Helen Bach Column: Gaia - when the Earth came to The Core
I so nearly missed seeing Gaia, the art installation at The Core at Corby Cube which was there as part of the celebrations for the theatre's 15th birthday.
I'd read in the theatre's brochure that it was arriving in September, mentioned it to my husband and daughter and said it would be good to see it as we'd previously seen 'the Moon' when it was at Peterborough Cathedral, then with one thing and another, forgot all about it.
Thankfully, the Northants Telegraph ran an article reminding folk it was only there until Sunday 21st September, so that's where we headed to catch it on its last day in the town before it continued its world tour.
Can I just say it was well worth the £1.50 ticket price - what can you buy for that these days? You went into the lower level of the theatre and saw the globe from underneath - cue lots of people taking photos making it look like they were Atlas themselves with the weight of the world on their shoulders!
You then went upstairs to the Gallery, where you could sit for as long as you wanted and could watch the sphere slowly rotating, while listening to the specially created soundtrack.
It had a mesmerising, hypnotic quality - I think we must have sat there for 15-20 minutes, watching the world turn, picking out places of interest.
What struck me was how tiny the UK actually is, and the vastness of Africa, South America and Australia - not to mention Russia, which of course stretches from the Pacific right across to our doorstep in Europe. The Pacific Ocean is absolutely huge too!
The Nile, with its delta, was also quite striking - you could make out the dry, harsh conditions of the Sahara desert, and there was the strip of green running alongside the Nile, and the green triangle where the river hits the Mediterranean sea.
Now, I know that people can look at this on maps on their phones - but how often do you actually do that? This gave you the opportunity to sit, and think, and marvel at the beauty of Earth, consider its fragility, put things into perspective and see how insignificant we really are...