Artist Louise Beer and astrophysicist Roberto Trotta
Thursday 14th March 7-8 pm (GMT) on Zoom
They'll be discussing their deep interest in astronomy from their artistic and scientific perspectives, respectively, as well as how the night sky, the only truly global commons, can help in facing the ecological and climate crisis, even as itself is under threat from light pollution and a commercial space race.
The event will allow time for an open discussion on stargazing in all its forms with everyone present, so you are welcome to participate by bringing your questions, ideas, perspectives and challenges from whatever area of work or interest you are immersed in! If you are unable to attend live, but wish to send a question/comment, feel free to do so by hitting ‘reply' to this email.
You can register for the event here (a Zoom link will be provided the day before and the recording will be shared afterwards).
Louise Beer is an artist and curator, born in Aotearoa New Zealand. She now works between London, Margate and Aotearoa. Louise uses installation, moving image, photography, writing, participatory works and sound to explore humanity's evolving understanding of Earth’s environments and the cosmos. Her experience of living under two types of night sky, the first in low level light polluted areas in Aotearoa, and the second in higher level light polluted cities and towns in England, has deeply informed her practice. She explores how living under dark skies, or light polluted skies, can change our perception of grief, the climate crisis and Earth’s deep time history and future.
Roberto Trotta is professor of theoretical physics at the International School for Advanced Study in Trieste, Italy, where he is the head of Data Science, and a visiting professor at Imperial College London, where he was professor of astrostatistics. His research focuses on cosmology and machine learning. An award-winning author and science communicator, he is the recipient of the Annie Maunder Medal 2020 of the Royal Astronomical Society for his public engagement work. His new book, STARBORN - how the stars made us (and who we would be without them), named BBC Radio 4 book of the week, is out now.