Satellite of Love #9
Louise Robson, Tim Foster, Dan Streat, Jess Rotherham
In 1945 Arthur C. Clarke proposed using space satellites for global communications. Using Isaac Newton’s numbers, he calculated the farther out you could get a satellite, the slower its orbit around the Earth would be. At one point, about 26,100 miles from the centre of the Earth, the satellite's orbit is exactly 24 hours, the same as the Earth's rotation. Beaming radio waves down from space to message the ones you love seemed like science fiction then, but his idea instigated the smart phone communications revolution we are all connected to today. In this building, Wigan based artist Louise Robson explores the revolutionary numbers which have transformed how we use public space and the direct impact this is having on our town centre here in The Galleries.
#9 is a generative data visualisation capturing the decline in footfall at The Galleries in Wigan. Since the centre opened, visitors have been counted by devices placed at each gate creating a wealth of data. Transforming this data into a visual, network-like form, we witness it grow, morph, and eventually shrink. From the centre moving clockwise, daily visitors are recorded. Louise illustrates the interconnectedness of our environments. Everything exists symbiotically. Now, with the emergence of online shopping, these networks of activity are not disappearing, but are moving to exist in an entirely immaterial, digital realm.
In 2019, The Fire Within Manifesto focuses on Wigan’s Future Artists. 10 young artists from Wigan School of the Arts worked with AL and AL on a series of social media meditations.
Tim Foster recently lit Wigan and Leigh streets in the dead of night, like invisible data waves of communication heading up to orbiting Satellites as we all send and receive messages on social media. The empty Streets glow with the internet traffic that is streaming.
AL and AL’s Binary neon is written in Alan Turing’s computer language of Binary Code. The artists’ neon says the words ‘I LOVE YOU’, 3 words sent and received digitally every second of every day.
The illuminated manuscripts by Dan Streat capture Emoji communications between the designer and AL and AL as they created The Fire Within Manifesto, seen here with Dan Streat’s collection of The Left Book Club. A series of publications of which The Road to Wigan Pier became the most famous and inspired the Manifesto design.
Everybody says, “Google it”, here is Google Maps of all the Satellites orbiting the Earth to make our searches possible.
