Govan is Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.That's from "He’s the Last Great Land Artist You’ve Never Heard of/Charles Ross spent 50 years building 'Star Axis,' a naked-eye observatory in New Mexico. Now his masterwork is ready. How to share it with a changed world?" (NYT).That's a gift link, and henceforth all NYT links will be gift links. Just yesterday, I was describing the effort of conserving gift links, with only 10 permitted each month, and this morning I wake up to find the new policy is unlimited gift links:
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20 comments:
Looks to me as if Meadehouse is headed to NM with a stop in Omaha with dinner at the Drover or Johnny's Cafe.
THIS is why I come to the Althouse blog. What a concept. What a vision and mission. Truly breathtaking, beautiful. Thanks.
Love this.
Ann, If there are truly unlimited gift links, there was a teaser for a recipe last week for Creamy Tuscan Chicken that looked really good, if you don't mind...
Stop doxxing, begs
Reminds me a bit of the installations of James Turrell. They can only be appreciated in the flesh.
I remember the days back in the 80s -- the 1880s -- when the Great Land Art Barons strode the earth. If one town got a Spiral Jetty, it's neighbor needed to get a Lightning Field or it would be as if the railroad had by-passed it.
What happens when the Earth's axis shifts, and no longer points to Polaris? That does happen, you know.
Looks like a very enduring passion.
Interesting question, Joe:
**The shift happens because of a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, which takes roughly 26,000 years to complete a full cycle. Because of this, the celestial north pole continually sweeps across different stars.Here is what the timeline of our changing "North Star" looks like:
2100 CE: Polaris reaches its nearest and most precise point to the celestial north pole.
4000 CE: The star Alrai (Gamma Cephei) takes over as the closest bright star to the pole.
10,000 CE: The incredibly bright star Deneb will serve as the North Star.
14,000 CE: Vega will become the designated North Star, just as it was roughly 14,000 years ago.
27,800 CE: The cycle completes, and Polaris will reclaim its status as the North Star once again**
I just looked at the pictures without reading the article, It's very impressive. On the plus side, it's in a rural area outside of the blast zone of the next nuclear war. Future generations will look at it in an expanse of sand and marvel at our greatness.
Looking at the other works in the cohort, I would have to say this is head & shoulders the most impressive and artistically inspired, and also the one with a singular spiritual connection from the earth to the stars. I would like to see it, when it's completed.
There is some discussion of axis precession in the article. Apparently, the circle will accommodate Polaris's position for thousands of years.
"10,000 CE: The incredibly bright star Deneb will serve as the North Star.
14,000 CE: Vega will become the designated North Star, just as it was roughly 14,000 years ago."
Vega is quite a bit brighter than Deneb. 3.3 times brighter.
Vega, in fact, is the reference star for the entire magnitude system. It is defined to be magnitude zero (though it gets a bit technical, because you have to specify which spectral band you're using to measure brightness).
Star Axis is also the name of Graham Platner's proposed space program.
Also one of Jon Butcher's side projects, sometimes heard on Music from the Hearts of Space. CC, JSM
Now let's talk about Reflect Orbital, a company which plans, over the next decade, on putting 50,000 mirrors, each brighter than the planet Venus, into low earth orbit.
Jeez, if it were not for crazy people there would not be nearly enough worthless shit lying around all over the place.
Give me Stonehenge, I prefer classical art.
Lots of art-focused blogs today. I'd be delighted to experience this work but probably never will get the chance. I have a vague memory that in the past you blogged about De Maria's Lightning Field. Haven't been able to experience that one either. I wonder if it's nearby this one.
Impressive
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