
Genre/Medium: Adobe Photoshop
About the work: For this project, I used Photoshop to transform a picture I took in a self-photoshoot into a representation of the Psyche goddess. I imagined the goddess of the soul protecting the metallic world as we send a spacecraft to learn more about it. We are in her orbit because she is the one who protects this little metallic world.
Reflections on Project 2: Orbiting Dreams
Orbiting Dreams
Siena Smania
Major: Astrobiology
Genre/Medium: clay and wire
About the work: A child’s mobile is the one thing they look to when falling off to sleep. It sparks creativity and imagination. Science needs that kind of creativity. Without creativity, we would get nowhere. As long as we have imagination, almost anything is possible. That’s what inspired me to create this. I tried to use as much metal as possible, using wires to represent the metallic elements of the Psyche asteroid. The spacecraft and Psyche asteroid figure are made from clay and some metal pieces I already had in my craft bin. Even though the idea started as a child’s mobile, it makes a very pretty hanging piece for any room. The two crystals hanging with them are sun catchers, so when in direct sunlight, they shimmer and reflect light all around the room in beautiful rainbow arrays.
Reflections on Project 3: In Motion
In Motion
Siena Smania
Major: Astrobiology
Genre/Medium: animation via zoetrope
About the work: When I was a child, my family used to travel a lot. Whenever we went to a new place, we were bound to find an antique store. One item that I always found astonishing were these antique spinning animations called zoetropes. Zoetropes were one of the several pre-film animations that displayed the illusion of motion. I was in awe the first time I saw the wheel spun to create an animation similar to old cartoons I had seen on TV. It captured my imagination, just as I hope to capture the imaginations of many with this Psyche-inspired zoetrope. Figuring out how to construct a zoetrope that could spin fast enough to produce an image in motion was half of the project itself. In the end, I actually ended up using a spinning cake stand, which is typically used for icing and displaying cakes. For drawing each of the frames, I used the digital art tool Procreate.
Reflections on Project 4: Metallic Warrior
Metallic Warrior
Siena Smania
Major: Astrobiology
Genre/Medium: sewing
About the work: When I began this project, I was going for a medieval warrior princess look; however, it ended up leaning more towards being something a Star Wars princess might wear, which is even better and definitely more appropriate. The metallic fabric of the dress is meant to emulate the metallic surface of the asteroid, along with the numerous gold accents in the piece. The entire dress was made and patterned from scratch, and although I’ve been sewing for many years, this is the first dress I’ve ever made. It definitely took a lot of trial and error, as well as “trusting the process”.
