The Earth is An Image
→Ground Station Series
→The Earth is An Image (online), M+ Museum, 2022
Web-based generative visual audio
2020
Digital Work
M+ Museum Digital Commission
An antenna installed in Hong Kong captures the radio signals of three retired satellites that pass over the city approximately four times a day. Despite becoming obsolete two decades ago, these satellites are still dutifully orbiting and transmitting data back to Earth. The satellites’ FM radio signals and climate images are converted into an audiovisual experience of rhythmic sounds, ethereal cloud-forms, and glitchy echoes that are live-streamed online. Alongside this digital composition, a dialogue unfolds between a satellite and someone on the ground, telling the story of orbiting metal bodies that are stranded eight hundred kilometres from Earth. When the satellites are outside the antenna’s reception zone, The Earth is an Image tracks their movements and displays their altitudes and coordinates.
In a poetic enquiry into the lifespan of satellites, Liu not only examines advances in satellite broadcasting, but also provides an alternative experience of distance and space, illustrating the complex relationship between human and non-human life forms.
Credit
Artist: Xin Liu
Visual Design: Yidong Cai
Website: Qianlin, Che-yu Wu, Power Nap Studio
Hardware: Gershon Dublon, slow immediate LLC
Project Assistant: Yuhan Song
Special thanks to The Hong Kong Amateur Radio Transmitting Society for their contribution to the installation and maintenance of the antenna.