Abstract:
Humankind’s landing on the moon opened up a new consciousness for humans: for the first time we saw our planet as a whole, rather than a collection of divided countries and continents.
Similarly, a new perception of ourselves has emerged with the proliferation of high quality satellite imagery, such as those provided by Google Earth. We now have access to the collective Space Eye, and possess the ability to zoom and focus at any one scale of the fractal.
NASA provides super-high quality images for free, open-source download, and this presents a whole new palette of imagery to artists at unprecedented resolution, for the very first time. Like cracked walls, these images bear striking resemblance to painterly abstraction, yet have the effect of evoking awe at the beauty of our very own home.
Set to an original ambient score, Airfield presents these self-similar images as if flying from a plane, viewed from the planet’s own orbital eyes turned inward in a drifting, topological gaze.
Airfield has screened at the 2010 Gertrude Street Projection Festival, Melbourne.
Updated for HD and exhibited as part of ‘Constructed Landscapes’, 2012, at Screen Space, Melbourne.