Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor exhibition at WMA in Dothan, Alabama.
Exhibition by Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor featuring the Hurtling Spherical Menagerie Radio Show with Dan Stepp.
A 3-Part Radio Show airing on The Wombat WMBT 90.1FM hosted by Sean Miller and Dan Stepp. The program explores the fallout from the 1954 meteorite collision event in Sylacauga, Alabama when Ann Hodges collided with a meteorite and survived.
The definition of the Hodges Effect was coined by Sean Miller and Dr. Sean Taylor in 2019.
Connie Hwang (Design) and Sean Miller portrait painting. Acrylic, Glitter, and Space Dust, 2024. Also included in the exhibition listen to the Ballad of Ann Hodges (2024) written and recorded by the Hard Luck Society
The Echo Scroll is created by Connie Hwang and Sean Miller, 2024. The text on the scroll is a combination of eleven unique and separate meteorite strike incident accounts that are here combined become a solitary one hundred foot long line of meteorite strike damage. The name “Echo” is obviously tied to the idea of a loud noise reverberating through time but it also is used here in reference to the Project Echo Communications Satellite which was launched in 1960 and 1964. This satellite had a diameter of one hundred feet. It is hopeful that this scroll will, among other things, communicate our connection to outer space (even when we are in the privacy of our home spaces).
The entire text on the scroll if completely unfurled reads: From space > through the sky > punching a hole in the house’s corrugated roof > ripping a big, ugly hole in the ceiling > the whole house filling with an awesome sound and terrible crash > puncturing through the shingles, the underlying plywood sheathing, the wire lath that supports the ceiling plaster and the plaster itself, and through the roof of the top window > denting the bedroom's floor and ricocheting up to the ceiling, puncturing another hole > traveling up through the ceiling a second time into the attic > smashing through the house’s gutter > breaking through the asbestos cement roof and the wooden… (con’t).
…suspended ceiling > damaging the roof and copper piping > cracking a support beam for the floor in the process > then coming down through the ceiling in the dining room, knocking over furniture and denting the wall > smashing into a hardwood floor and bouncing around the bedroom > skipping off the carpeted wooden floor > smashing into the Philco radio and bouncing onto the couch > travelling at 87 meters per second > impacting the television > breaking the bed frame > falling off the quilt and striking the floor > ripping a big hole in the floor > rolling until reaching the wall > smaller pieces smashing through the walls > destroying an antique wooden desk before entering the downstairs bathroom narrowly missing the toilet > making a whole in the bottom floor > crashing through the roof of the garage > smashing through the car’s windshield on the driver's side, ricocheting off the dashboard > bending the steering wheel, breaking the little finger on our right hand > while feeling the pain flowing through our left hand then alongside our left hip > flying past our head and landing on the back seat > breaking through the roof and wooden floorboards of the car, before bouncing off the muffler and the seat cushion > smashing into the right rear part of the trunk and taillight > crashing into the driveway > shattering windows and setting off car alarms > crashing through the pressed wood and oxidized tin roof of the doghouse > landing on the lawn > ripping through the house and breaking into pieces while hitting the slab underneath > resting beneath the table…
Left to Right: Space Capsules, Hodges Effect Fallout Map, Photosculptures Featuring Hand Exercises to Safely Induce the Hodges Effect, and CLOTH OF HEAVEN (FOR ANN HODGES) Blanket with Stars Overhead, Noon, NOV. 30, 1954.
The image is a recreation of stars overhead in Sylacauga, Alabama on November 30, 1954 was provided by Blackrock Castle Observatory in Ireland. This was converted into a two-sided blanket of stars. The text on the blanket combines texts by W.B. Yeats, Neil Armstrong, and coordinates related to the meteorite strike incident.
Episode 1 of Hurtling Spherical Menagerie aired on The Wombat WBMT FM, Gainesville, FL at 6PM November 30, 2023 (on the anniversary of the Ann Hodges incident.
Sean Miller, Space Piece (Handheld Meteorite Exercises to Induce the Hodges Effect), demonstration photograph, 2021.
If viewers want to petition for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges an online petition is available to sign.
Interactive map for viewers to stamp and suggest geographies and locations in Alabama where they sense the Hodges Effect to be strong and palpable. The WMA is only a few hours away from the location where Ann Hodges home once stood in Sylacauga.
A suggested Hodges Effect Impact Zone offered by a WMA patron.
Space Capsules, Wood, Meteorite Dust, and Soil from Hodges Property in Sylacauga, Alabama, 2024.
Wood, Meteorite Dust, and Soil from Hodges Property in Sylacauga, Alabama, 2024. These space capsules are interactive for viewers to touch and shake produce their own controlled cosmic events. Viewers may carefully pick up a space capsule and briefly shake it and carefully return it. The space dust and soil inside will collide with the wooden interior to produce 1. a controlled cosmic collision and 2. sound. This tactile and auditory interaction is a safe way to contract the Hodges Effect. Viewers are asked to please do not shake too many space capsules or a single space capsule for a long period of time. These devices are still in testing and we are unsure of the correct suggested duration of engagement.
Wood, Glass, Gel Caps, Black Sesame Seeds, Black Salt, and Meteorite Dust. Participants may take a pill and a meteorite can pass through them to possibly trigger Hodges Effect outcomes.
Hodges Effect Billboard Campaign, Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor for Space Week in Ireland, November 2021.
A photograph used in Hodges Effect Billboard Campaigns and for the “Hodges Effect Field Guide for Hurtling Through Space.”
Sean Miller, Wish Space Sean Miller, (Handheld Meteorite Exercise to Induce the Hodges Effect), demonstration photograph, 2021
Exhibition view at WMA in Dothan, Alabama for more info click here
An iconic photo that is often shown to help explain the Ann Hodges incident is a photo of Ann Hodges lying down with an attending man pulling her blouse back to reveal a very severe bruise on her hip caused by the meteorite strike. The Smithsonian even dubbed the meteorite an “extraterrestrial bruiser.” This large wood stamp bears the exact sized image of the Sylacauga Meteorite that struck Ann Hodges so viewers can recreate the bruise on their own bodies.
An iconic photo that is often shown to help explain the Ann Hodges incident is a photo of Ann Hodges lying down with an attending man pulling her blouse back to reveal a very severe bruise on her hip caused by the meteorite strike. The Smithsonian even dubbed the meteorite an “extraterrestrial bruiser.” This large wood stamp bears the exact sized image of the Sylacauga Meteorite that struck Ann Hodges so viewers can recreate the bruise on their own bodies.
When we lie in bed, or enjoy a picnic, or take a spin on a unicycle, we are simultaneously blasting and spinning our way through the cosmos with a vast cohort of Homosapien and non-Homosapien sphere-situated entities, objects, and materials. Buckminster Fuller coined the phrase “Spaceship Earth” for this assemblage, our living conditions, and our home sphere. Hodges-Effect-thinking could allow us to dramatically rebrand all of this as “The Hurtling Spherical Menagerie.”
Research suggests that creative individuals are more susceptible to the Hodges Effect. In fact, it has been noted that musicians Sun Ra and David Bowie may have quietly struggled with the Hodges Effect before it was a named condition. Many of the astronauts (such as Edgar Mitchell) and cosmonauts (such as Valentina Tereshkova) clearly demonstrated Hodges symptoms. Sculptor Tom Sachs undoubtedly has Hodges.
Sean Miller, Score for Fallen Stars (Sprinkle space dust or metal shavings on score to produce music), 2021
Dropping replicas of the Hodges Meteorite at galleries, museums, art centers, and public buildings has become a method of showing solidarity with Ann Hodges and allowing viewers to better visualize the events of 1954. The replicas do contain meteorite dust so it is our intention that the Hodges Effect is being introduced within these institutions.
Gallery director Eleanor Philips hangs a banner and drops a replica of the Hodges Meteorite on November 30, 2022 to celebrate Ann Hodges Day.
Contact Information for United Nations to Advocate for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges on November 30, and/or sign our petition here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/ann-hodges-international-meteorite-awareness-day
Write the U.N. to advocate for an International Meteorite Awareness Day. Sign our petition: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/ann-hodges-international-meteorite-awareness-day
Read about the Hodges Effect Billboard Campaign here in the Irish Examiner.
Sean Miller, Sean Taylor, and Connie Hwang, Billboard in Cork City Ireland Advertising The Hodges Effect for International Space Week, 2021
Sean Miller, Sean Taylor, and Connie Hwang, Billboard in Cork City Ireland Advertising The Hodges Effect for International Space Week, 2021
Sean Miller, Sean Taylor, and Connie Hwang, Billboard in Cork City Ireland Advertising The Hodges Effect for International Space Week, 2021
See more examples of the Field Guide to Hurtling Through Space here.See more examples of the Field Guide to Hurtling Through Space here. Project supported by Blackrock Castle Observatory and National Sculpture Factory of Ireland.
Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor, Hodges Effect Kit, 2022
Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor, Hodges Effect in the Air (Campaign to Advocate for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges), 2022
Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor, Hodges Effect Is Going Around (Campaign to Advocate for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges), 2022
Connie Hwang, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor, Sticker seen in New York City, Hodges Effect Is Going Around (Campaign to Advocate for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges), 2022
In recognition of WORLD SPACE WEEK ((October 4th-11th, 2021) an international team of artists and scientists discuss, consider, and celebrate the significance of Ann Hodges and begin a campaign to lobby the U.N. for an International Meteorite Awareness Day for Ann Hodges.