Earth as Art
December 3, 2002 9:42 PM   Subscribe

Planet Earth as abstract art Hot on the heels of Geology from Space and Earth Erotica comes this exhibit honoring the 30th anniversary of the Landsat satellite progam. 41 images from space - chosen for "artistic appeal" over scientific significance - include glaciers, deserts and Karman vortices. Some are even poignant.
posted by mediareport (16 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
omg. Some of these are amazing. Actually, most of them are amazing.

To be honest, I haven't found a non-amazing one yet, but I'll keep looking.
posted by jeffj at 12:01 AM on December 4, 2002


Wowie. Good--no, wait, I'll go all out--great stuff.

It's amazing to see such enormous versions of natural patterms we see every day. The Karman vortices, for instance, are just like the little whirlpools a canoe paddle makes. It renews my faith in the laws of physics.
posted by hippugeek at 12:05 AM on December 4, 2002


I keep expecting to see the mandelbrot set hidden somewhere.
posted by jeffj at 12:35 AM on December 4, 2002


Thanks mediareport - I saw the news story about this exhibit earlier, but didn't know there was an online component - very cool stuff. I can't get over the Icefall one. [Warning, self-link ahead, sort of] If you want to browse more beautiful photos of Earth from space, I have a collection of 125 here. The photos obviously aren't mine, just the collection, chosen subjectively.
posted by kokogiak at 12:38 AM on December 4, 2002


Great stuff. I'm thinking this one might be used for evidence of aliens though.
posted by BigCalm at 1:27 AM on December 4, 2002


Wonderful in the true sense of wonder. I felt a child again, looking for hidden shapes in the clouds, feeling tiny but somehow, as in that Ray Bradbury story, in charge. Great post, mediareport - so great they built it a modest companion-piece. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:42 AM on December 4, 2002


I will chip in my two cents and concur that this is a great post.

I think these have been posted before, but terraexplorer and earthviewer are remarkable as well.
posted by hama7 at 3:24 AM on December 4, 2002


I ? space photography.
posted by Fabulon7 at 6:02 AM on December 4, 2002


It's kinda hard to go wrong with space photography, isn't it? Thanks, kokogiak, for the great collection; you did at least as good a job as the "experts" - better, actually. And I really like your viewing hints.

I'll deal with you later, Miguel. ;)
posted by mediareport at 7:21 AM on December 4, 2002


I ? space photography. I usually ? it when I think it might be spying on me.
posted by wobh at 10:42 AM on December 4, 2002


A couple more favorites, both from Iran: Zagros Mountains and Mand River (amazing angular mountain geometry here, nice colors) and the swirled Great Salt Desert.

The colors are obviously not "true." Can anyone here clearly explain what relation the colors we see in the more realistic cases (like my first link here) have to "nature"? (Some of the others, like the "optimist" have purposely used other representational schemes--infrared?)
posted by Zurishaddai at 10:57 AM on December 4, 2002


My daily surf always takes me to the NASA Earth Observatory. They put up one awesome picture a day, usually updating around 2:00pm Pacific.
posted by hammurderer at 11:45 AM on December 4, 2002


Beautiful. And all I can add is this link to geo-imagery ties. They were made by an apparel company and a geo-informatics company. (I do some work with the latter, but no, I don't stand to profit here; it's just a somewhat cheesy novelty!)
posted by micropublishery at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2002


Just found a new favorite by going through the hi-res close-ups one by one: Mayn River in Siberia). The detail that doesn't appear in the thumbnail and is just amazing.
posted by mediareport at 1:25 PM on December 4, 2002


Note to self: Do not attempt to post while taking a message over the phone.
posted by mediareport at 3:28 PM on December 4, 2002


I downloaded the screen saver. I find this feature very creepy : It dials up and connects to the internet for updated images--all on its own. I'm uninstalling it.
posted by y2karl at 10:03 AM on December 23, 2002


« Older Bearpath Gated Community.   |   Panoramic 360° Photos Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments