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The
approach may be a difficult one; there are no roads nearby. The first signposts would be ominous
wire-wrapped circles punctured into the ground that may contain the electrical discharge
of lightning. The perfect circle, non-existent in nature in this case hints at the dangers
of closure of the intellectual process, similar to what pioneers such as Galileo and
Copernicus once faced. The above ground wires hum along and refer one to the complex on
the eroding landscape.
wax pencil, silver pen on tarpaper
©1999 Luke Andritsos
The planets are
observed by means of a 500 m diameter porous radio dish in the form of taught and porous
concentric cables, as wide as the amplitude received would allow (3 m).. As this
paraboloidal instrument is stationary, it requires the assistance of two other mobile
reflectors to refocus incoming radio circles to the receiver. An interesting reversal
would occur when these tertiary reflectors are repositioned to focus the light emitted
from the night sky to spotlight a performance in the hanging vertigo
theater.
The gnomon-like "Galileo Stair" casts its shadow upon the spiraling increments tunneling into the ground, (elliptical in configuration to reflect first nation peoples’ attitudes towards platonic shapes) allowing for the hour to be revealed to the observer, acting as a giant sundial. The mechanical devices include massive plumb-bobs that counter-balance the secondary and tertiary receiver rings of the radio dish. The magnetic forces generated between the earth’s poles imperceptibly tug at the suspended mass, thereby marking on the ground the actual day of the year. The monthly configuration of the secondary receiver ring is adjusted by means of the receiver’s motors that track celestial bodies in space. As the earth’s position varies relative to these bodies according to the calendar month, the ring also moves, framing within its webbing the corresponding constellation of the Zodiac. The viewing location for this frame of reference is upon the open Galileo Stair, the gaze aligned tangentially along the hypotenuse. The constellations are further referenced whilst in the diagonal tunnel system, joining the upper planetary observatory to the subterranean sub-atomic one. An array of 2 m wide vent holes are drilled precisely between the ceiling of the tunnel and the ground plane permitting the billion year old light of the corresponding stellar system to probe deep into the ground and intermingle with the million year old rock. The goal here is an ethereal light, brightest through its corresponding passage. Also, the waning of the night into day will be sensed below ground through this aperture system via various ocular effects. The project would also configure to the seasons themselves; a hanging "building" or oversized elevator completes the adjacent "vertical city" and moves in accord with the receiver rings by means of a counterweighted pulley system. The winter months would see this complex at its highest point, allowing for beneficial solar gain to infiltrate through the galleries within. The summer would see this "building" buried deeper to skirt the sun’s hot unwelcome rays.
wax pencil, silver pen on tarpaper
©1999 Luke Andritsos
Two km below is where
the Micro Observatory is situated. Here all sense of time is
obliterated and even abstracted: it would operate in decade-long runs of "cat and
mouse," searching inwardly, globally from all angles in quest
of the unknown, that, when found would light
up the darkness if only for a moment.
yesterday’s
metaphysics is today’s physics
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