By 
September 15th, 2015
Credit: Richard Clar
Very special radio signals are slated to bounce off the surface of the Moon on September 26 – one of them a sound produced from the Electrocardiogram (EKG) during Neil Armstrong’s historic “One small step” onto the lunar surface.
The Giant Step and Lune sur la Lune projects pay tribute to Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong’s giant leap on the Moon back in 1969 and also salute the far side of the Moon itself.
Credit: NASA
Sonification tone
Richard Clar, a new media interdisciplinary artist from Northern California, researched the Apollo Archives coming across an EKG of Neil Armstrong as he took the first step on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
Artist Richard Clar.
Credit: Art Technologies
Data scientist, Ryan Compton, created a “sonification tone” from Armstrong’s actual EKG graph. Then prominent Los Angeles-based double-bass jazz performer and composer Roberto Miranda used the tone to create compelling sounds that have been called “edgy and hauntingly beautiful.”
Clar’s interest in the effort was piqued after hearing about an Earth-Moon-Earth bounce (EME) from Italian artist and colleague, Daniela de Paulis, who together with radio specialist Jan van Muijlwijk developed the process of using EME to send images to the moon and back in 2009.
Far side image
For Lune sur la Lune, an image of the far side of the Moon will be transmitted in a poetic gesture onto the Earth-facing side of the Moon.
Dingeloo Radio Observatory in the Netherlands.
Credit: ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
Depending on weather conditions these radio transmissions to the Moon and back will emanate from a radio dish in Italy. The bounce back from the Moon will be received at Dingeloo Radio Observatory in the Netherlands.
In addition, an image of the first footprint on the Moon will be transmitted and bounced back to Dwingeloo.
Rock the moon
“I wanted the art to say something about the first humans to set foot on the moon,” explains Clar. “Think how many living beings have observed the Moon for eons…and now we have made a number of trips to the Moon and back. I want people to have new experiences through my artwork,” he says in a press statement.
Many of Clar’s themes originate in space environment issues, such as orbital debris, war and peace, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and water management on Earth.
Shortly after the sound and image from Giant Step and Lune sur la Lune are received at the Dwingeloo radio receiving site they will be accessible to the world at:
For more information on Clar’s artwork over the years, go to:
Posted in Space News
