mooon.

1

a certain number of books.

Aldo Mozzini Alessandra Spranzi Alessandro Rolandi Alice Cattaneo Andrea Nacciarriti Bohdan Stehlik & Una Szeemann Elio Grazioli Goran Petercol Irina Gheorge & Alina Popa Jenny Perlin JirĂ­ Kovanda Joseph Del Pesco Linda Fregni Nagler Luca Francesconi Marco Neri

Michele Robecchi Oppy De Bernardo Petra Feriancova Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost Umberto Cavenago Vincenzo Cabiati Vincenzo Latronico

mooon. a certain number of books.

edited by Giancarlo Norese & Luca Scarabelli

mooon.

a certain number of books. 1

2012

It was 04.56 (Italian time) of a summer morning.

July 21, 1969 (still the 20th in the U.S.A.) and Neil Armstrong was setting foot on the Moon. One foot at the beginning, and few things later.

Subject: personal belongings left behind by astronauts.

Belongings such as Alan Shepard’s ball abandoned during the Apollo 14 mission or the so called “Fallen Astronaut” statuette, created by the Belgian sculptor Paul Van Hoeydonck and left on the Moon by Apollo 15’s crew to remember the astronauts of all nations, who lost their lives during the Space Race.

The Fallen Astronaut is at the moment the only artwork on a ground other than Earth.

There are twenty-two items left on the Moon by astronauts.

Backpacks loaded with technology to survive the lunar atmosphere, overshoes, gloves, and gold plated helmets to prevent solar radiation. A video camera, two photo cameras, a toolbox, a TV antenna, a seismograph, a sample collector, a laser telemeter, and other instruments.

Again, the American flag, some medals with effigies of dead astronauts, the “Conquest of Moon” commemorative plaque, and record albums with greetings by the Pope and leaders of countries from all over the world.

David Scott laid a little Bible on the ground.

There is also the garbage they left behind to lighten the spacecraft: food cans and empty bags.

And then, The Moon Museum. This small object was left by the Apollo 12 mission. The best American artists had wanted to draw something on it. Andy Warhol drew a penis.

In 1972, during the Apollo 16 mission, Charlie Duke decided instead to leave a photograph. It was a Polaroid of himself with his own family.

“This is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth.

Landed on the Moon, April 1972”.

Or maybe it a complete conspiracy and the Moon Hoax believers are right and the Apollo program was a scam.

Anyway, we have prepared our things to be carried up there. Some of them are mere things, others are ideas, thoughts and words. And then the Moon. To carry the Moon to the Moon. The finger pointing at it, we will leave it here.

Note for the user: leaf through this book listening to “Man in the Moon” by Grinderman.

R

esidents in the United States plant American Flags in the wake of disasters as a patriotic symbol of hope.

O

n Earth there had been some discussion as to whether it was appropriate to plant the flag on the moon at all.

A

rmstrong has said that he personally did not think that any flag should have been left, but decided it wasn't worth making a big deal about.

Sulla Luna io lascerei un bel libro. Quale? Non so, lascio scegliere a voi. La ragione per cui lo lascerei infatti non è il contenuto dell’eventuale libro, ma che, se gli oggetti che lasciamo si rivolgono a un extraterrestre, a me piacerebbe sapere se anche loro hanno inventato lungo la loro storia questo strano oggetto. Sarei proprio curioso di sapere come si sono tramandati le loro storie e culture, se hanno inventato un altro modo.

Resta poi il fatto che a me sembra che il libro sia comunque un gran bell’oggetto e trovarne uno è sempre un piacere.

Infine, se invece dovessi tornare io o un altro essere terrestre, insomma, il paesaggio lunare è un po’ monotono e qualcosa da leggere può sempre far comodo.

E poi, a dire la verità, io porto sempre un libro con me, e se arrivassi sulla Luna ne avrei certamente uno.

ON MY WAY TO THE MOON

A copy of Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths.

Each page of the book torn out and crumpled into a small ball.

Each small ball gathered up and put into a cardboard box.

Cardboard box fitted tightly in a freestanding unpainted wall of sheetrock and spackle.

Object should be left in Crater Tycho, central southern region of the moon’s face.

www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/sections/g3.shtml

A HOLE IN HISTORY It’s possible to make a record that has multiple grooves that run parallel, like three slowly spiraling lines orbiting the center. This technique allows for two or three “hidden” tracks rather than one that continuously plays from beginning to end. On a disc that has multiple grooves, it’s up to chance to determine where the listener places the stylus on the record and therefore which of the tracks will be heard. One of the earliest known examples of a parallel-groove multitrack record is a three track disc from 1901 that offers the following description, “Fortune Telling Puzzle Record, A song and two Fortunes, See if you can find them.” The chance act of placing the needle determined the listener’s fortune.

Launched into space in 1977, the voyager spacecraft contains a record, a “12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.” The voyager is the farthest humanmade object from earth. It left our solar system in 1990, and in forty thousand years it will approach the first planetary system. “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.” – Carl Sagan1 The Moon’s orbit is increasing by approximately one to two centimeter per year. At a generous estimate of two centimeters, it will take about one billion years for the last total solar eclipse to occur. Meanwhile, however, the size of the Sun will grow slightly, which means that the ‘end of the age of the eclipse’ will occur a bit earlier than 1 billion years.2

PROJECT To send to the moon, I’ve made a two-sided record with three parallel tracks on each side. In each case, chance is at work determining what might be played. The record is designed for two possible outcomes. Side one is designed as an object-tobe-discovered, intended for the reception of visitors (to our solar system) rather than Sagan’s bottle sent out into the ocean of limitless space. Side two is intended to be played at the moment of the last solar eclipse. While there are three

songs on this side, only one should be played during the final event. The record is accompanied by a sheet of paper with pictographs that instruct the most basic form of play, using the paper sheet of instructions as an audio cone.

SIDE ONE Track One: The Earth Borrowing from Sagan’s Golden record in 1977, track one will contain “spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages.” This act of quotation projects the near past into the distant future.

Track Track of an heat,

Two: The Sun two contains the sound of flames crackling, explosions atomic bomb, and other sound effects related to fire, etc. as a sonic approximation of the Sun.

Track Three: The Moon Because there is no atmosphere on the moon, there is no sound.

Track three will be cut, but with only the silence of the room. The result is that the visitor playing track three on Side one, may find there is no sound.

SIDE TWO Track One: The Sun Track Two: The Earth Track Three: The Moon

notes: 1 http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html 2 http://eclipse99.nasa.gov/pages/faq.html

Giancarlo Norese & Luca Scarabelli (ed. by), “mooon.�

Cover image: the south pole of the Moon, courtesy NASA We would like to thank Francesca Forlini, Vera Portatadino, Paolo Tognozzi, Vegetali Ignoti for their help during the realization of this book, as well as all the contributors for allowing this publication to be made.

Printed in Italy by a certain number of books., 2012 <acertainnumberofbooks@gmail.com>

Alice Cattaneo: Per Mooon.

Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost: R.O.A. Oppy De Bernardo: Il mio cane Peggy Guggenheim.

Marco Neri: “Icona”, 2001, tempera su lino, cm 70x80.

Petra Feriancova: Una foto scattata da mio padre nel 69.

Linda Fregni Nagler: “The Moon, October 10, 1903”, cm 10x8, dalla collezione di Lanterne Magiche di Linda Fregni Nagler.

Luca Francesconi: Untitled.

Elio Grazioli: Sulla Luna lascerei un bel libro.

Jirí ˇ Kovanda: On my way to the Moon.

Vincenzo Latronico: Pagina della Piccola Cosmogonia Portatile, di Ray­ mond Queneau, quella con i versi dal 46 al 51, del I libro.

Aldo Mozzini: Galilei, i mari che non son mari, le montagne che hanno ricevuto nomi di montagne del nostro pianeta, le scarpe e i mezzi di trasporto adatti e, visto che sulla luna non ci sono colori, almeno così mi sembra una paletta di colori.

Andrea Nacciarriti: Ecomostro lunare e pizzino di Provenzano.

Vincenzo Cabiati: “Fango”, 2011.

Jenny Perlin: A copy of Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths.

Irina Gheorge & Alina Popa: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research.

Michele Robecchi: Marco Papa & King Tongue, “Astronaut”, 2004. La Rada, Locarno. Foto Carl June.

Alessandro Rolandi: Amedeo first word was “LUNA” and the first thing he pointed out was a full moon in Beijing, a year after he was born.

Umberto Cavenago: La più sensuale.

Goran Petercol: L’oggetto ho costruito con gli pezzi di spechio partendo come esempio dall obietto costruito con pietre accatastate secondo la forma della mezzaluna senza le punte estreme. Questo obietto si trova entro il castelliero ( entro la fortificazione) dell’ eta del bronzo, (Konjski vrh 87,4) presso Rovinj ( Istria).

Alessandra Spranzi: “Ritrovamento (Cose che accadono)”, 2010, base 70.

Bohdan Stehlik & Una Szeemann: “As if the Moon”, 2011, marmo di Carrara.

Joseph Del Pesco: A Hole in History.