The Distance of the Moon
2024
Blooming Hallucination Exhibition
120710 Gallery _ Berkeley CA
36”x36”x144”
Basalt, LED light, single channel audio
In 1979, the Moon Agreement, an extension of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, was adopted by the UN General Assembly. It protected the moon’s environment and barred nations from claiming ownership of its minerals or water. However, a 2015 U.S. law circumvents these rules to allow private companies access to lunar resources, carrying on with colonial and capitalist practices of relentless expansion and resource extraction. The increasing technologization of space is an extension of humanity’s perceived disconnection from “Nature” here on Earth.
In February 2024, a private mission to the moon included a virtual data center developed by Lonestar Data Holdings. Their goal was to test operations, including transmitting the Declaration of Independence to and from the moon. This marks the initial phase of a plan to establish data centers on the lunar surface which would likely be embedded in the moon’s ancient lava tubes.
Melding deep, geological time of the Earth with that of the moon, basalt is a geologic material rooted in both terrestrial and lunar landscapes. Basalt on the moon was at once literally part of earth itself; the moon a direct product of the earth itself, from an impact billions of years ago.
The two celestial bodies are tidally locked and the moon rotates at a perfect speed so that one side is always facing the earth. The audio in this piece comes from an electromagnetic frequency recorder that I took out on walks to record the hum of ambient radio waves under the light of the moon, Earth’s first satellite. Of the massive amount of electromagnetic frequencies emitted from Earth, a portion of them travel into space, get reflected off the moon, and sent back to Earth, flowing through everything and our bodies whether we are aware of it or not.
Press Release