Conversations on the plurality of worlds
2021
Statement
Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering the possibility of travelers from the moon. “What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?” asks the philosopher. “Why not?” the Marquise replies. “As for me, I’d put myself into their nets of my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me
-Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686) by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, (translated by H.A. Hargreaves).
In this series of works Barbara Wildenboer reimagines maps as ticking timepieces that speak of shifting borders shaped by geopolitics, geology, and climate. She draws from different books such as H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and Jules Verne’s Around the Moon. The tile of the series derives from a book written by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle more than three centuries ago. In this text he describes the new cosmology of the Copernican world view and also includes the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. The author through a series of informal dialogues with a female conversational partner engages female participation in what was up until that point a nearly exclusively male field of scientific discourse.