Michael Geffert

The photographic plate archive as an inspiration for art projects

Abstract

The ‘Sammlung Historischer Himmelsaufnahmen’ of Bonn University is a collection of some 15,000 photographic plates taken between 1899 and 1990. While scientific and didactic use of the material is in progress, also projects with artists, musicians and others have been started. There is a great interest of non-astronomers in the unique old glass plates. People are fascinated by the combination of the age of the plates and the large amount of information of these plates. They were not only used as artworks in exhibitions, they also motivate artists to produce themselves new pieces of art. In the beginning, concerts and art-exhibitions including the plates were organized at Hoher List Observatory (e.g., https://astro.uni-bonn.de/~geffert/hl/AUSSTELL.pdf). After the closure of the observatory, we moved the plates to the Argelander-Institut in Bonn. Recently an interdisciplinary project ‘Dialog der Sterne’ has been started with an exhibition and outreach events in the rolling mill in Pulheim near Cologne (http://www.sfb956.de/events/DdS_2015).

In this talk we will give an overview over several outreach projects mainly related to the plate archive of University of Bonn.

Biography

Michael Geffert is astronomer at the Argelander-Institut of Bonn University. He has published over years in astronomical journals like Astronomy and astrophysics and is now responsible for the public outreach activities of the institute. In 2009 Geffert was the coordinator of the German activities of the IYA 2009. He has been working also as an artist (woodcut, painting, installation) with exhibitions in the region of Bonn. Michael Geffert is member of the German organization of artist (BBK).