NEWS: New Sound Installation to howl at Dorset Moon!

DORSET MOON

Friday 28 – Sunday 30 June, War Memorial, Central Gardens, Bournemouth
Friday 5 – Sunday 7 July, Sherborne Abbey
Friday 12 – Sunday 14 July, Nothe Fort, Weymouth 
Free
www.dorsetmoon.com

With the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaching next month, there’s mounting excitement in anticipation of the debut of DORSET MOON, an exciting summer spectacle built around Luke Jerram’s internationally acclaimed Museum of the Moon.

Brought to Dorset for the first time in a unique collaboration between three arts festivals, this monumental moon sculpture is seven-metres in diameter, internally lit and created using NASA’s high-definition lunar imagery. Each centimetre of its surface represents five kilometres of actual moonscape. A mesmerising fusion of lunar visuals, moonlight and surround sound audio during its two-week Dorset visit it will land in three unique locations that encapsulate the county’s distinctive blend of coastal, rural and urban.

In each location Museum of the Moon is supported by a rolling programme of activities beneath it curated by Inside Out Dorset (produced by Activate), Arts by the Sea and b-side festivals. The schedule in Bournemouth runs from 9am until midnight with newly commissioned artworks and installations, while activities in Sherborne and Weymouth run from midday until midnight on all three days.

Highlights include Pledge, Carrie Mason’s powerful invitation to participate in a collective outdoor charcoal drawing galvanised by Neil Armstrong’s iconic words to take one small step to reduce our carbon footprint; Helen Ottaway’s Wind and Unwind, a new composition for musical box and voice that works with themes of absence and the movement of tides; and Call of the Wild, artist Ra Zamora’s unique sound installation inspired by the wolf’s howl – a project that is particularly personal to the artist.

“For me the moon holds great mystery, magic and clarity,” she explains. “The wolf howl has always been a sound that thrills me and awakens my spirit so there was a natural

progression to put wolves howling with the moon into a soundscape collage. I’ve also been exploring binaural beats and theta brainwaves to induce feelings of relaxation and wellbeing. I hope that this soundscape, mixed with passages of poetry will reach to the core of people’s primal psyche to excite and inspire them.”

The supporting programme also features Laura Reid’s silent disco soundtrack Celestial Bodies; Matilda Skelton-Mace’s installation Earth Module in which infinity mirror effects and organic lighting patterns evoke the night sky and play with scale; This Then Is the Moon a 150-second immersive experience by George Roberts with Natasha Salkeld and Immy Howard; and A Small Dream, the exhilarating collaboration between award-winning choreographer Hemabharathy Palani, who will be dancing in person at Bournemouth and Weymouth, and R&D the innovative interdisciplinary studio founded by artists Rachel Davis and Daniel Saul to make films for projection mapping and theatre. Their films of Hema dancing will be shown in two locations in Sherborne Abbey.

For more details on Dorset Moon and the full programme in each location visit www.dorsetmoon.com.