ACE Project Grant

/ Last Verse /

Louise Beer + John Hooper

+ Biographies

The Directors of Pale Blue Dot Collective are Louise Beer + John Hooper.

Framing the impact through the eyes of evolution and the immense time period it has taken for each form of life to arrive at this point, we create a space for discussion around the damage we are collectively participating in and its universal impact. Both artists use installation, film, photography and sound in their independent practices to examine our place within the universe.

PBDC were commissioned by Ramsgate Festival of Sound for the Sonic Trail in Ramsgate and by the Bodleian Library x Fusion Arts for the 2022 Sense-Sational Books exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In 2022, PBDC will spend one month at BigCi for the delayed Environmental Art Awards 2020 Residency in the Blue Mountains, Australia. In 2021, they were selected for The Margate School: Art, Society, Nature: Photography Residency in Margate, England. In 2020, the collective received funding to set up an 86m2 studio called Bright Island Studio. In 2018, PBDC was commissioned by Nablus Festival in Palestine to interview Lord Martin Rees. The duo has an exhibition ‘Harmonic Islands’ at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora Christchurch in January 2022 after a residency there in 2020.

Louise Beer
Louise lived in Aotearoa New Zealand until 2002 before moving to the UK. Louise now works between London, Margate and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Louise uses installation, moving image, photography and sound to explore humanity's evolving understanding of Earth’s environments and the cosmos. Louise creates objects and experiences that reflect the incomprehensible nature of reality, from the ocean floor to the night sky.

Louise is a co-director of Lumen, super/collider, Pale Blue Dot Collective and Print Science. Louise has exhibited extensively across the UK and internationally. In 2019, Louise was the lead artist on a super/collider x Sail Britain sailing residency which aimed to promote a wider understanding of ocean plastic and in the same year joined the Somewhere Nowhere Residency at the Lake District, on a specially funded place by Dark Skies Cumbria. In 2020, Louise was awarded the BigCi Environmental Art Award in 2020 and a residency at the Arts Centre Christchurch Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Aotearoa New Zealand with her collective, Pale Blue Dot Collective. Louise has recently completed the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics x Artypical Space Art Summer School 2020 and the Delfina Foundation Science Technology Society UK Associateship which is in association with the Gaia Foundation. Louise was awarded a SECCADs grant in 2020 to contribute to the cost of setting up a new studio, Bright Island Studio, in Thanet. In 2021, Louise has been awarded a DYCP grant from Arts Council England to develop her studio practice and the North York Moors Dark Skies Residency with a solo exhibition in 2022. Louise was nominated to attend the Amant Siena Residency in August 2021, and awarded the Climate Breakdown Spacer Residency with super/collider. Louise is currently the CreaTures Art/Tech/Nature/Culture Curatorial and Creative Resident for one year. Louise has been selected for the Jean Harrison Commission and the Grand Union x University of Birmingham MA Art History and Curating Exhibition Award. Louise is currently co-investigator on a Vera C. Rubin Observatory Kickstarter Grant 'Creating educational resources together with Ngāi Tahu’s Dark Sky Project', at the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Within her collectives, Louise has curated over 80 exhibitions and 80 events with an overarching focus on astronomy and/or ecology. Louise has collaborated with and curated events and workshops at organisations such as the Science Museum, Bompas and Parr, Greenman Festival, British Science Association, Second Home, the Ace Hotel, Floating Cinema, The Collective, Tate Britain, SALT Festival Norway, Soho House Group, Nablus Festival Israel, Blue Dot Festival, Young and Serious and Vivid Projects, Hebrides Dark Sky Festival and the Turner Contemporary.

Additional Collectives

Lumen is a collective founded in 2014, with a gallery space in the crypt of St John on Bethnal Green Church in London. Lumen curates exhibitions, residencies, events and talks focused round astronomy and light.

super/collider is a creative agency that specialises in curating science based talks, exhibitions, workshops, field-trips and pop-up astronomy clubs. super/collider has recently collaborated with the Turner Contemporary, Imperial College London and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

Print Science is a research project with artist/ photographer John Hooper. This project is centred around finding historical representations of the night skies and the philosophies that have been imposed on them. Print Science collects 19th and early 20th century astronomy books and photographs the plates and engravings, preserving the books’ integrity for future generations. These images are then restored and presented with a contemporary aesthetic that captures humanity’s wonder of the heavens.

John Hooper

John Hooper is a photographer and artist who started his career shooting for lifestyle magazines. John has shot many intriguing artists, musicians and actors over the last 21 years and his experience as a photographer and director of photography have led him to collaborate on numerous projects and commissions. For “It’s Nice That” with Michael Moloney exploring 24hrs from Pavey Arc in the Lake District to filming Lord Martin Reese answering questions from Palestinian students, to Whisky adverts amongst many others. In 2014 John started Landsounds as a portal for his sound experiments from there he has been using sound for collaborative work with Louise Beer. In January of 2021 John completed a short course in Field Recording : Soundscape Composition to further aid his understanding of this subject.

John is the founder of Landsounds co-director of Pale Blue Dot Collective and is a regular contributor to super/collider. He has been using his photography to discover the natural world and cosmos. Not taking the traditional route of many astro photographers John prefers to navigate the heavens using skills honed from years of landscape photography.

Individually and collectively we have been:

Commissioned by / in Residence of:
British Science Association/ Mayes Creative / Greenman Festival / Vivid Projects / Museum of Freemasonry / Hackney Arts / Bloomsbury Festival / Young and Serious / Forestry England and Grizedale Sculpture / Blue Dot Festival / Lush Funding / UCLO Observatory / Margate Festival / Bompas and Parr / Nablus Festival Israel / Turner Contemporary/ Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Aotearoa New Zealand / Bodleian Libraries and Fusion Arts Oxford / Jean Harrison Commission / Grand Union x University of Birmingham MA Art History / Amant / North York Moors National Park / The Delfina Foundation x Gaia Art Foundation / Spacer Studio / CreaTures / The Margate School / Vera C. Rubin Observatory / Somewhere Nowhere / Well Projects / Imperial College London / Tunbridge Wells Borough Council / It’s Nice That / Art & Graft / Ramsgate Festival of Sound

Exhibited at:
An Lanntair / Ugly Duck / Pie Factory Margate / Crypt Gallery St Pancras / Vivid Project / UAL Showroom / Chelsea College of Art / AIR Gallery Altrincham / Bankley Gallery Manchester / Plantasia, Swansea / Bow Arts / La Colonie, Paris / Jarvis Dooney Gallery, Berlin / Helston Museum / St Philips Church, Salford / Auckland University of Technology / Centro Cultural e Histórico José Figueres Ferrer, Alajuela, Costa Rica/ The Earth Sanctuary x Artist Expedition Society, Arrernte Country, Central Australia / Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts / Moon Village Association / SVOX TV / Art Science Exhibits / Fringe Arts Bath / Bargehouse London / Softspot / Today Art Museum Beijing / AIR Gallery / Department of Land Economy Cambridge University and Cambridge Artworks Gallery / 3rd on 3rd Street, Jamestown, New York / South Hill Park Arts Centre / Mindfield Gallery / Christmas Steps Gallery / Museum of Science and Industry

Collaborated with:
Phytology / Royal College of Art / PositivelyUK / UCLO Observatory / National Maritime Museum & Royal Observatory / Vatican Observatory, Italy / Montecassino, Italy / Campo Catino Observatory, Italy / Bompas and Parr / Boiler Room / St John on Bethnal Green / Kosmica / Dronica / Stour Space / Art Licks / Imperial College London / Yorkshire Dales Dark Sky Park / Mayo Dark Skies Festival / Earth Sanctuary, NT, Australia / Netil 360 / Photofusion / Museum of London / Middlesex University / Wimbledon School of Art / Artist Expedition Society / Williamson Gallery, Art Center Pasadena / Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital / National Trust / ArtCan / GV Art / Central Saint Martins / Rosalux, Berlin / Go Stargazing / Science Museum /Second Home / the Ace Hotel / Floating Cinema / The Collective / Tate Britain / SALT Festival Norway / Soho House Group / Museum of Science and Industry

+ Portfolio

Earth as a Planetary Landscape

This work was created during the Amant Siena Residency 2021.

I am interested in how we can think about the environments we know as planetary landscapes, that have risen and fallen over billions of years. Thinking about all the sunsets and sunrises that amounts to, where the geology beneath the stratosphere is changing and life alongside it. Without all of these developments, we would not have the same landscapes and forms of life that we recognise today. If we think about the formation of this landscape against the backdrop of the galaxy and universe, how does it challenge our thinking about the cosmic importance of the lifeforms and environments that we live amongst? How does it reframe our thinking about the insects that move over and in the sediment, and their origins? Does it challenge our human-centric view of the world?

The images below are created using collages of sunsets, sunrises, moonlit landscapes and night sky photographs taken in and around the calanco badlands of Chiusure, Italy during my Amant Siena Residency.

Elemental Forest

The sounds and the scenes of New Zealands forestry, a short film sketch

The Fire

2017's Lumen artists residency. During our time there the temperatures in parts of Italy hit 50˚. Where we were in Atina the heat although not as hot, caused small forest fires to spring up on the hillsides. The fires add to the process of disturbance essential to the lifecycle of the forest, returning nitrogen to the soil for new growth. Naturally this would happen but a variety of issues have disrupted the natural processes.

+ Floating in Space

This series of images was developed during a residency at The Margate School titled Art, Society, Nature: Photography Residency 2021.

Pale Blue Dot Collective created a series of images depicting how solitary beings are all connected, using images of under the water surface shot in Walpole Bay, and the night sky shot in Margate and Minster. 

Our photographic folio examines the parallels between floating in the ocean and Earth moving through our solar system. The work is contemplative in nature, as we investigate the giant landscape of the sea-life and plant-life that lives in Walpole Bay, removing our human-centric scale, to the glittering dark skies of Margate. We invite the viewer to imagine how we fit into our ecosystem, and how our ecosystem fits into the cosmos. This work explores the fragile nature of our coastal area. For some, the virus has been an incredibly isolating experience. This work shows the connection between all of us, as we stand and gaze over the horizon, or towards our galaxy. 

Alongside this photographic work, we created a soundscape using a hydrophone to record the movement of the waves and sound recorders for life above the waterline. We aim to create work that can engage those of us with visual impairments too.

+ Under the Fading Light

It’s hard to imagine not knowing that Earth isn’t the centre of the universe, or that there aren’t other galaxies. It has taken thousands of years of knowledge building to begin to understand the size of our universe, or the amount of stars, galaxies and planets that we share it with.

Louise Beer
I grew up under an immensely starry night sky. Every time I saw the Milky Way, I was electrified inside with the ideas of the vastness of the universe, and the infinite possibilities that might exist. Under that starlight, I really felt like we were collectively looking outwards, trying to unpick the mysteries of the universe and basking in its magnificence. It was clear that I was standing on an oasis of life, looking into the uninhabitable darkness. I was part of something bigger than my immediate environment.

I moved to cities in the UK as a teenager, and have felt the change in my view as a significant loss. The images in the film contain two images, taken six months apart. The first image is from the Mackenzie Country in New Zealand, and the second image was taken in Elephant and Castle, in London.

When most people talk about seeing the Milky Way - they are referring to the ‘core’ of the Milky Way. it is not only down to air and light pollution that the view from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are different. The central band of the Milky Way is directly overhead in the Southern Hemisphere, but in the Northern hemisphere it stays lower down towards the horizon, which makes the stars less visible. It will take roughly 125,000 years for our solar system to rotate around the centre of the Milky Way to begin to see a similar sky in the Northern Hemisphere.

I am interested in how we lose our cosmic perspective of the incomprehensible value of nature, when we lose our cosmic view. Based on observations from the Suomi NPP satellite, a third of humankind cannot see the Milky Way. We are creating ever more light pollution that disguises our view each year.

It has been suggested that the biological world is organised largely by light. The way that the Earth rotates creates a regular cycle of day and night, and it’s orbital motion and tilt of its axis causes seasonal changes. Along with local weather systems and the lunar cycle, these light conditions have been consistent for immense periods of geological time. Flora and fauna have relied on these environmental cues for ecological processes and our artificial lighting is having a devastating impact.

It is impacting migration patterns, wake-sleep habits, and habitat formation. The same light attracts and kills huge swathes of insects and disorientates birds. It is not only land based life forms that are being affected; coastal and ship lights are altering marine eco systems.

I wanted to draw a meaningful connection between each person on Earth, and the destruction of our Environment. Living in light polluted cities, it is very easy to forget to look up. It is even easier to forget that we are on a planet, that is a single, fragile, eco system.

+ Swaledale, Gunnerside Beck

A moment of contemplation. As the river cuts its way through the dale it passes a recently collapsed river bank. Several trees have made their way down to join the river. Upstream the power of the river amplifies.

This is a short film produced during a residency in Swaledale. the stillness of the frame forces the viewer to concentrate on the scene and wonder what has happened here.

+ Astronomical Images

We are lucky to still be able to see many near earth objects from our position in Margate. Looking out over the sea we have less light pollution to contend with. How long before we are locked into our own little world? We at Pale Blue Dot Collective take our view of the heavens as one of humanities greatest gifts. Without this view and the wonderment that comes with it much of humanities advances would never have happened. When Galileo turned his telescope towards the sky he unlocked a series of developments which have influenced almost all of our modern lives.

+ A Memory of Darkness

The Delfina Foundation x Gaia Art Foundation
UK Associateship

Louise Beer

I spent my residency at the Delfina Foundation x Gaia Art Foundation expanding my research into the environmental and philosophical impacts of light pollution, and our disappearing access to natural darkness. I spoke to many scientists, artists and writers about these subjects during this period.

As part of the science_technology_society programme, I created an online listening event called A Memory of Darkness. Audience members were invited to sign up to the event using their address, and were posted a print of my image with instructions on how to access the secret link, and an eye mask to wear during the event. Over 100 people joined from all over the world during the event, and many submitted a response to my submission form about their experience of the night sky after the event.

Event Description
’As the sun sets over the enormous volcanic landscape of the remote Hinewai Reserve in Aotearoa New Zealand, the sky begins to reveal an infinite display of stars and planets, appearing like heavy lights against a pitch-black sky.

As a result of light pollution, many of us across the globe have lost our night-time view of the Milky Way, which can have a philosophical impact on the way we see our ecosystems. When we can no longer look outwards and see our galaxy, we lose a sense of the scale of the emptiness, the expanse of the darkness, and by contrast, the sheer magnificence and fragility of our natural world.

The short live broadcast, A Memory of Darkness, comprises a sonic piece created using field recordings of bird song from Louise’s recent experience at Hinewai Reserve, in her native Aotearoa New Zealand. Alone, looking outwards over the Pacific Ocean, as the warm breeze rustled the native trees nearby and the Rurus (Morepork owls) sang out into the night, the artist experienced overwhelming feelings of both wonderment and environmental grief in equal measure.

The artist invites participants from across the world – who will receive instructions by post – to join her to collectively listen to this new sound piece and recall our own memory of the darkness, considering its significance. The field recordings in this piece were made during Louise’s recent residency at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora.’

+ Overland, Undersea

10.33m

This piece was commissioned by the Ramsgate Festival of Sound 2021, and developed for high quality speakers or headphones.

This sound piece is created from a collection of field recordings taken in Thanet, Kent.

Our life by the coastline has helped us to reconnect with the inhabitants of the natural world that we spend so much time thinking about. As we look out our window at the water, we are witnesses to the ebb and flow of the daily tides, the same tides which have risen and fallen over millions of years, helping to shape the geological structures and the life forms which exist in and around them. The fragility of these life forms is so apparent as they swim, fly and nest in and around our pollution. We keep coming back to this quote from Rebecca Solnit:

‘We need a new word for that feeling for nature that is love and wonder mingled with dread and sorrow, for when we see those things that are still beautiful, still powerful, but struggling under the burden of our mistakes.’ Our climate change turning point is right here, right now by Rebecca Solnit, 2021.

As we face the overwhelming and complex nature of the climate crisis, it is an important reminder to do everything that we can as individuals to improve the lives of the creatures that we share our local environment with, alongside trying to undo the damage we have collectively done to the wider ecological system.

This sound piece includes the recordings of bats, birds and shellfish.