The Sky Below (or what you could see if you could see through the planet)

This piece is designed to give a sense of place, of being located at a single point on a sphere whirling perpetually in the void, through an awareness of the same moment in another place on the opposite side of the world.

 

Directly opposite the Torrance Art Museum is a spot of ocean, at coordinates -32.933655, 66.718253, about one thousand miles southeast of the island of Madagascar. This uninhabited spot is always in darkness as the TAM opens its doors to visitors.

 

In The Sky Below, a telescope is trained directly at the floor of the museum. Below the telescope a mechanism slowly advances a scrolling star map of the night sky as it would be seen in that same moment from the antipode, this spot on the other side of the world; this mechanism updates the star map daily to keep up a real-time image. Viewers can gaze at these stars through the telescope as the image is reflected and adjusted by the mechanism, positioning themselves, the planet, and the view from the other side for just that moment in just that place.