Keep a lookout for Spartan Engineer Chelsie Boodoo's artwork in the Greater Lansing area.
Her newest creative piece demonstrates space and time with two astronauts and a black hole. It was selected by the Greater Lansing Arts Council for the Art in the Sky Billboard Project.
The project is aimed to promote local artists and display temporary outdoor public art. It is in partnership with Adams Outdoor Advertising.
Boodoo is a Ph.D. student in Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. She received a master's degree in biomedical engineering from MSU in 2021. Her many activities in the Greater Lansing area include being a local featured artist, co-hosting the award-winning show The Sci-Files on Impact 89FM and serving as a member on the Ingham County Women's Commission.
"I was excited when my science art piece was selected," Boodoo said. "It makes me happy when my friends and colleagues reach out and say that they saw the billboards."
Boodoo's art design was influenced by her fiancée, Daniel Puentes, an MSU Ph.D. candidate in Physics and Astronomy.
"As an object moves closer to a black hole, the space gravitates toward the densest object in the universe, represented by the space astronaut," Boodoo explained. "Another phenomenon is how time will start moving faster around you, and that's represented by the time astronaut."
The piece exhibits one of the most unanswerable questions posed by physicists, what happens in a black hole?
"It's one of the big questions behind general relativity and its relationship with quantum mechanics," she noted.
Boodoo also added fun elements, such as a clock striking five o'clock as her way of saying, "it's five o'clock somewhere."
Her billboard art will remain on display Greater Lansing until the end of January. Art pieces created by other local artists will be cycled throughout the year.
Written by Kee-Ri Burkitt, student writer in the MSU College of Engineering
Note: MSU students - interested in being interviewed on science radio? Email scifiles89fm@gmail.com and be featured on The Sci-Files on Impact 89FM, hosted by Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes.