The Weight of Light
Is it physically possible
to measure light as weight?
LUX
For this work, a mathematician calculated the weight of the sunlight that reaches planet Earth.
With this information, the artist traveled to Mount Chimborazo, the place on Earth closest to the sun, searching for a stone that matched perfectly to the weight of light.
In 1971, NASA’s manned mission Apollo 15 landed on the moon. One of the experiments conducted during the mission was the testing of the “Equivalence Principle”, a physical law stating that without air resistance, all objects fall the same way.
The experiment was broadcast live to millions of people: the astronaut held a hammer in his right hand, a feather in his left hand, and kept them both at shoulder level. He then simultaneously released the two objects. As predicted, the hammer and the feather reached the moon’s surface at the same time.
Two thousand years prior to this, Babylonian astronomers had, in fact, mastered the mathematics behind this principle.
La Noche
Through calculations based on Einstein’s theory of special relativity,
The artist, in collaboration with a group of scientists, arrived at a precise estimate of the weight of a full moon night on Earth.
From ancient Greece and India to modern science, there have been many myths and scientific speculations about the composition of the Moon.
Among these, for millennia, the mineral known as 'moonstone' was believed to be formed through the sedimentation of moonlight.
The notion of "sedimented moonlight" gave birth to this project. the artist began wondering if, beyond mere belief, moonlight had an actual physical influence on Earth
The exact weight of the light of a full moon night has been carved into this piece of moonstone.
Lux
A stone as heavy as all the sunlight over planet Earth. Stone (8 x 6,5 x 5 cm), wooden case (120 x 146 x 5 cm).
La Noche
A piece of moonstone as heavy as the light of a full moon night . Stone (4.5 × 2 cm), wooden case (23 × 15 × 6 cm).
