July 5, 2005
cosmolog : final entry
From the air, it's easy to see that something was once there, in the park, near the pond. A circle of grass, slightly elevated, a patch of dark soil in the middle, a tender scar. The grass will be cut, the soil will reseed itself but there will remain a delicate trace, if you look carefully enough.
Having dismantled "The Centre of the Universe", the concluding work from the residency, onearthasinheaven, takes the form of a book, on display in the Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, and a website, part of the day to day data exhibition ( from July 20th 2005).
Finally, thanks to everyone who has helped make the last two years such a wonderful experience !
Bye bye !
July 4, 2005
July 3, 2005
last day on earth
Tomorrow is the 4th July. You know what that means.
1. Deep Impact : unbeknown to the innocent comet, Tempel 1, it is about to have a head on collision with a NASA impactor, parked in its path. Boom.
2. The Centre of the Universe is being dismantled. Crash.
July 2, 2005
they came from the stars . . .
. . . well, from all points of the compass at any rate. Thanks to everyone who came to visit (except for the shit head who stole my amplifier and the twat who tore up one of the visitors books) . . .
June 26, 2005
Paul Bennuns Eyeball
Funny how the cutting edge of technology can look like something dug up from the dust of an archive. Paul Bennun shot this on his new mobile phone.
The soundtrack is a meteor storm recorded at the same time, 48.25 MHz.
Click on the image to play the movie.
June 25, 2005
"what's he building in there ? "
A cube, a cone, a sphere.
The shed, the tower, the dish.
I've been living in the shed, for three weeks now, from the sub zero nights of early June to the transient mid summer heat wave and back again. Once more it's cold, the wind from the north.
A lot of people don't realise that there is a connection, that the dish actually does pick up a signal, that the shed is not simply a random accumulation of wood and nails, but a room in which the signal is received, converted to sound and line, drawn by a mechanical hand.
How they don't realise, I don't know. Left unattended I turn the sound up to maximum volume, tone controls rolled to their peak. Shutting the door, it becomes a giant speaker box, walls vibrating, a rocket shed, roaring cosmic surf.
Look through the window and you'll see the chart recorder inscribing its endless line, the oscilloscope trace, drawings, books, coal, pine cones, a broom, chairs, table . . . . "what's he building in there ?!"
The signal passes from the spiral antenna on the dish, down meters of coax,into the receiver and out to the sound system. I'm on my second pair of speakers and amplifier. The full frequency noise of the universe destroyed the originals within days. The audio signal is accompanied by the rattling pen of the chart recorder, like a spirit hand from the other side.
Having made the ground breaking discovery that the sun, at 25.55 MHz, is at maximum strength during the middle of the day, through observing the rise and fall of the signal trace, I started to loop the chart paper.
Endless gyres, overwriting, obliterating, abnihilating any pretence of analysis, the chart recorder is transformed into an automatic drawing machine, the universe the invisible hand.
I experiment with different techniques; speed of rotation, nib, colour, signal and duration. Slowly a collection of drawings grows.
The days have a rhythm, an ebb and flow. The early morning flurry of dog walkers and runners, the mid morning lull, lunchtime rush hour, sleepy afternoon and the early evening peak. At night it's peaceful, save the occasional interuption, nocturnal ramblers looking for a tower to climb, a sleeper to wake.
Time passes, people come and go. I live in the shed, in The Centre of the Universe.
June 24, 2005
panoramic
Two panoramic movies can be found at http://www.seeoxford.com/centreoftheuniverse/default.htm, courtesy of Karl Harrison.
June 23, 2005
June 19, 2005
June 15, 2005
June 14, 2005
June 13, 2005
June 12, 2005
circumnavigation of a point in space
Marc Thomas suggested making an animation such as this . . .
click on image to play . . .
June 11, 2005
rotation around a star on a spinning planet
click on images to play . . . requires QuickTime 6+
