The Cosmology Gallery

The Cosmology Gallery links science, art and religion, inspired by Einstein’s concept of "Cosmic Religion". It is a place a where modern cosmology meets multicultural creation stories, expressed through the art of the great world religious-cultural groups. The large domed gallery includes The Multicultural Cosmology Project: cultural creation stories in artworks and movies from various cultural and religious perspectives, Celestial Visions, a photographic exhibition that links the human world to the stars, and the Timeline of the Universe, a 60meter exhibition that encapsulates the history of the universe and the history of our planet. The project is supported by Templeton Prize Winner Paul Davies, and other patrons including Sir Roger Penrose, Lord Martin Rees, Prof Stephen Hawking, Nobel Laureate Joseph Taylor and astrophotographer David Malin.

The Cosmology Gallery is designed to explore the human yearning to understand our place in a vast and awe inspiring universe. It is designed to reveal unity through diversity. The unity is humanity’s common yearning to understand our place in the universe. The diversity is our rich tapestry of interpretations. The gallery contrasts traditional multicultural cosmology with the cosmology of modern science. Its goal is to evoke the sense of awe when humans imagine their place in the universe.

The first stage of the gallery involved collaborations between scientists, artists, photographers and cultural groups, including Australian Indigenous, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu traditions. The artists interacted with scientists to find links between their traditions, their creation stories and scientific knowledge. Art works, photographs and scientific interpretations of cosmology are displayed in a carefully planned exhibition within the multi-level domed gallery.

Inspiration: The Cosmology Gallery building was inspired by the Baptistry in the Piazza di Miracoli, beside the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where the great scientist Galileo was baptised. A long spiral walkway creates an exhibition space, which takes you from a Penrose tiling on the floor to the 70 foot diameter dome. Multiple digital projectors cover the dome with moving colour in the form of short movie interpretions of the art works.

The Dome of the Cosmology Gallery: The dome is a truncated icosahedron, a shape discovered by Pythagoras in the 6th Century BC, who believed that geometry held the key to understanding the universe. Two thousand years later, Leonardo da Vinci drew and explored the same structure, and in the 1960s Buckminster Fuller used it to design the modern soccer ball. In 1985, a new form of carbon was discovered in which 60 carbon atoms create the same perfect shape. These beautiful molecules were dubbed 'Buckyballs'. We now know that Buckyballs are created in red giant stars and in the flame of a smoking candle! It is the building block for carbon nanotubes - the strongest known structures which are at the forefront of the nanotechnology revolution. Thus, carbon - the atom of life - creates a link from stars to soccer ... from Pythagoras to advanced technology, as well as being the inspiration for the gallery roof, which is the world’s largest buckyball dome. The regular pentagon-hexagon structure of the roof contrasts with the never-repeating fivefold symmetry of the Penrose floor, which itself links to some of the tiling patterns found in ancient Islamic mosques.

"Winning Sky Photos: The David Malin Awards"
Cosmology Gallery, Gravity Discovery Centre
1 November 2008 – 18 January 2009

More info:

David Malin Awards