Listener Challenge: Are We Alone in the Universe?

The Where, the Why, and the HowFor all of our scientific advances, there are still many questions that remain unanswered. In the new book The Where, the Why, and the How, artists take a stab at explaining those mysteries. For this challenge, we asked you to create an illustration to answer the following question:

     Are we alone in the universe?

Andy
Andy
Celia
Brian
Deanna
Taylor
Reinhard
Reinhard
Reinhard
Frances Gaffney
Cayetano
Gary
Niles
Erin
Lee
Lee
Lee
Lee
Paedra
Paedra
Rob
Valetta
Matthew
shiguy101
Stephen
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
ariel
ariel
rob
tom
Margot
Gail
Kirby
Betsy

February 03, 2013 03:47:36 AM
:
:

Our universe is an infinite space that may contain creatures beyond comprehension. This piece illustrates the technology equiped animal that has a hunger for entire planets. This is the Apex World Eater of Old.

:

Andrew

Leave a comment
February 03, 2013 01:55:32 AM
:
:

Two boys sending messages into the unknown, the old fashioned way, in hopes of a response.

:

Markus

Leave a comment
February 03, 2013 01:08:31 AM
:
:

Q: Are We Alone in the Universe?

A: I exist alone in my own state of consciousness. When one really ponders this question, although we perceive a world around us through sensation, one must realize that all perception of reality is constructed from electrical pulses within one's own body: the brain. Therefore, we may be alone and exist within our own minds.

:

Chloe

Leave a comment
February 03, 2013 12:06:24 AM
:
:

Alien overlord destroys everything. Enough said.

:

Terrance

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 09:06:19 PM
:
:

How another planet with life on it might look.

:

Forsythe

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 09:04:28 PM
:
:

My abstract image of what life might look like on another planet.

:

Brad

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 08:59:35 PM
:
:

abstract imagery that suggests an answer to the question....are we alone in the Universe?

:

Brad

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 08:55:54 PM
:
:

How can we be "alone in" something we're "one with?" We're stardust, right?

:

Lois

Comments(9)
February 02, 2013 07:11:26 PM
:
:

The Dogon Tribe of Mali believe that with in the infinite number of stars there are many worlds that exist. All types of creatures live on these other "Earths" They say "the Nommo" ancestral spirits (fish-like humanoids) were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (dog star) and came to our earth long ago and will return when their star appears in the heavens again.

:

Anne

Comments(2)
February 02, 2013 07:01:02 PM
:
:

The Moon Landing On Earth is the title of this and It was my way of expressing a curiosity and concept of mine based on string theory or the more recent Membrane theory. Most of us are no stranger to this as it's been all over places such as the History & Discovery channel however It raises some interesting questions being a believer myself. What if, considering the endless possibilities in the multi-verse that every planet in our solar system does indeed have intelligent life on it, except hidden away by a shroud of many dimensions. The focus of this here would be our Moon and considering the quite real possibility that Earth could've become the Moon and it the Earth. Wouldn't that mean in another dimension that actually had happened? Perhaps the reason for our obsession with the Moon as a spiritual and occult symbol has to do not only with his appearance and gravitational effects on our planet but the fact that the many species and types of entities that exist tucked away in universal limbo hate and resent our existence and want nothing more then to swap places with us? This photo collage and digital painting is my representation of the moment when those 'Moon Souls' land on Earth and decide to make their presences known for good or ill. Every image used here is my own as always, no stock, filters, or trickery, just carefully blended photography. I would have drawn/painted my own concepts but I have no skills in this area. I'm a photographer by trade and I work with what I have to share my visions. Thank you for letting me submit and the time spent observing all submissions.

:

Dylan

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 06:47:26 PM
:
:

The title of this is Matchitehew and it means "He who has an evil heart". The concept for this came from my pondering over the idea that what people call the battle between good and evil since the days when our native ancestors actually witnessed it first hand.. Heaven/hell, God/Satan, could actually be a tangible and terribly real battlefield fought by not only our self and shadow self but beings who we still have no way of understanding or quantifying. Except completely misunderstood by us over the years as even science has theorized an ultimate being, a creator or engineer of all life in the universe (or multi-verse if you believe.) So wouldn't that being have an anti-particle? Another entity that was born with it as it's shadow self who does the exact opposite but yet isn't 'evil' as we understand it? The concept and image is taking that even further by saying, perhaps this creator was a hyperspace extraterrestrial and what will/would happen if it's dark matter twin visited us before it did. As with all my work, no stock photography or Photoshop filters were used, only my own images carefully blended together.

:

Dylan

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 06:11:15 PM
:
:

What if what we have been looking outside is already inside? What if the earthquakes have a different explanation? We are not alone in the universe for sure but We have been looking for our folks in the wrong place.

:

Laila

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 05:59:47 PM
:
:

They're Talking To Us

My picture of a bookstore (where worlds await to communicate) evolved through photoshop.

I see light filled packets of data sent from other worlds, flowing through space toward us.

:

Michele

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 05:50:26 PM
:
:

I have a thing about faces. The faces I draw, and the captions beneath, come to me spontaneously. This is one I drew a while ago. Are we alone? I don't think so, but, most times we feel as if we are.

:

Leslie

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 04:47:12 PM
:
:

An argument between the straits and the curves.

:

ismael

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 04:20:07 PM
:
:

Are we alone in the universe? Upon hearing this question the lone internet surfer springs instantly to mind; alone on the internet and yet together on the internet. Faceless identities longing for contact, asking, "Am I alone?" It is as though the many sentient beings across the stars who ask this same question are like neighbors in an apartment building hoping to catch of glimpse of one others wifi signals as proof that they are there.

:

Isaac

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 04:10:50 PM
:
:

Maybe we are more lonely than alone. I'd like to think there are signs of life in surprising places, but we're just too self-involved to notice.

:

suzanne

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 04:08:05 PM
:
:

No we are not alone but you must go past what you physically see to see it.

:

Treymone

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 04:00:33 PM
:
:

"Alien" life is typically thought of in terms of large life forms on other planets. What people often overlook is minuscule life here on Earth, wondrous and often unexplained. I also tend to lean toward the idea that much of the "proof" that aliens exist is a product of very vivid imaginations and not fact.

:

Kaity

Leave a comment
February 02, 2013 02:40:32 PM
:
:

"Are we alone in the Universe" ..of course we're not alone. My piece basically shows that there is other life out there...Im not sure what that other life looks like, but I do feel like there is something else living around us....

:

Amina Person

Leave a comment