Watch this space

Collaborating with artists, writers, curators and institutions, the Remotewords project has been marking rooftops with text since December 2007. Beginning with "Start" at their HOME BASE in Cologne, they have since added three sites: FUHRWERKSWAAGE KUNSTRAUM, Cologne, the spectacularly located KUNST:RAUM SYLTQUELLE, Rantum, and they have just activated a new site on the roof of the EDITH RUSS SITE FOR MEDIA ART, Oldenburg (pictured).

At time of writing, all four are "offline" as they have yet to appear on google. As Remotewords says, "The project REMOTEWORDS is based on the idea of disseminating statements in various languages via Google Earth and other available virtual globes. The messages are applied to the roof of the respective institution with paint. The aim of this action is, via satellite system, to publicize the message after a time lag..."

"Google Earth goes to a great deal of trouble to update continually; because of the landmass and the amount of data, however, the time lag can last up to several years. Some recently completed edifices still appear on Google Earth as architectural shells, while buildings long since razed still seem to exist from the air. Google assures us that the image data are, on average, between one and three years old (Source: Google Earth website). The virtual globe systems suggest a present time that in reality is made up of time segments. This fact can, however, be put to artistic use. When news once appears on the virtual globe, it remains on the net for a long time whether it has, in the meantime, been uninstalled or 'censured' in real space."

Free parking

A recent post on Cheryl Bernstein's blog reminded me that I had been admiring the turf at DODGERS STADIUM recently and had been planning to do an exploration of carparks. This ONE CAR, parked as far as possible from the stadium and nowhere near anything else, has me intrigued. And I love the layers of LINE WORK these images contain: palimpsest heaven HERE.

Photographed from a helicopter on a Sunday morning in 1967, along with 33 other LA parking lots, Ruscha lays bare the city's car-focussed infrastructure for his book Thirtyfour Parking Lots. As J G Ballard said, “Ruscha’s images are mementos of the human race taken back with them by visitors from another planet.” (quote and commentary found at the bottom of this page)

To make up for the lack of activity around here lately, for your viewing pleasure over the weekend, here are another 33 gathering places for cars, as found in the 'City of Angels': 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Images of Ruscha's original carparks, and their locations, can be found here. A prize to the first person to provide google links for all 30.

Image: Ed Ruscha, Parking Lots, 1967/99 (#291 LA Dodger Stadium), Gelatin silver print, 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches, Edition of 35. Appropriated from here.

V2.0

Repeat visitors may have noticed a few changes around here. There's a bit of a spring clean going on.

Firstly, we've realised that, with all the contextual links, it isn't always easy to find the core material - the art from space. So from now on the main links will be in CAPS and all the tangental digressions and cross-referencing won't. And we'll get to work rolling that through older entries.

More noticable is our fabulous new masthead, and other visual tweaks, courtesy of Luke Munn who has generously offered his services to help us through the next few phases of developing this project - watch this space...

Space bunny

While in London last week, I was able to see the excellent Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The exhibition makes good use of the Hayward's sculpture courts, one highlight being Gelitin's installation that allows you to admire the London view whilst paddling about in a boat on a flooded upper courtyard lake. Surely it would be a sight to admire from the adjacent Royal Festival Hall's fourth level Blue Bar, but it is unlikely to become a surreal fixture on London's GOOGLE MAP, unless the city happens to be re-surveyed while the exhibition is on.

One project of Gelitin's that has made it onto the google map is a giant (knitted) rabbit (sounds familiar), which will be spending 20 years ON A MOUNTAIN TOP in Italy. (thanks YSH)

There is also a free little show at the Hayward which features community crocheted coral reefs. Unfortunately their website offers little in the way of images or information. The Hayward's website, buried amidst SBC stuff, also contradicts (so does Wikipedia) the Psycho Buildings blurb that boasts of how the gallery was designed between 1960-62 by a radical group of young architects, three of whom later joined Archigram, famous for unrealised projects such as a Plug-in City and a Wearable House called the Suitsaloon.

Image: The giant green Star Wars rabbit

Green Thumbs

I'd be lying if I said I gave even a passing thought to the state of our grounds at home during our time away. So it was without an ounce of guilt that I read a feature on great gardens of the (Western European) world in the August issue of Cathay Pacific's in-flight Discovery magazine on the way home last week.

Most impressive is the 17th century HET LOO gardens in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands established by soon-to-be Scottish and English King, William of Orange, also known as (Bonny?) King Billy (There is a statue of Billy HERE, outside Kensington Palace with a brilliant shadow, and an equestrian statue HERE, in Queen Square, Bristol). Apparently, gardens of this era, also including Versailles, are characterised by their rigid geometry and intricate embroidered designs, imposing and orderly experience of nature. A more freeform approach came about with the optimism of the 18th century leading to the splashy deployment of flowers in STROLLING GARDENS of the 19th century that offered a backdrop for the promenading of the new bourgeoisie. Now we have contemporary gardens such as Alnwick Garden in NORTHUMBERLAND and restored sites, such as the MOORISH GARDENS of the Genaralife in the Alhambra, which have become major tourist destinations.

These intricate, horizontal configuarations seem ideal for viewing from above so it is intriguing to consider, back in the days before airtravel, exactly who they were designed for. Presumably, the privileged viewers were residing up in the castle.

Bringing this horticultural digression back on topic to the business of art (ahem), also featuring in the Discovery article are the Giverny gardens of one Claude Monet. This is where he cultivated fields of colour especially for painting, and later developed a watergarden, inspired by Japanese prints, where he created lily ponds. Bearing in mind this construction and controlling of nature specifically for use as art, I'm tempted to argue for Monet as the forefather of Land Art. Unfortunately, there are no impressionist fields of colour to be found HERE and a quick scout around nearby fields doesn't reveal any haystacks, but I will add these to my list of things to look out for.

Image: Claude Monet - Bassin aux Nympheas Harmonie Rose mug, from cafepress

Spanish Bombs

Given that a primary interest of Art From Space is to curate and explore art by appropriating images of existing phenomena via the digital assemblages of satellite photographs found on google maps, the second life of art works is something we pay a lot of attention to. Although the Mona Lisa is generally considered the world's most reproduced artwork, in Spain it seems that honour goes to Las Meninas by Spanish court painter Diego Velazquez. Despite our not venturing anywhere near Madrid, where the painting now resides at the Museo del Prado, we regularly encountered postcards, t-shirts, jigsaws, coffee cups and even mouse pads emblazoned with the popular work.

Testament to the importance of Las Meninas is the fact that, in 1957, Pablo Picasso produced numerous interpretations of the work, totalling 58 oils which he later gifted to Barcelona's Museo Picasso. Picasso is not the only one and the Museo Picasso currently has an exhibition of works by a long list of artists, all inspired by the same painting, including Salvador Dali, Richard Hamilton, Phillipe Comar's perspective analysis, and Eve Sussman's video re-enactment, which was recently shown at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Other derivatives were found on the streets of Spain including a grouping of three of the pictured sculptures by Manolo Valdes, just installed on CALLE ERCILLA in Bilbao but yet to appear on satellite view.

Another work we kept running into without having to visit Madrid was Picasso's Guernica, which also once resided at the Prado but is now at the Reiner Sofia, as overthenet have recently noted. This is probably not surprising given that we were in Basque territory where the work has inextricable links to the region and the staunch independence of the locals, who are unlikely to ever have it on home turf, even after the construction of a local Guggenheim franchise. In addition to the usual paraphenalia, we found this framed jigsaw puzzle hanging outside a games shop in the alleys of San Sebastian's old town.

It seemed fitting, then, that the last stop on our Spanish tour had fortuitously become a pilgrimage to the actual town of Guernica, officially known as Gernika-Lumo in Basque. It is interesting to consider the contribution Picasso's painting continues to make to international awareness of the blanket bombing of the town by German Luftwaffe pilots on behalf of Franco's Nationalist forces in 1937. Even so, the name now seems synonymous with the painting and the actual place has a more mythic quality to it. So walking through Gernika's streets, it is odd seeing signs that bear its name to proclaim such mundane things as the local podiatrist's clinic.

Not far from the church of Santa Maria, one of the only structures to survive the bombing, is the pictured ceramic-tiled reproduction of the painting - Guernica in Guernica. Just along the road in the other direction is another significant surviving location, the Tree of Guernica (Gernikako Arbola) a symbol of freedom under which the town's people and national officials have been meeting for centuries. Unfortunately, google's resolution doesn't quite let us see this sacred site, but I can't help wondering how much this AERIAL VIEW resembles what the German pilots saw 70 years ago. It is probably also worth noting that a bridge and ammunition factories, which were ostensibly the bomber's targets, survived the three-hour blitz.

Eight easy pieces for tourists

Art from Space is going on honeymoon for the next few weeks and will be back in August. We'll be visiting some of these places while we're away and will be introducing some new Art From Space contributors on our return. Until then, in no particular order, here's some virtual travelling for you:

Looking like a Martian landscape, ULURU, often referred to as Ayers Rock.

Not sure why but the STATUE OF LIBERTY was one of my first pieces of google travel several years ago.

I like a good shadow on google maps to provide an interesting perspective on primarily vertical structures that wouldn't otherwise be too interesting from above. The Thames almost looks like concrete and provides a great surface for sharp shadows, including this great anamorphic rendering of the LONDON EYE.

Responsible for putting the Spanish industrial town of Bilbao squarely on the traveller's map, here's Frank Gehry's GUGGENHEIM.

Originally built as a temporary structure for a world expo, perhaps explaining its daring style, the EIFFEL TOWER was originally hated by Parisians but is still going strong.

Given the usual marginalisation of contemporary art as an activity, I've always been puzzled by is the immense popularity of TATE MODERN, which is one of London's top tourist attractions. How often do the people visiting the Tate engage in the arts when they're at home, and why would they spend the hard-earned holiday time doing something that ordinarily doesn't interest them? Same goes for the LOUVRE, which is the first structure I've found so far that lets you see through a window.

On the Zambezi River on the border between Zambie and Zimbabwe, here is the VICTORIA FALLS, considered the largest waterfall not because of height or width but because it has the largest sheet of falling water.

Echoes from the sky

Since first seeing Disinformation's photos of them in the catalogue for David Toop's 2000 Sonic Boom exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, I've always been intrigued by the sound mirrors near Dungeness, and eager to visit if an opportunity ever arises. Meanwhile, they definitely warrant a GOOGLE VISIT. More are scattered around the South-east coast of England and were built from as early as 1914 to amplify listening ability to up to 20 miles. Intended to provide early warning of an aircraft attack, they were soon superceded by faster aircraft and radar. I see there has been talk of resurrecting these and, using new technology, building a counterpart in France - was this ever done?

Portable versions were also developed, including the fearsomely named Japanese War Tuba. There are some great images of the acoustic mirrors here, and more about sound weapons on the Stalker blog here, here and here. As Stalker notes, this kind of weaponry is still quite contemporary and rather scary. But could be fun in the hands of an artist though. I'd love to see (hear) focussed sound being projected from hot air balloons. Thanks to James Pinker, who alerted us to this latest development with rather insidious implications if put in the hands of unscrupulous marketing people. At least the crap cannon has been shown to be an urban myth!

The Sound of the Suburbs

This interesting one came over the Audio Foundation list a few days ago... The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (defra) have been recording towns and cities all over the UK to produce noise maps so you can see, and preserve, the quality of noise in your neighbourhood. The resultant maps are based entirely on the volume of roads, rail, airports and industry but, as this blogger has argued several times, the project makes the assumption that all noise annoys (apologies to Pete Shelley). Aside from the psychedelic surroundings, Buckingham Palace (see image, bottom left) is looking pretty tranquil. As noted in stalker's comments, the Schafers would be fascinated.

The China Syndrome

I've been doing a little reading about apocalypse movies in advance of next week's exhibition, The Swarm. Whether it's attacking insects, tomatoes, tidal waves or aliens, according to a text by Kim Newman, most of these films are a symptom of anxiety about the bomb. As Newman puts it The China Syndrome (1979) "takes its title from the facetious term for what would theoretically happen if a nuclear reactor went into meltdown - the plutonium would eat through the world and turn up in China."

I couldn't help thinking of Maddie Leach's Andalucía 2007 project earlier this year at Te Tuhi. With a little help from some contractors and bored.com, She dug a hole in the gallery courtyard and emerged in a Spanish olive grove. You can try it for yourself here by zooming into your chosen hole location and then clicking on the map. If LAKE TAUPO really had no bottom, you could swim to a strange looking island just out of CASA DE PERABAD, halfway between Seville and Madrid.

The China Syndrome is about a nuclear plant on THREE MILE ISLAND, Pennsylvania. According to bored.com's hole-digging service, a meltdown would actually leak through to HERE, in the ocean about 1000km south-west of Perth. So we're not so safe from nuclear catastrophe in the South Pacific after all.

Image: Maddie Leach, Andalucía (detail), 2007. Excavated hole (1m x 2m), earth, tarpaulin, fencing mesh and waratahs.