videostill of Blue Marble

Selected reworked imagery of the animation

Blue Marble
Duration: 3.20 minutes
Realised by: Marjolijn Dijkman and Visual Music

The "Katastrophen Alarm" exhibition examines media fabrications of this kind and the appropriation of environmental disasters by politics. Artists were invited to analyse the mechanisms used to convey a sense of danger and the visual presentation of catastrophes.

Exhibition: Katastrophen Alarm
Curated by: Sophie Goltz, Christine Heidemann, Anne Kersten, Vera Tollmann, Ingo Vetter / Architektur: Oliver Clemens, Sabine Horlitz
Participating artist: Dave Hullfish Bailey (USA), Margit Czenki / Christoph Schäfer (D), Christoph Draeger (USA/CH), Marjolijn Dijkman (NL), Azin Feizabadi / Kianoosh Vahabi (D/IR), Cornelia Hesse-Honegger (CH), René Lück (D), Eva Meyer Keller (D), Claudia Mucha (D), Lisi Raskin (USA), Lise Skou / Nis Rømer (DK), spector cut+paste (Markus Dreßen / Anne König / Jan Wenzel) (D), Andrei Ujica (D/RO), Ingo Vetter (SE/D)
Location: NGBK, Berlin, DE

Screenings video: NGBK, Berlin, DE / RAM Foundation Rotterdam, NL / Amsterdam Artfair, Amsterdam, NL

Published online at: www.AS17-148-22727.com

Blue Marble / AS17-148-22727.com

The first ‘Blue Marble’ photo was taken on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance of about 29,000 kilometers or about 18,000 statute miles. This image became one of the most widely distributed images in the world.

Blue Marble investigates the appropriations and impact of this image. Instead of a single neutral image of the whole world this animation reveals a collective image compiled of over 1500 images representing all sorts of projections on the world as a whole.

The photo (negative AS17-148-22727) was originally taken ‘upside down’ in that the north pole was at the bottom of the photo. This is because of the orientation in which the astronauts were traveling at that moment. Since its release it has been used by ecological movements to illustrate the 'fragile' position of the planet Earth.

Online publication: Blue Marble