The Spaces That Connect Us

In March 2018, photo-journalist Joanna Demarco and writer Ann Dingli travelled to Green Bank, West Virginia – a tiny region in America home to the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. Its c.200 inhabitants have been documented as being prohibited from operating devices which function using radio transmissions and thus interfere with the radio telescope’s space exploratory work. Historically, radio wave ‘wardens’ have patrolled the town, seeking out mobile phones, wireless headphones, Bluetooth devices, microwave ovens, remote controls, or anything that used signals capable of interrupting the work of the Green Bank telescope. But in recent years, residents of Green Bank have succumbed to the increasingly universal pull of a life online and things have somewhat changed. The exhibition will take the form of a photographic exposition and accompanying essay, showcasing the intricacies of life in Green Bank in 2018. It will shed light on a dichotomous community – a hybrid way-of-life which seeks to negotiate between a historic vocation to explore space, and a contemporary human need to be connected.