THE MUSEUM OF THE MOON (PART TWO)

The city of Derby is at times seen as a cultural backwater, historically overshadowed by the cities of Nottingham and Leicester. Today the city of Sheffield has joined that triad of domination. Two of the most important theatrical venues in the city are currently closed. This has forced local theatrical groups to perform outside of the city centre but some professional tours have chosen to bypass the city altogether.

Late September 2019 saw the launch of the annual Derby Feste, followed only a week later by the Derby Folk Festival. A week or two prior to the launch of Derby Feste on Friday September 27th, a significant scientific and artistic exhibit arrived in Derby. This exhibit remained on Display at the Anglican Cathedral until the end of the Derby Folk Festival on Sunday the 6th of October. This exhibit was a model of our natural satellite, the Moon.

The exhibit or installation is called the Museum of the Moon and it was originally created in 2016 by Luke Jerram. This inflatable, spherical replica of our Moon has now been copied and these copies are now on tour across the world. They often form the centre piece of various temporary exhibitions and cultural events, as this one did in Derby. Two copies are on permanent display at museums in Barcelona and Sydney.

The Knife Angel which I discuss in another blog also arrived in time for Derby Feste and the Derby Folk Festival. Situated outside the same cathedral as the Museum of the Moon, the two exhibits served to mitigate the cultural deficit mentioned above and put the cathedral at the heart of the Derby artistic community.

Our spherical replica of the Moon is 7 metres (or 23 feet) in diameter and depicts the printed imagery of the Moon's surface as provided by NASA. The imagery is of 120dpi and the replica is of a stitched construction over a frame. The Moon is often illuminated internally. The scale used is 1:500,000, which is 1 square centimetre (0.39 of an inch) representing 5 square kilometres (3.1 miles). Although the surface of the exhibit is stitched fabric and therefore smooth, the detail and printing creates a remarkably textured, three dimensional illusion.

The replicas on tour have been displayed in a variety of venues, including the foyer of a theatre. In some cases the excessively well lit public space or the cramped environment, have been detrimental to the appreciation of the exhibit. The internal architecture of the English cathedral lends itself far better. The lighting, the wide nave and vaulted ceilings; rather than dwarfing the construction, allow the observer to appreciate the magnificence of the Moon without constraint.

Presenting the Museum of the Moon in a place of worship, may for some appear incongruous but it should not. If you are a Christian then the Moon is part of creation and the conflict between science and faith, is unnatural. Conflict arises from those who hold extreme views. Those who fail to hear the 'Word of God,' while making a literal interpretation of that 'Word' and those who believe that science can replace faith.

Being able to walk around the display means that we get a full 360 degree view of the moon. Although I was unable to identify which parts are normally visible from the Earth; I am not an astronomer, I was able say that I had seen the 'Darkside of the Moon' (cue music). That was until a work colleague whose hobby is astronomy, corrected me. He pointed out that there is no darkside of the Moon, the satellite is always illuminated but not always visible from Earth. This is the kind of scientific information, the sort of small fact that I find of interest but it tells us much more.

It reminds us that we see or perceive only a part of the whole. That our viewpoint is influenced by context and placement. This is not to suggest that all viewpoints or opinions are equally correct. For example, there is a meme on the Internet depicting two people viewing a number from opposite ends, one can see the number 6 and the other the number 9. The meme is usually accompanied with some trite phrase about people being equally correct. It is rubbish of course as anyone with intelligence can see, the number in this instance must be a 6 or a 9, it cannot be both.

No what this correction reminds me, is that we do not always see or appreciate the entire presentation. We do not and indeed we cannot, always assimilate the full range of stimuli that is about us. By being aware of this and that we cannot experience the full range of information available, enables us to appreciate our universe on a deeper level. This I think is the importance of the Museum of the Moon, its majestic beauty mimicking that of the real Moon, enables us to truly appreciate the world and the cosmos.