Antipodes (www.antipodes.uk.com), 2013
Antipodes was launched on the Northward Equinox 2013, as a constantly updating online artwork which captured webcam images from places on exact opposite sides of the globe. The website placed these antipodal webcams side-by-side to allow viewers to simultaneously view live footage from locations as far away from each other as it is possible to be. These paired places were watched by the website unblinkingly, for exactly one year.
The webcams featured in Antipodes were selected from an immense global collection that constantly monitors various conditions and activities. The cameras, all streaming their content publically, and unaware of their temporary 'hijacking' for inclusion in the project, observe traffic congestion, weather conditions, surf swell, active volcanos, ports, beaches, tourist destinations, national parks and even remote polar research stations. Each webcam was located on land, narrowing down the available pool of cameras to those located on just 4% of the earth's surface where land is antipodal to land.
Paired by subject matter as well as geographic location, these distant webcam 'twins' often have surprising affinities. Through their pairing, visual similarities emerge where we might expect harsh disjuncture. Placed side-by-side horizons captured on opposite sides of the planet appear to conjoin, and other topographical echoes in the landscape and its architecture become apparent. The pulse of traffic jams, tides and weather systems on one side of the planet is often reflected in the imagery of its partner. The pairing of two active volcanos – Volcán Tungurahua in Ecuador and Gunung Sinabung in Indonesia – resulted in imagery showing simultaneous eruptions.
The website captured images seventy-two times per day from over forty pairs of webcams worldwide, incrementally building up a database of over two million captured images by its first birthday. As well as viewing the webcams live, it was also possible to scroll back through the database of captured images and study the rhythms of the earth over the course of a year – the daily rise and fall of light, the lunar pulsing of the tides, and the shifts in seasons. Sometimes webcams unexpectedly change their view; become obscured by rain, ice, flies or volcanic ash; or went offline. If a connection with a webcam pair was permanently lost, a timelapse video was created from the archived stills. New camera pairs were added throughout the year, providing an ever-changing assortment of live images and creating a project that was constantly regenerated with new content.
From 2014 - 2019 the website remained online as an archive of images. Antipodes.uk.com is currently nonoperational.
The Antipodes project evolved to include other physical and digital works created from the collected data. In addition to the time-lapse videos, a series of photographic prints were created from the continuous flow of images captured by the website and five unique drawings depicting antipodal geographies were created for the artist's solo exhibitions at Spacex, Exeter and Pheonix, Leicester, UK. Additionally, an installation of live webcam feeds displayed on ten paired monitors was created for the exhibition at Phoenix.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, in association with Spacex.