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Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson, Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), 2007, installation view, Systematic, 2010 at Zabludowicz Collection, London. Photo: Stephen White

About

Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon) uses the first form of satellite communication, EME, in which radio signals are transmitted from a location on Earth and reflected off the Moon to be received elsewhere. Paterson used this technology to send a piece of music, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata of 1801, to the Moon, knowing that it would not come back inits entirety. She translated the scorefirst into letter equivalents of the notes and then into Morse code. This code was transmitted to the Moon and the reflected signal re-translated into a score.