The (text-rotate-z:14)[comet] is (link-reveal: "like a coin")[: a head and tail without a body.]
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Like a (cycling-link: bind $a, "flame of a match just struck, it's a mess of chemical reactions in movement.", "plummet into water, bubbles of air rising upwards: it's dangerous and beautiful.")
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<center>
<img src="images/comet tail.jpg"
alt="a closeup of the tail of the sculpture of a comet, made with wire. it is suspended in the air, diving towards the ground on a diagonal."
width="500px">
</center>
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It is static, (cycling-link: bind $static, "like electricity: sparking and crackling.", "still and stoic.")
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It's a latticework. [[[A web.->network]]]
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In 1959, the Explorer 6 satellite sent back the very first picture of Earth from the outside: a blurred and mostly imperceptible image of the Pacific Ocean and its cloud cover.
In 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photo of Earth as seen from the moon. But only a portion of the Earth can be seen; the rest is blanketed in shadow. Grainy and imperfect, it is lined with noise and still very, very beautiful.
In 1972, the first image of Earth in its entirety, a //Blue Marble// swirling with clouds. Here, the sun was perfectly positioned behind the Apollo 17 crew who snapped the image, bathing the sphere in light and revealing each detail of its surface from one side.
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In just 13 years, Earth pulled into focus. And then–
</p>
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<p><p>(set:_t to 0)And then (live:4s)+(transition-depart:"dissolve")[(set:_t to it+1)(nth:_t, "raging storms on the surface of planets", "stars, twinkling in the distance", "swirling nebuli", "comets flinging through space", "selfies from robot rovers", "solar systems being born", "ancient resevoirs on Mars", "the shining expanse of the universe"). ]
<p>(text-style:'blur')[[But–->obfuscation]]</p></p></p></p></p></p>
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{
<img src="images/explorer62.png"
alt="blurred image of a pale streak across a dark sky"
width="370px"
onmouseover="this.src='images/explorer6.jpeg';"
onmouseout="this.src='images/explorer62.png';"/>
<img src="images/earthrise3.png"
alt="an image of Earth, only partially visible from the light of the sun, taken from the surface of the moon. The ground of the moon can be seen taking up the foreground of the shot." width="370px"
onmouseover="this.src='images/earthrise4.png';"
onmouseout="this.src='images/earthrise3.png';"/>
<img src="images/bluemarble2.png"
<alt="an image of Earth, fully in view. It is "upside down", with the North pole seen on the south end of the Earth."
width="370px"
onmouseover="this.src='images/bluemarble.png';"
onmouseout="this.src='images/bluemarble2.png';"/>}
<p>
<center>
###(text-rotate-z:10)[''comet'']
click to continue
</center>{
</p>
<p align="center">
}
<img src="images/comet.jpg"
alt="a sculpture of a comet, made with wire. it is suspended in the air, diving towards the ground on a diagonal."
width="800px">
</p>
(click-goto:?page, "comet")
I can't help but see this structure as something digital. On its (link-reveal: "head")[ – where the copper wire has begun to oxidise –] the wire is tightly organised, forming a tessalation of triangles.
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<center>
<img src="images/comet head.jpg"
alt="a closeup of the tail of the sculpture of a comet, made with wire. it is suspended in the air, diving towards the ground on a diagonal."
width="500px">
</center>
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I think of low poly videogame scenes, made of a mesh of polygons which make up a 3D image. (click: ?page)[== Typically, these low poly graphics are used when the system the videogame is run on lacks computing power.(click: ?page)[== The less computing power, the lower the polygon count, so that the frame rate is optimised.
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On the comet's head, there's a smattering of rings. They're spread out, yet connected by wires, like fibreoptic cables.
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I think of the underwater cables that run along the seafloor, dozens of countries and many millions of people depending on them for internet connection.
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I think about how fragile the internet really is. (click: "fragile")[Like copper wire, it can age or be bent, snapped, or cut. Whole countries experiencing hours-long internet blackouts. It happens all the [[[time.->the future]]]]
In Bronwyn Oliver's // Comet//, time has been suspended: past and future visually entangled together into one.
Because the comet is tail and head without body. It is
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past
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and
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future
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but never present.
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<center>
###END