Primary schoolchildren from Oxford have been working on messages that will be sent into space and bounced off the surface of the moon.
Students at Windale Community Primary School in Blackbird Leys visited Modern Art Oxford on Thursday where they worked on their messages with artist Katie Paterson.
The artist has been bouncing messages off the moon as part of her work Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon) using Morse code.
She said: "I translated Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata into Morse code and sent it to the moon, which then gets reflected back.
"But you only get part of it because of the moon's surface - and using that information we have a new piece of music that gets played on a piano in the gallery.
"What we are doing with the kids is exactly the same.
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"We get them to think of questions they would like to ask the moon and to whisper their secret messages into a tape recorder.
"We also worked on a poem together in the workshop that I then translated into Morse code to send to the moon.
"The kids really loved it I think and seemed to really get into it.
"Once they understood Morse code they really got on well."
The messages will now be forwarded on to a special radio satellite in Nagano, Japan, where they will be bounced off the moon using a form of radio transmission.
Kyle, nine, said he enjoyed working on the messages at the Pembroke Street gallery.
He said: "We were using the walkie-talkies to help us learn the Morse code and how to send the messages to the moon.
"We had to learn what all the dots and dashes meant.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what the moon says back to me.
"I'm going to use Morse code to send secret messages to my friends as well."
Iman, nine, said: "I liked all of it, it was really fun.
"I helped to write the poem that's going to be sent to the moon."
Charlotte Gretton, schools partnership co-ordinator at the gallery, added: "The children all seemed to have a fantastic time and that is credit to the work that Katie has done.
"It's great for them as not only do they get to see the art, but they can get involved and learn new things."
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