TASK - We are interested in the mission of the Earth Observatory, how these images get used in unexpected ways in culture at large, the E.O.’s relationship to the legacy of Earth imagery from space, and even a little about the design process of creating these images. effective data, and the art of designing an image to match what people expect versus designing an image that will change their minds. In this interview, Robert discusses true vs. under contract to NASA. He and his team are responsible for creating these images, which are often composites of astronaut photography and satellite sensory data. Robert Simmon is the art director of the Earth Observatory, and works for Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Some images, though, have become ubiquitous in our visual landscape, appearing in commercials, artworks, book covers, billboards, and even the background of your favorite touch-screen phones. These high-resolution files are precisely annotated and provided free to the public, intended primarily for educational usage. What started with a serendipitous snapshot, and possibly an LSD trip before that, has become the driving mission of NASA’s Earth Observatory (E.O.) today.Įxploring the Earth Observatory’s website may be the closest thing to holding a mirror up to the entire world in the depths of this massive archive, vividly colored and hyper-sharpened satellite imagery portray melting arctic glaciers bumping up against shots of urban expansion next to hurricane data and deforestation patterns. (A) Known as “Earthrise,” this photo was taken in a moment of unscripted curiosity, offering not only a view of ourselves, but a view of ourselves from the alien perspective of another world. Anders captured what has been called “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken,” an image of the Earth rising from behind the horizon of the moon. Two and a half years later, Apollo 8 astronaut William A. He was determined to broadcast this feeling, and called for a solution (in the form of a button), demanding, “Why haven’t we seen a photo of the whole earth?” This paranoia-tinged aphorism would lead to the creation of the Whole Earth Catalogue, a highly influential counterculture magazine that described the tools necessary to maintain a sustainable existence. The horizon sloped away from him on either side, buildings refused to stand parallel, and the flat-earth fallacy became viscerally apparent. In February of 1966, during an acid trip on a rooftop in San Francisco, Stewart Brand began contemplating the curvature of the Earth. This interview with Robert Simmon was originally published in Task Newsletter #2.
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