Science, technology, engineering, and math, hugely important. You'll get no argument from me on that one. But if you've been listening to this show for some time, then you know that we're big fans of the "A" or the "arts" in Steam Outreach. If we want to truly make space for everyone, then we need to encourage people to use their whole brains in solving problems and exploring the universe. Today's guest weaves visuals, music, and narratives to connect people with our home planet, and we couldn't be more excited about their work. Welcome to T-Minus Deep Space from N2K Networks. I'm Maria Varmausis. And today's guest is Dan Barstow, Education Mission Specialist at the Association of Space Explorers. Dan shared with me how he got interested in using music and images of the Earth from space to enhance his outreach mission. I've been in Earth and Space Science education on my career most recently as the Senior Education Manager for the International Space Station, U.S. National Lab. And I tell you, Maria, it's fascinating work. We enable young people to design, build, launch, and operate their own experiments in space. I mean, when I grew up, astronauts were the heroes, and you watched them, you learned by watching. But now we reached a million kids doing some of these planting seeds that were in space or operating a camera. And it was sort of a revolution in space education. That's my -- I'm now retired, but I work with astronauts who photograph Earth. They love to photograph Earth. It's just so beautiful from space. So I work with an organization called the Association of Space Explorers. It's the Professional Association of Flow and Astronauts. I'm not an astronaut. I wish I were, but they help us sort of experience with their photography experience space. First of all, wow, what an amazing career you've had and that you're continuing, even though you're retired or doing really cool things. Why don't we get into a bit about the Association of Space Explorers work that you're doing with them? You know, the music is a game changer for Earth science education, in my opinion. I mean, I think it's an important domain, and it sounds peripheral. It sounds sort of whimsical. But in fact, it's really quite profound. I often did public talks where I showed these photographs and movies taken by the astronauts. I mean, they take millions, millions of photographs and hundreds of hours of these incredible videos. And I would use them as kind of lecture aids and explain about plate tectonics or hurricanes like we just had in Florida. But the words, you know, people listen and they say, "Okay, it's a science lesson." Well, one day I was at home working. I manage an archive of these photographs from my home office here. And I was just working with them and enjoying watching it. And I was listening to music and I thought, "Wow, this music is really connected." You know, I think it was a Bach classical music piece, maybe a cantata or something. And the harmonies of the human voices align so well with the harmonies that I saw of Earth, the cloud patterns over the mountains or the rivers flowing or, you know, growth areas and the night flights. And it just occurred to me that this is really a powerful idea. I have to say, yeah, you know, I spent a lot of time, when I heard that you were coming on to speak with me, spent a lot of time on the earthmusictheater.org website, really, really soaking it in all these beautiful, beautiful videos. I mean, I don't need much convincing to look at any views from the ISS, for example. I kind of would love a direct IV drip of that into my veins. I just love it. The music choices are so, so stunning and there's a really gorgeous variety. It elevates something that is already so sublime. It really is quite incredible and it might sound like a no-duh thing for someone going, "Of course music is going to make it better," but it really, it, it, it, elevate is not even strong enough for it. It is so, so stunning. And I completely agree with you that the arts, especially within the realm of what we talk about in space, does not get the love and respect that it deserves. So I completely agree with you that it, it, it really, especially when doing outreach, it's so important to incorporate the arts. I'm on my soapbox a little bit, but I'm with you 100% because if people just think it's a science lesson, those of us who love science are going to be engaged, but it does, that can turn a lot of people off also and that's not what, that's not good. Well, let me give you a couple of examples for your audience as well. Sure. Yeah. We release one new, or a feature, one new movie every week. The one we did this week is the Dona Nobis Pachim. Now I'll say that we have a whole, I'm talking classical, Western classical a bit here. We really cover the gamut of indigenous, natural sounds, whale songs and so on, but just this example was a really powerful one during the COVID era. I mean, we're still kind of in the tail end of it, but there was a national, an international conference that had to cancel was going to feature some people singing a Bach piece, the B minor mass, the end of which is this really glorious Dona Nobis Pachim, this really uplifting, soaring music, and they couldn't do it. But instead they said, wait a minute, let's do a global performance. They had performers all over the world singing, playing the organ, playing different instruments, and then did the complex work, especially a group of the Bach Fest organizers. They coordinated these voices, and I heard it and I thought, wow, this needs the visuals. So we combined that, and now it's the nightlights of showing how we're all connected with the music and the voices from all over the world showing how we're all connected. It's really a magnificent piece. All of these, by the way, are for free on the web at earthmusictheatre.org. earthmusictheatre.org. Another example, there's a, Steve Thomas is a master with electric guitar and also some digital work with the sounds afterwards. He's able to make this really sort of ethereal, floating music that as you're watching Aurora or something else, it just covers the gamut. I was gonna, so I love Bach, so when I saw Donor Nobis Pache on the website, that's such a great piece. I sang it in choir so many years ago. Oh, no, it's getting wonderful. Yeah, I'm very attached to that piece. So when I saw that, that was one of the first things that really made me just soaked in that one. It was so lovely. And I love that you mentioned how much thought is put into also what imagery to use with the music because that web effect of the lights at night is so stunning with that piece. And you were mentioning also Steve Thomas' guitar scapes, a completely different vantage point with just the clouds and that bifurcation. It's just, it's completely different. It's not all the same kind of viewpoint. And it is such an effective, I just admired a lot. If you can't tell, I just think it's really beautiful. No, I appreciate your enthusiasm. And this is not music. This is not sort of bland music that you accompany while you're looking. The music is in many ways even more powerful. The visual views are so compelling. By the way, these are the, they're all in 4K, beautiful, glorious views. There's such a variety. We're truly trying to build a love for Earth. And in fact, I have to say that the purpose of this is for both the heart and the mind. Certainly with the mind, you see things and all right, beautiful. Okay, now I'm looking at this. Where are we in the world? There's always a globe showing where you are. But more importantly, it's the heart. You're listening to this. So here's, we release a new one every Friday. The new, the one going out today is called Pathway to Center. And it really is coincidentally, it's a flight over a hurricane. Now I'll say, you know, our hearts go out to the people devastated by these two recent hurricanes, Milton just, you know, a couple of days ago and what tragedy and it's such an awful, awful thing. And we have to think about the danger of climate change, the impact of that and so on. But how do people survive through these experiences? The woman who plays the harp for this, she said that she's gone through stress in her life. And she found this music that she plays, she thinks of it as kind of like a spiral that you go in and you go deeper into some dark, deep, troublesome area. And you pass through it and then you find serenity as you leave and get out of this storm. And it's sort of metaphor, but literally we're flying over hurricane and it's, you fly over the eye, it starts with you don't see anything and then these wisps of clouds and then you get over the turbulence of the hurricane and the eye and then you pass through it. And so we're sort of hoping that this gives people strength. That's her wish, the musician, that this gives people strength as they go through their own struggles. [Music] We'll be right back. [Music] That is a metaphor I've used often in my life also then. I think of a nautilus shell, but hurricane is a nice, a really powerful and very salient right now way of interpreting that. Tell me a bit about working with the musicians on this. So sometimes, that's got to be a really great experience. Tell me a bit about that. Yeah, you know, it's a really sort of a three-way partnership here of creativity. One of the partners is the astronauts because I mentioned the Association of Space Explorers is the astronauts. In fact, interestingly, many of the astronauts are actually musicians. Katie Coleman from Massachusetts, where we both live. She played the flute in space. Chris Hadfield did this classic guitar of ground control to Major Tom. It was epic. You know, seen by millions of people. Yes. But the astronauts are the visual artists. The way they do this, they, imagine yourself in the space station. You're weightless. You have lots of tasks you need to do, managing experiments. But you always find time to float over to the cupola. It's this, it's like a glass bottom boat. You look down at the earth below, 45 minutes day, 45 minutes night as you go through a 90-minute orbit. And you say, you know, this view coming up in an hour is going to be really spectacular. So you set up your camera in the window and you have to take a pic, take this movie as you fly over. Then NASA downloads those and I have access. I have the full, the full collection here. So the astronauts themselves are contributing the visual art. They love this, this earth music theater because it's part of how they share their experience with the world. Then the musicians have their part. Now, typically, like Dr. Nicholas Galusis is a classical guitar player. He watched, essentially he did a few orbits of earth. He watched some of these movies, but in silence. Then he said, what does this make me feel like? And there were a few recordings that he had, we worked with either live or recordings, typically recordings, that we then back and forth between the musician and I'm mostly in the movie maker. There are others as well, but I do most of the movie making to try to align them. We can adjust the speed of the flight. We can pick different sections and we try to say, how does what you're expressing musician like Laura Zair, the harp, you know, she wanted this, this hurricane. I looked through the archives and found one that seemed to be, you know, just her message. And then we go back and forth and then say, yep, here we are with this, this movie. I'm so curious when you've shown this to people, general public, I suppose. What that engagement is like, what do you see from folks when you're sharing this with the world? Yeah, you know, I was an educator for many years and there's a term I, if you follow this, I call it cab forward. It's sort of you're leaning forward. When the students are leaning forward, when the adults are leaning, the senior citizens, whoever it is, when they're kind of leaning back and their arms are crossed, that's what I'm lecturing about, you know, plate tectonics. But when we play the music, then their arms unfold and they lean forward and they just engage. And I see it in their eyes as well. So in fact, I've often done live performances. We have another one coming up with an organist, Brian Hoffman. He's a wonderful organist. So we're going to go into this huge organ in this beautiful building that I do. One part, we do a two-part duo here. I show slides and movies and things of a simulated launch. I train people about what it's like to be an astronaut and then we launch, we go up to space, we float over the cupola and then, what does this feel like and sort of we're flying over Egypt and, you know, there's something dramatic music that we play. So it's this back and forth. But in those situations, clearly the people are, I would say, surprised. First of all, that Earth is so accessible, that our home planet is there and visual, but also surprised that the music is so aligned. So it helps them, their mind, it's like a dance. You have mind wanders back and forth between listening and seeing and it keeps the mind occupied. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to ask you a question you probably are going to hate. Do you have a favorite? Let's see. You know, I have favorites for people. Please, I would love to know. I'm using this as sort of a maybe, well, if we have your permission, maybe we can play some excerpts as you're describing them. Oh, please. Absolutely. They're all free in the public domain. I also want to repeat, the Association of Space Explorers is a nonprofit organization. We do this all for free. There are no ads. I donate my time. I do this for free as, you know, as an artist, if you will, the musicians contribute their music. NASA provide, these are all in the public domain. So this is free and an offering. So let me suggest one for you that's coming up the subsequent week. Now, I looked up in your background. I hope you don't mind, but I think you studied Japanese. Is that correct? I did. I did. I've lived in Japan. I've been many times since I did my first day and it was my minor at UMass Amherst. So yes, Japanese is right close to my heart. Yep. Yeah. Well, because of your interest in the Japanese culture, we are presenting starting the, what is it, the 18th of October. Maestro Seiji Ozawa, who passed away unfortunately a year ago. Yeah. A few months ago. Us in Mass, we know his name well, right? He's very beloved. He was the former conductor of Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood. In Japan, he also is highly revered for his dedication to earth and music. He founded the Seito Kennan Orchestra and, you know, long story short, he recorded on his own, working with Jackson, the Japanese space agency, a direct broadcast to the space station. It was his final conducting performance. Here he is in a wheelchair, old, you know, but still music deep in his soul. And he's sitting in the wheelchair in the conductor's area and there's the orchestra that just reveres him. They played the Beethoven's Eggmont Overture. It is so powerful and to watch the tears in his eyes as he gets this connection, this, and in subtle, subtle conducting it, because, you know, it's, you know, aged. And it was broadcast directly to the space station. There was a Kawichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut who was watching it. And it was just so special. It's called the One Earth Mission. Well, we recorded it. We used that, thanks to Jackson for their filming of this. We combined that with a flight that starts over Italy and goes over the Mediterranean Conditions, down over the Nile, the Red Sea, and then on to the sunset beyond the sort of dusk. And the metaphor of, you know, it's very sad to lose him. But I think given your Japanese, your interest, I think you'll find it. I think you'll find it a really incredibly powerful, powerful piece. Yeah. And Maestro Ozawa, again, our Massachusetts connection, revered name here. So yeah, I have never seen this video, so I will definitely be checking that out. So maybe, you know, as another example, we have recording whale songs. So if you're more connected with nature or interest in whales, that one might really appeal to you, a flight over the Caribbean with this sort of, oh, what I want to say, sort of almost heart-rending song of the humpback whales is a way at risk of whales. And, you know, as I say, Maria, the purpose of this is to build a love for Earth. We talk about how we need to take care of our home planet. We all know that, but and their actions we all need to take. But the actions need to begin with the heart. You have to understand this is one planet. We're all on this together. What happens, one place affects the rest of the world and we have put our planet at risk. We have to take better care of it. So we hope that the music helps you feel that and the views help you see that so that maybe humanity can take a better approach to taking care of our home planet. You know, the music choices we have here are almost arbitrary choices done by the musicians, done by the astronauts. But if you don't like the choices we made for music, turn off the music and play your own. The fact is that the astronauts, they all have their playlist. You ask them that when they're going over watching the Earth, they had their playlist. It could be, you know, loud rock. It could be, you know, hip-hop, whatever it is, they have their favorites and it helps it connect with you. So if you want to play your shamisen and, you know, watch Leslie fly over Japan, great. Or if you, you know, whatever your favorite music is, let it be your own. Get your own ownership of this experience. Wow. Thank you. Dan, I think that's a very powerful call to action. I probably will not be busting out my shamisen, but I will be very much enjoying the works of musicians who are far, far better than myself. So Dan, this has been such a delight speaking with you and I just greatly appreciate you sharing this incredible work with me and the audience. So thank you so much. Great. And they should all visit earthmusictheatre.org. That's it for T-minus Deep Space, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. You can email us at space@n2k.com or submit the survey in the show notes. Your feedback ensures that we deliver the information that keeps you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. T-minus Deep Space is produced by Alice Carruth. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Iben. Our executive editor is Brandon Karp. Simone Battrella is our president, Peter Kilby is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmasus. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. [Music] [Music]
