Christopher Kurtz
USA
Rather than a monument to a person, I wanted to make a monument to the ideas of Science and Discovery, with a look to the past as well as the future. I don’t want to celebrate William Parsons, the Third Earl of Ross. I don’t have much interest in celebrating the aristocracy, but I do want to draw on his successes and how they’ve led to Birr being an important node in the network of astronomy.
Birr is now home to I-LOFAR, the Irish addition to an international network of state-of-the-art telescopes used to observe the Universe in unprecedented detail at low radio frequencies. This inclusion is in part due to the work of William Parsons on his telescope, the Leviathan of Parsonstown. With this instrument he was the first to recognise the spiral shape of some fifteen 'nebulae', including the Whirlpool Galaxy, his illustration of which is featured in this collage.
I was also drawn to the story of the disappearing peat bog, caused by climate change and industrial growth. There are now conservation efforts attempting to restore the bog, represented by flora surrounding the monument.
Scientific discovery can come at a great cost, tangled up in the history of long dead white men, privileged and unapproachable, a clear map showing where so many ecological problems began. But these tools are now in the hands of our and future generations, and they will decide its uses, discarding what no longer serves. It’s time for them to be used to correct errors of the past, despite their origins, and usher in a new era of restoration, growth, and kindness.
USA
Rather than a monument to a person, I wanted to make a monument to the ideas of Science and Discovery, with a look to the past as well as the future. I don’t want to celebrate William Parsons, the Third Earl of Ross. I don’t have much interest in celebrating the aristocracy, but I do want to draw on his successes and how they’ve led to Birr being an important node in the network of astronomy.
Birr is now home to I-LOFAR, the Irish addition to an international network of state-of-the-art telescopes used to observe the Universe in unprecedented detail at low radio frequencies. This inclusion is in part due to the work of William Parsons on his telescope, the Leviathan of Parsonstown. With this instrument he was the first to recognise the spiral shape of some fifteen 'nebulae', including the Whirlpool Galaxy, his illustration of which is featured in this collage.
I was also drawn to the story of the disappearing peat bog, caused by climate change and industrial growth. There are now conservation efforts attempting to restore the bog, represented by flora surrounding the monument.
Scientific discovery can come at a great cost, tangled up in the history of long dead white men, privileged and unapproachable, a clear map showing where so many ecological problems began. But these tools are now in the hands of our and future generations, and they will decide its uses, discarding what no longer serves. It’s time for them to be used to correct errors of the past, despite their origins, and usher in a new era of restoration, growth, and kindness.