Eclipse, United States Environmental Protection AgencyEclipse is a project produced by the EPA that takes United States national and state park images on Flickr.com and altars and corrupts the images based on real-time data from the Air-Quality Index. The algorithms that are defined by this data appear as lines of saturation, color, and contrast over the face of image that are designed to represent levels of pollution in these areas based on the output of nearby cities.
Eclipse is a type of digital mapping project that involves both personal experience and political initiative. By using civilian imagery of these parks, drawn from the free and open Flickr website, visitors are exposed to images that are infinitely more identifiable to their own experience than government produced maps. By using these images to display their message and initiative, the EPA is working to involve ordinary people in a project that might otherwise be dismissed as propaganda. Like previous works I have looked at, this project showcases the overlap between art and science that is a major factor in many works of Digital or New Media artwork. The images produced may be considered "art" and can be analyzied for their visual impact, but the message lies in the scientific data that defines and creates these pieces. The issue of copywright and authorship is also present in this work for the fact that the EPA is using images that they have no claim over as a way of involving visitors on a more personal level, and for the fact that the pieces produced are not the result of any aesthic vision but are more a chart or graph overlayed onto a static image.
I believe this work showcases one of the more intreging aspects of New Media Art - where and how do we draw the line about what is art and what is just information and visual data? I'm not sure the EPA intended their project to be considered artwork, but they certainly appealed to that impulse in human nature as a way of drawing more users to their cause and creating a more stricking visual image that would hopefully motivate cititizens to become active in combatting pollution when they see it affecting their own personal view of the landscape.
Eclipse is a type of digital mapping project that involves both personal experience and political initiative. By using civilian imagery of these parks, drawn from the free and open Flickr website, visitors are exposed to images that are infinitely more identifiable to their own experience than government produced maps. By using these images to display their message and initiative, the EPA is working to involve ordinary people in a project that might otherwise be dismissed as propaganda. Like previous works I have looked at, this project showcases the overlap between art and science that is a major factor in many works of Digital or New Media artwork. The images produced may be considered "art" and can be analyzied for their visual impact, but the message lies in the scientific data that defines and creates these pieces. The issue of copywright and authorship is also present in this work for the fact that the EPA is using images that they have no claim over as a way of involving visitors on a more personal level, and for the fact that the pieces produced are not the result of any aesthic vision but are more a chart or graph overlayed onto a static image.
I believe this work showcases one of the more intreging aspects of New Media Art - where and how do we draw the line about what is art and what is just information and visual data? I'm not sure the EPA intended their project to be considered artwork, but they certainly appealed to that impulse in human nature as a way of drawing more users to their cause and creating a more stricking visual image that would hopefully motivate cititizens to become active in combatting pollution when they see it affecting their own personal view of the landscape.
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