Desert Sun/Desert Moon and the SKY ART Manifestoembody environmental sky art and future sky art projections as interpretedby the SKY ART Conferences, a series of four international conferencesspanning a 5-year period from 1981 to 1986. Each SKY ART Conference broughttogether artists as well as scientists, engineers and public officialsfrom many countries and included exhibitions, lectures, panels, events,installations and a catalogue.

These efforts constituted a determined attempt to documentthe emerging field of sky art and to discover and projects forms ofart in space. Desert Sun/Desert Moon was a series of temporary eventsand installations utilizing the temporal landscape of sky and space to evokeat the same time mythic and immaterial dimensions of that sky and space.Complementing these events, the SKY ART Manifesto is a working document draftedat the '86 SKY ART Conference. It offers artistic commitment to the futureof art in space as an integral part of international exploration.

The author describes Desert Sun/Desert Moon as ithas emerged from the SKY ART Conferences and then presents the text fo theSKY ART Manifesto. She comments on the importance of each regardingthe practice and potential of sky art.