Gaia Art Installation by Luke Jerram
Gaia at Chelmsford Cathedral, UK
Back in 2022, I was excited that the immersive art installation, Gaia, which depicts the earth’s surface, was in my home town of Chelmsford, Essex. Gaia filled the nave of Chelmsford Cathedral from the 12th to the 30th October 2022.
More recently I was lucky enough to see Gaia again, this time in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The Gaia will be at Trinity College Dublin until September 2024.
In this blog post, I have provided more information about the Gaia, the artist Luke Jerram, and about the visit to Chelmsford in October 2022.
For other immersive art ideas, click here.
Table of Contents
What is the Gaia installation?
Where has Gaia been shown before and where is it now?
What is the Gaia art installation made of?
Science Festival Chelmsford 2022 (11th to 18th October 2022)
What is the Gaia installation?
Gaia in the Old Library at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland
Gaia is a seven-metre diameter touring artwork by Luke Jerram. It is suspended in the air, slowly rotating, giving the visitors an astronaut’s view of earth, as if they were in space themselves.
A soundtrack is often played simultaneously, which includes real conversations between astronauts.
The installation was created in partnership with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Bluedot and the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres.
Where has Gaia been shown before and where is it now?
CC Image courtesy of It’s No Game on Flickr
There are often several Gaia’s touring simultaneously.
The first installation of Gaia was during the Bluedot Festival at The Natural History Museum in 2018. It has been included in art exhibitions, science, music and light festivals around the world and has been to several varied and interesting destinations around the world including, Kendals Calling and Greenwich & Docklands International Festival in England, the Goldcoast and Melbourne in Australia, Hsinchu New Year Festival and Discovery Moon landing 50th Anniversary Special in Taiwan, Yuanmingyuan Road in Shanghai, China, Giornate del Respiro in Sardinia, Italy, and Lights On Romania, Bucharest, amongst many others.
A full list of past and future installations can be found here.
What is the Gaia art installation made of?
The Gaia installation was created from 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. The imagery for the artwork was compiled from Visible Earth series, NASA.
Who is Luke Jerram?
Luke Jerram is a British installation artist. He creates live arts projects, installations and sculptures. Previous work includes:
Museum of the Moon, an inflatable installation of the Moon, and
Dream Director, where participants enter a sleep pod and are played a short sound clip through speakers while they are sleeping.
Luke Jerram has been awarded numerous awards and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Full details about Luke Jerram can be found on the Luke Jerram website.
Science Festival Chelmsford 2022 (11th to 18th October 2022)
Gaia was installed in Chelmsford Cathedral as part of the first ever Chelmsford Science Festival, hosted by Anglia Ruskin University.
There were a variety of events during the festival, such as public lectures, workshops, drop-in sessions, and hands-on activities. Activities were free, but required booking.
Example events included:
A Family Science Day hosted at Anglia Ruskin University on 15th October, 10am-4pm, providing children with the opportunity to take part in hands-on science experiments.
There were Arts & Craft sessions inspired by nature and the environment. The aim was to inspire children to think about how they could become ambassadors for our planet and make positive changes for the future.
If you have seen the Gaia Art Installation please email me at [email protected] and let me know where!
