'The Great Moon Hoax' is inspired by the English polymath John Herschel (1792-1871). A scientific all-rounder who made noteworthy contributions in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, botany and photography. He was called the scientific Homer of his day. He was the inventor of several photographic processes such as the cyanotype (blueprint), the chrysotype and the anthotype. Moreover, he coined the term 'photography' in 1839.
In his days, he was involved in a famous hoax regarding the supposed discovery of life on the Moon (Geene & De Nooy often use fictitious stories in their own work). The 'observations' were published in 1835 in The Sun, and were falsely (but humoristically) attributed to Herschel to give credibility to the articles. The story introduces all kinds of non-existing animals or animals with non-existing behaviour like unicorns and temple-building beavers. Using DALL-E, a chatbot that can be instructed to produce fictitious ‘photographs’, Geene and De Nooy made a reconstruction of the story.
With their pseudo-scientific work as an artist duo, Anne Geene (1983, NL) and Arjan de Nooy (1965, NL) show the audience a new, often humorous way of the world. Together they made the publication 'Ornithology', an alternative bird bible with the Best Book Design from all over the world — the third edition of the book is available now. Their new book, 'Dictionary', will be released during UNSEEN 2023 with Blind Finch Books. Past presentations of Anne Geene with Arjan de Nooy include a.o. Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Het Natuurhistorisch Rotterdam, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, Centquatre-Paris (FR), The Peale Centre (US).