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Conservator Hugh Shockey recently did his first treatment on an artifact saved from the Haitian earthquake rubble. Photo courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Send Your Picture to Space: Not many of us can cough up enough money to travel to space. But now we can at least send our faces. The Daily Planet reports that for the final space shuttle missions this fall, NASA is collecting images of space fans and plans to send then into space through the “Face in Space” initiative. Visitors to NASA’s website can upload a picture of themselves along with their name,  select a mission (either STS-133 or STS-134) and then print a confirmation page. Before takeoff, check out the participation map to see who else is joining you on your journey (as of this morning, there were about 180,519 participants worldwide—ranging from 3 participants in Chad to 75,957 in the U.S.). After the shuttle launches, the images are sent to the shuttle by mission control and remain on the shuttle’s onboard computer. When it lands, visitors can return to the site to print out a flight certificate signed by the mission commander (which is really the only reason you wanted to go in the first place, right?)

Saving Virtual Dinosaurs: Though it seems like things in the digital world can last forever, that’s not always the case. The Bigger Picture tells us about a project called Preserving Virtual Worlds, an effort by archivists at colleges and universities across the country to preserve and archive early computer games. This summer, librarians at the University of Illinois will complete archiving several early computer games—think Warcraft, Doom, and even what they call the “first fully interactive video game,” the 1960s “Spacewar!” produced by MIT. Read about these efforts and others by other universities in this Bigger Picture post, which also includes a retro commercial for the Atari 2600 system. Let’s hope they get around to my favorite childhood computer game, Midnight Rescue.

Haiti Update: As we mentioned a few weeks ago, American Art Museum conservator Hugh Shockey is keeping a travel log during his trip to Haiti, where he is leading conservation and preservation of art buried or damaged by the country’s recent earthquake. This week, Eye Level checks in with Shockey, who has his first chance to do treatment on an artifact: a small figure Shockey believes belong to the Taíno people, the indigenous residents of  Hispaniola who greeted Christopher Columbus.

It’s not too late to be an inventor: Our friends at the National Museum of American History’s Lemelson Center just e-mailed to tell us they’ve extended their design challenge until July 18. That means you still have time to contribute to their upcoming Places of Invention exhibit. Seeing your name in a museum exhibit might be even cooler than having your face fly into space.

Cast iron vehicles (early 20th century), alphabet blocks (mid- to late 19th century), carpet sweeper (1908). Image courtesy of the American History Museum.

This summer another Toy Story movie is playing in theaters, yet another animated ode to the nostalgia we associate with the playthings of our youth. It’s also prime flea market season and toys will migrate from old homes to new ones; although certain pieces may find their way to eBay where they’ll fetch a pretty penny, which was the case with an Atari video game that netted over 30 grand earlier this year.

But do toys mean more than money and memories? “Toys From the Attic,” a new display at the American History Museum, says they do. ”Toys reflect changes in our society and culture, as well as technology,” says Kathy Dirks who co-curated the show with Jennifer Stoebel. “In the last two hundred years,” Dirks says, “we have gone from toys that represented horse drawn wagons to automobiles, to rocket ships, and toys that sat on wheels and were pulled with a string to those powered by batteries and micro chips, just as items used in adult society have.”

In the 19th century, the American middle class was on the rise and more children were being sent to school instead of into the workforce. Playtime was no longer the stuff of the upper crust. This social shift prompted a collective “a-ha” moment and childhood began to be recognized as a special time of human development that demanded to be nurtured. This created a demand for toys to stimulate little kiddies’ minds and to prepare them for adult life—as evidenced by the toy vacuum cleaner, stove and tea set on display. And frankly, the color combinations of the home goods are a lot of fun. Wonder why Suzy Homemaker didn’t make ovens and what not for big people. Well, you know, ovens that didn’t use light bulbs to cook food.

“Toys reflect changes in men’s and women’s roles in society as seen in the evolution of dolls.” Dirks points out. “Where once they had no particular occupation, today dolls come dressed as doctors, astronauts, constructions workers and military figures.”

Now, we could have the “it’s not a doll, it’s an action figure” argument until the cows come home. But honestly, the difference between a girl toy like Barbie and a boy toy like Captain Action seems negligible when you consider each one’s terrific selection of saucy outfits. Moving on…

An educational medium and a mirror of trends in our popular culture, the sentimental value we invest in toys accounts for a large part of why they’re so much fun. “We wanted to create a feeling of nostalgia and warmth,” Dirks says. “We want visitors think back a generation or so, and consider their own childhoods, as well as those of their parents and grandparents.”

What toys defined your childhood? Tell us in the comments area below! And be sure to visit the American History Museum and check out “Toys From the Attic,” which will be on view until June 2011.

Asia After Dark will be heating things up again at the Freer and Sackler Galleries on Thursday, July 15th. It’s Bhangra Night, kids, and DJ Rekha will be rocking the party that rocks the Bhangra body, spinning hip-hop-infused Indian dance rhythms designed to get your booty on the dance floor.

DJ Rekha - Image courtesy of Ego Magazine

But what’s Bhangra, you ask? It’s a type of folk music and dance that originates in the Punjab region of India, with the modernized version characterized by a strong, pulsing beat and itchy, almost hypnotic, rhythms. You might have even gotten a taste of it if you heard American rapper/producer Jay-Z’s 2003 remix of Bhangra star Panjabi MC’s hit “Beware of the Boys.”

There will be a Bhangra dance troupe performing, along with a featured art exhibition. Indian attire and style is encouraged, so I’ll be the gora (the Caucasian guy) rocking the blue kurta. The event isn’t happening until July 15th, but tickets have already gone on sale. They usually sell out quick, so snap those suckers up, kids.

I interviewed DJ Rekha, who was nominated in 2003 as “New York’s Best DJ” by New York Magazine and named one of the most influential South Asians by Newsweek in 2004, via email below.

What makes hip-hop and Bhangra mesh together so well?

The styles have a natural affinity for each other. The Bhangra I play is produced the same way hip-hop tracks are—with kick drums, basslines, etc. They have the same four-on-the-floor quality.

What does it mean to be bringing Bhangra to the Smithsonian?

It’s very exciting to be involved in bringing this style of music to such an American institution. To me the Smithsonian represents a preservation of American culture, and the fact that Bhangra is going to be played there is acknowledgment that there is no denying that in 2010, Bhangra is also a part of American culture.

From the pictures of you, it looks like you’ve got some old-school turntables. Do you do any scratching?

I do a little bit of scratching, but I am not a turntablist. I love using turntables when I DJ, though I use them in conjunction with a laptop.

Some musicians or DJs prefer to be behind their instrument or table, as opposed to being out on the dance floor. Do you like to be the one creating the music or the one moving to it?

I live to be as close to the audience as possible. I feed off the energy of the crowd, provided they respect my DJ space.

How do your dance moves rate?

I can’t really say, but I love to dance. Never trust a DJ who doesn’t dance.

Currently, there’s not many female MCs out there in the game—whom do you look toward in the music world today for inspiration?

I am inspired by too many people to name all of them.  But I love A.R. Rahman, M.I.A., Jay-Z, Santogold, The Roots. . .

Growing up in Queens and Long Island, who were your first loves on the radio?

Well, I was fortunate to have grown up in the time of the beginnings of hip-hop and when dance music/disco was played on the radio. There was a station in the late 1980s and early 1990s that played what was then called alternate/new wave. It’s where I first heard U2, New Order, Nine Inch Nails, Happy Mondays.

Got any future projects coming up?

Well, I have been teaching at NYU’s Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music (ReMu), so I hope to continue that. There are a few movies/projects I am in talks with. I am working with Punch Records to bring an exhibit called “Soho Road to the Punjab” to the States. Soho Road is the strip in Birmingham, UK that has all the South Asian shops, and Birmingham is where a lot of the Bhangra I spin is produced. Oh yeah, I’ll be dropping a new Brazilian/Bollywood dance single, so stay tuned!

Bhangra Night with DJ Rekha takes place Thursday, July 15, 6:30-10:30, at the Freer Gallery of Art. Tickets are on sale now.

The Greek Slave, by Hiram Powers. Photo courtesy of SAAM.

Today, we take a moment to commemorate the 205th birthday of American sculptor Hiram Powers. Born in Woodstock, Vermont, on June 29, 1805, Powers got his real start working as an artist in a wax museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was noticed for his representations of scenes from Dante’s Inferno, and then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1834, where he created sculptures of prominent politicians. Then, in 1837, he made his way to Florence, Italy, and established his own studio.

Just six years later, in 1843, the neoclassical sculptor produced his most acclaimed work The Greek Slave, a full-length marble statue of a Greek Christian woman in chains. The sculpture traveled around as an exhibition throughout the United States and became both the first nude statue widely accepted by the American public and a figure used to symbolize the abolitionist cause. ”It was a tour de force. People knew about it far more than any other piece,” says George Gurney, deputy chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It had been shown at the Crystal Palace (for the Great Exhibition of 1851) in London and at the New York Crystal Palace in 1853, among other venues. And as a result Gurney says, “He [Powers] was the first American sculptor to have international fame.”

The Smithsonian is fortunate to have an extensive collection of Powers’s work, including two versions of The Greek Slave, at its American Art Museum. “He represented the type of subjects—mythological, religious, political and literary—that appealed to people in the day,” says Gurney.

Here is a highlights tour:

Eve Disconsolate, by Hiram Powers. Photos courtesy of SAAM.

Clytie - In 1873, Powers carved a marble bust of Clytie, a water nymph from Greek mythology, that is now on display on the second floor, east wing of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). As myth has it, Clytie fell in love with Apollo and never took her eyes off of him. Even when she became a sunflower, she faced him, the sun. In Powers’s sculpture, Clytie wears a sunflower in her hair.