mercoledì 26 marzo 2014

The Impossible Voyage - Voyage à travers l'impossible - Georges Méliès - 1904

In 1904 George Melies represents a journey through the cosmos and in the seabed on board of a train combined with the technology of the airship, the locomotive and the automobile: the most widespread and most innovative technologies for an terrestrial journey



the train is represented on a launch ramp that takes advantage of the slope of a mountain and headed for the cosmos









A Trip to the Moon - Voyage dans la Lune - Georges Méliès 1902

The first film for which we analyze the performance of the ship's trip to the Moon by George Melies.
Journey to the Moon is based on the novel by Jules Verne, and represents a journey to the moon by a bullet fired from a large cannon.



I think the images speak louder than words, George Méliès is still a bullet that does not comply with the description of the Jules Verne is too weak structurally.


The bullet is "loaded" sarcastically by younger girls



Here is the frame of the most famous films of George Méliès:
the bullet sticking literally in the eye of the moon humanized.
Almost as if he wanted us to understand that the man damage any natural element, the mere fact of land on something unknown downfall the rest of the Moon.






The Development of the spaceship same time to the technology :

The man has ever imagined before physically realize their own idea. In our first case has exceeded its limits land like mountains and the seas . Then he developed ideas to the sky and the unknown . since the Greek times man has imagined a journey to other planets : Luciano of Samosata wrote " The True Story " in which he speaks of a journey to the moon, by means of a vessel which is raised thanks to a powerful typhoon. From there on then came the imagined journeys using as the source for the imagination the only medium that has brought the man over the edge of the world : the ship .
The man pushed the boundaries of the sky with the first airship came into operation in mid- of 1800. The airship , however, is the son of the balloon that originated in 1500, which is in turn the daughter of the Chinese lantern that was used since 250 DC When Jules Verne speculated on a journey through the exploitation Luna the principle of the bullet, joined an invention that now exist for hundreds of years to the dream of an extraterrestrial journey . As you start to combine the fantasy of a journey Space science that makes it possible.

In 1902 Georges Méliès cinematic history shows that has enthralled many readers of Jules Verne . Shortly after Konstantin Ėduardovič Tsiolkovsky published a written " the exploration of outer space by jet engines " : a text that was the basis of all subsequent studies for space launches by the government. In 1900 the Wright Brothers began to have success with the first gliders then arrive at the prototype of the first airplane. Although the jet engine has been fully exploited by the first jet aircraft in 1910, studies of the principle have since Greece origins , as for example the Aeolus cell a sort of swivel that works with the principle of vapor reaction . Journey through the impossible Méliès is a space exploration by means of a fusion of technologies : the train that has allowed 800 of travel long distances, the airship that supports the train in flight, and the machine.
In parallel Gaston Velle assumed a trip in a soap bubble: the the early years of the invention of the cinema were very fruitful for new theories of space travel.

The Pioneers of Space 1.1 - The concept of the sky to the Moon

Around 300 A.C. Alexander the Great, told that he was attacked by two flying shields . After this episode in Greece Timoleon saw a flashlight flying in the sky. Icarus is a fictional character in the fifteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses , even if it did not exist , however, is the brainchild of Ovid (43 BC -18 ) .

In " The Metamorphosis" Icarus talking about talking about the man who began to imagine the sky as accessible. Envious of the birds tried to imagine the acquisition of the ability to fly. He began to think differently to his way of approaching to the world above it. At that time it was still believed that the earth was flat and that all the planets and satellites , including the Sun revolved around the Earth. The world was "Center-Earth " that there was the theory of geocentrism . Everything revolved around the Earth. At that time about 300 in A.C. Aristarchus of Samos , an ancient greek astronomer introduced the concept of Earth's orbit around the Sun over the years have been theorized and developed many attempts to acquire this skill for humans. Theories and experiments then were not even compare , because the world was large and the flow of information does not spread widely .

In 1543 Copernicus published " De revolutionibus orbium Coelestium " an astronomical treatise on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies . The Polish astronomer explains the new theory of heliocentrism than the concept recognized by the masses of the geocentric view . After another leap time we get to talk about a Jesuit who had imagined the flight by half : Francesco Lana de Terzi described airship lighter than air. Imagined as a vessel , Francis passed the edge of the unknown with the known. He devised a new interpretation of the flight : the flight by half -built .



At the end of 1700 there were two important technical inventions successfully: the invention of the hot air balloon and testing of a submarine. In the second chapter we will understand what connects a submarine with the ship . The first text that describes a trip to the moon is " The true story " in greek " Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα " is a story told by Lucian of Samosata1 with intent pariodistico . This trip was not made ​​by a spaceship or a means of man-made and therefore do not take it into account. But it is interesting to know about a trip on a ship, beyond the Pillars of Hercules. The ship runs into a typhoon that raises the boat for 3000 stadiums in height, and after eight days of flight ends on " a vast land like an island , bright and spherical and lit by a great light " 2. Then the narrative continues with fights, meetings with Selenites ( ancient aliens ) and wars for the conquest of Venus. It is one of the first "Star Wars" in the history of literature . In a climate of change and technological innovation , scientific and cultural Jules Verne wrote " From the Earth to the Moon." It was inspired by science and the industrial revolution. From the Earth to the Moon tells the story of a group of people traveling to the moon by a bullet. Jules Verne mixing science with fantasy , creating a literary genre innovative for its time : laying the foundations of science fiction.

The Rapresentation of the Spaceship

I have a degree in "Television, film and new media" at the University IULM in Milan, Italy.
I worked with Professor Diego Cassani the thesis entitled "La rappresentazione dell'astronave: quando la fantasia supera la scienza" - "The representation of the spaceship: when the fantasy races through science"
working on a research of media that represent the spatial universe.
The problem came out when we realized that our efforts alone were not enough.