Felicity Spear

Spear uses various forms of photography as a tool to experiment and play with the medium of light and its relationship with other media and forms of expression. She often takes photographs of the moon using a simple hand held camera. Using her own photographs, the digital print Somnium, (or Dream), references what has been described as Kepler’s ‘science fiction’ book of the same name.

In the 17th century the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, a key figure in the scientific revolution, established his revolutionary theory of the elliptical orbits of planetary motion as well as discoveries in optics. His ideas are still prescient today.

Kepler straddled two worlds of thinking: the rational and the mystical, from which his book Somnium, (‘The Dream’) emerged. It was a guide for an adventurous lunar expedition, embarked upon during the moon’s eclipse in order to avoid the fierce impact of the sun’s rays.

Passing through time and space Kepler describes the imagined places and conditions which might be encountered on this journey. In fact within Kepler’s tale was secreted the scientific research which supported the Copernican view of a heliocentric universe, a still controversial notion at the time. Somnium brings the physical universe to life through the lens of history and science where the perpetual transition, impermanence and mystery of the sky is revealed by movement and change in the cosmos.