OUR SIDE OF THE MOON
Coming to Earth 2023
Across the past and the present, a group of individuals are drawn to an archaic form of radio-communication that bounces messages off the moon and puts them in contact with strangers around the world. They call themselves “moonbouncers” and use alphanumeric codes to identify themselves. To this day, their number around the world is unknown…
TV SERIES
Our Side of the Moon follows a group of individuals who are drawn to an archaic form of radio-communication that bounces messages off the moon and puts them in contact with strangers around the world. The story follows Diana, a brilliant young radio astronomer living under the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands, and her ‘moonbouncing’ penpal Atari, based at the squatted Elfordstown Earthstation. Marked by a chronic mutism, Diana possesses a special skill: sound-to-movement synesthesia, a condition which allows her to ‘feel’ sound as muscular responses in her body. A strange radio message that bounces off the moon’s surface every day is rumoured to be a response to the legendary space probes Voyager 1 and 2, however, Diana’s synesthetic capabilities allow her to discover a different truth, which catapults her into a journey to the other side of the moon...
MOONBOUNCERS
Moonbouncing, or ‘EME’ (Earth-Moon-Earth communication) offers us a metaphor to reflect on the contemporary condition from the ‘macro’ scale of the space to the ‘micro’ scale of an intimate exchange between two strangers connecting from different sides of the planet. Next to this symbolic exploration, mastering the basics of Ham radio brings us to the origins of information- and communication technologies, a knowhow which seems to be crucially needed as new generations grow more and more distanced from their everyday devices – technologies that can be used for democratic means and innovation, as well as for control and even warfare. As ‘old’ and ‘new’ technologies intertwine and co-exist, what might we learn from contemporary moonbouncers navigating different layers of time and space where echoes of the past, present and future may occur all in one instant?
THE PAST
During a summer intensive in computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University in 2017, Valerie van Zuijlen (Director, 28, NL) was introduced to radio astronomy, and more precisely, to the phenomenon called “moonbouncing”. Also known as earth-moon-earth communication (EME), moonbouncing is a global form of radio technique based on the propagation of radio waves between Earth-based transmitters reflecting signals through the surface of the moon.
Albeit over 80-year-old and by some definitions ‘archaic’, Moonbouncing still gathers an active community of radio amateurs around the world coming from all walks of life; a contact could be established between a Persian prince and a teenage girl connecting from her parents’s garage, both in their own ways united by an enthusiasm with Ham radio as well as a fascination towards the moon and what lies beyond.
In 2019, van Zuijlen worked together with radio astronomers from the Netherlands to showcase the workings of moonbouncing in an audio-light installation piece called “Moonlight”, which won an award to be produced as part of the Glow international light festival in Eindhoven. Two years later in 2021, van Zuijlen picked up the topic again with the research initiative ‘Our Side of the Moon’, this time working in a more open-ended way closely together with filmmaker Emilia Tapprest (Filmmaker, 30, Helsinki).
Moonbouncing from The Stanford Dish, 2017, U.S.A.
Moonbouncing from Dwingeloo Observatory, 2018, NL
Moonlight Light installation, 2019., Eindhoven, NL
Together with Radio Astronomers at Dwingeloo, 2022.
Emilia & Valerie at National Space Centre, IE, 2022
THE PRESENT
Since Spring 2022, Valerie van Zuijlen and Emilia Tapprest have been working together with a team of ham radio astronomers from Dwingeloo (CAMRAS) and Westerbork (ASTRON) in developing a storyworld and docu-fictional narratives on ‘contemporary moonbouncers’. These endeavors consist of a script-draft for a mini-series focusing on a group of young ham radio operators, written together with writer Mark Morro (UK); cinematic experimentations in different locations in the Netherlands (Dwingeloo radio telescope, Westerbork radio antennas, Radio Kootwijk) in May-June 2022; and sound-based storytelling making use of moonbounced sounds from the radio telescope Dwingeloo. In November 2022 OSOTM won the Inevitable Ether Award at the National Space Centre in Ireland, including a 6-week residency at the Greywood Arts Centre in Cork, which has been used as the second development stage of the series and it's first sizzle reel.
Key collaborators include writer Mark Morro, composer Gediminas Žygus, poet Holly Childs, Ham astronomer Jan Muijlwijk & Harry Keizer, artist and performer Kiki Gordon and writer Marco Moro. Choreography by Diviana Helena and Haru. Voice-over by Louisa Teichmann, Joana Bohner and EI9AT. Other collaborators in fashion garments by Leila Gordon, jewelery design by Lisa Plaut, AI fashion by Killian Mercadie, Poster design by Jung Yeon, Cast by Vein Agency, John Andrews, Tor and Mehdi Raji.
OUR TEAM
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
This series is a collective project made possible together with a cohort of collaborators and peers with similar ambitions around the thematics of radio astronomy, Ham radio and ‘moonbouncing’. Below you can find our personal practices.
EVENTS
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