Large white rolls of vinyl tape are cut into pieces and glued to the telescope’s black boxes. The goal: to send a message into space.
“This reminds me of book covers,” laughs Jessica Dempsey, the director of ASTRON, when she sees the work at the telescope. She always hated book covers, but this work of art makes her heart beat faster.
“I’m very excited about the project,” says Dempsey. “Because there are very few occasions where science and art come together, while for me science is an art. Art is a form of explaining science and that it is also held in the middle of nature is great.”
According to Dempsey, LOFAR is a perfect place to launch a message into space. “That’s the first thing I thought of when I heard about the project: the black boxes are like a canvas. What if we use them as a base?”
The New Zealand artist Ilke Gers was asked for the project. Gers often made large-scale works of art. Yet this work is still an experiment. “We are really still looking at what we can do with the material. The tape is quite stiff, it can’t bend. You can organize it however you want, but how will it look upstairs? looking forward to see what happens.”
Gers opts for the tape because, unlike paint, it does not leak into nature. “We don’t want to leave any traces.”
The result will be shown this summer. However, the artwork remains at knee height and the message is in the air. “So, you won’t see much of Into Nature here. But with special access to Google Maps you can still see the work from a different angle,” says Gers.
There will also be postcards with an aerial photo. “As a visitor, you can then write and send your own message on it. That completes the circle.”