AS WELL as a whole host of talks and exhibits, the upcoming climate festival in Reading will also see a presentation by a famous face.
Ray Mears will be among those giving talks at Reading Climate Festival, which will see a number of speakers accompanied by a striking replica globe installation.
The Town Hall will be home to a world-famous piece of art by Luke Jerram when his Gaia project visits this summer.
The artwork features a globe constructed with the use of high-resolution NASA imagery, totalling around seven metres in diameter.
It will also include a bespoke, surround-sound composition by BAFTA award-winning composer Dan Jones, creating an immersive experience.
Ray Mears will take a look at the world around us in a talk exploring our very own “spaceship” and how we are all connected as its passengers.
He said that it is something of a return to his first ever spoken presentations: “One of my very first lectures used a photograph of our planet, the Blue Dot.
“I tried to make people consider the implications of our actions on the planet on a broader basis, and I think the installation will be stunning to see.”
He says the perceived void between art and science is something which is dispelled by exhibits such as the Gaia work.
“It’s fascinating that astronauts who have orbited the Earth often turn to poetry or art to try and express those emotions that they experienced looking down on our planet.
“When you look at the globe, you feel holistically towards it, and that can transgress political boundaries.
“When I look at it, I think about bird migrations rather than human flags and maps.”
Mears’ decades-spanning career has seen him travel around the world, which he said: “makes you alert to the fragility and the importance of our planet.
“Science sometimes struggles to find what it has discovered, or explain concepts they’re grappling with at the cutting edge.
“So it’s often easier to talk about a feeling or a sense of these things, and then to look for the evidence to actually back it up.”
He says also that Reading is a suitable setting for such a meeting of scientific endeavours and artistic representation, of which Professor Ed Hawkins’ climate stripes are a good example.
“Reading is quite cutting edge in terms of technology, I think it’s very fitting that the exhibition comes to the town.
“My own feelings are shaped by some of the cultures I’ve met, such as those in North America who talk about the Earth as their mother.”
Gaia is the name of the Ancient Greek goddess of the Earth, known as “Mother of all life.”
Reading Climate Festival takes place between Saturday, June 10, and Friday, June 21st.
Luke Jerram’s Gaia will be installed in Reading Town Hall as part of the festival from Saturday-Sunday, June 10-18.
.Ray Mears: The World Around Us will take place in the same venue from 1pm on Friday, June 16.
Tickets to both the talk and the installation are available via: whatsonreading.com/gaia
