Art, science make ‘Starry Transit’ in historic observatory

If you are 5 years old and happen to look up at the night sky in autumn, you may see an amazing array of brightly sparkling tidbits spattered like sequins sewn onto indigo velvet.

If you are an adult sailor or a migrating bird, you see a universe full of essential navigational tools.

What artist Martha Glowacki sees in the night sky is a larger cycle of life, death and transformation, she says. It’s all a matter of perspective. Consequently, her new multifaceted, multidisciplinary installation, “Starry Transit,” is about different takes on the natural world. The exhibition opened in the Washburn Observatory on Aug. 27.

Composed of six pieces, the installation offers a number of ways to experience nature.

“I have used maps and star diagrams along with recorded journal observations and photographs from the 1860s-90s in several of the pieces,” says Glowacki. “I also have used a poem by Mary Mercier, who works for the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies here on campus. I have reproduced her poem ‘Snow Geese’ in one of the pieces.

“Another element of the installation is a sound piece by Madison sound engineer John Feith. His hobby is recording bird sounds. He has mixed night-migrating-bird flight calls along with other night sounds to create a sense of what you might hear if you were outside during a peak migration period.”

Glowacki is a co-director of the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. From 2001-03 she served as curator of the Gallery of Design in the School of Human Ecology.

Viewers also will be able to get into the act directly, she says.

“They can open drawers on the Starry Transit cabinet to see what’s inside, and will be able to turn — carefully — the shaft of a machine called a phenakistoscope that mimics the flight of a bird,” she says.

Glowacki worked with Jim Lattis, director of the newly relocated Space Place, to get “Starry Transit,” er, off the ground. At first, Lattis’ role was to ease the logistics, but it quickly expanded.

“A certain amount of what I do in the Department of Astronomy is to use Washburn Observatory for educational and outreach purposes,” Lattis says. “Martha and I had to consider how the art could fit into the observatory in the way she intended without interfering with the motions of the telescope and observatory dome, or impede visitors who come to the observatory public observing nights on Wednesdays.”

However, Lattis says that “Starry Transit” proved so compelling that he found himself getting more and more involved with it.

“We worked together to select historical star maps suitable for her planisphere piece. Then I designed the calendar and time scales necessary to turn those star charts into the working planisphere that she wanted,” he says.

The sculpture “Planisphere” by Wisconsin artist Martha Glowacki reflects the form of the telescope above it in the Washburn Observatory. An exhibition of site-specific sculptural works by Glowacki, titled “Starry Transit,” is on display at the Washburn Observatory through Nov. 6 and was organized by the Department of Astronomy in partnership with the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The installation, created specifically for the 1,200-square-foot dome of the observatory, explores how night-flying birds navigate by the stars.

Lattis also will give a talk on the history of Washburn Observatory at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the observatory, because, he says, the installation has been both inspired and informed by its venue there.

“Washburn Observatory was built for scientists in the 1870s, but the site has been an important place for observation and to celebrate nature for a much, much longer time,” Glowacki says. “One of the Native American mounds around the observatory represents a bird flying north and south. One of the pieces in the show, ‘Song of the Stars,’ uses words from a Passomoquoddy Indian song. It’s about the relationship between birds, stars, death and the afterworld. I surrounded the words with a skeleton of a goose.”

Both Glowacki and Lattis hope the installation will engender a sense of wonder in all who attend.

Says Lattis, “I hope that ‘Starry Transit’ will suggest that art and science, although very different from each other in some ways, are both vital aspects of the human culture that enrich our lives in their own ways.”

“I hope that viewers will get a sense of discovery and get themselves lost in the mystery of the natural world,” Glowacki says. “I also hope that the installation makes them realize what a special place Washburn Observatory and Observatory Hill really are: They are treasures that we need to take care of and preserve.”

“Starry Transit: An Installation by Martha Glowacki” is sponsored by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The pieces will remain on view until Sunday, Nov. 6. An opening celebration for the exhibition is set for Friday, Sept. 9, with a tour of the installation at 5:30 p.m. in the observatory. Glowacki will discuss the pieces at 6:30 p.m. in Carson Gulley, north of the observatory. A reception will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Carson Gulley.

Special events, all free and open to the public, will occur through the installation’s life at the observatory. For a complete schedule, visit http://www.mmoca.org.