I visited Rochester Cathedral on Tuesday evening for the start of ‘Gaia’, an art installation by Luke Jerram comprising of a 7 metre diameter globe of the Earth made up from 120dpi photographs taken by NASA. The scale is approximately 1:1.8M with 1 cm on the globe representing 18km on the actual land. Stand 211 metres away and look at Gaia, and it’s as if you are looking at it from the moon. Stand 50.5 miles away and it’s the view from the sun - in perspective that’s like trying to see Gaia in Rochester Cathedral from Brighton.

In 2020 Luke Jerram exhibited ‘The Museum of the Moon’ in the cathedral. The difference here is that we are all familiar with seeing the moon from our planet. Humans have observed the moon for their entire existence. Not so with planet Earth. The first time humans witnessed the planet in a way that we can observe Gaia was just 50 years ago in 1972 when ‘The Blue Marble’ photograph was taken by the crew of Apollo 17. The installation aims to create a sense of the Overview Effect, which was first described by author Frank White in 1987. Common features of the experience for astronauts are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment (https://vimeo.com/55073825). Of course, as we hopefully emerge from the last couple of years where there has been the Covid-19 pandemic, we are aware in a different way of how connected we all are.

‘Gaia’ is at Rochester Cathedral until 12th June 2022, entry is free during the day but needs to be booked to regulate numbers. Evening sessions have an entry fee and again needs to be booked via the cathedral website https://www.rochestercathedral.org/gaia.

Taken using a Fujifilm GFX50Sii and Minolta 28mm and 45mm lenses