For those who missed the event at the beach this week, there’s one last opportunity to see Jessica MacMillan’s Time Line. We will be outside the old aurora research station in Adventdalen on Sunday 5 December from 16:00
As the project is still weather dependent we may need to reschedule.
This area is outside of the polar bear safety zone so please take responsibility for your own safety.
Artica resident Jessica MacMillan invites the Longyearbyen community to this one-of-a-kind short term public project. Drawing a line of light in the sky, Time Line marks the exact direction our solar system is moving within the wider universe.
What will Svalbard be like—what will our world be like—down this line? The future, by its nature, is something we cannot see or know. While this is no new phenomenon, uncertainty about the future of our home world has come to define this moment we live in.
This line of light is a visualisation of our actual timeline. We can look in the direction of our travel and see our future take an unexpected form, as a thin path laid out before us. This project is site-specific to Svalbard, as in 2019 Jessica took part in a two-week residency in Ny-Ålesund where she witnessed first hand the atmospheric research techniques used by two observatories: AWIPEV’s Koldewey Aerosol Raman Lidar (KARL) and Kartverket’s Geodetic Earth Observatory. Time Line brings together the visuals and concepts of these two observatories: KARLS’s monumental green laser that appears to extend infinitely into space, and the planetary focus of Kartverket’s geodetic research.
Supported by Arts Council Norway and the Norwegian Visual Artists Fund
About the artist:
Jessica MacMillan (b. 1987, New Hampshire, USA) is an artist and amateur astronomer based in Oslo, Norway. Through kinetic sculpture, 3D animation, and installation, MacMillan's work investigates concepts in astronomy and planetary science. Using optical instruments, geophysical orientation, and ordinary found objects, she focuses on bridging the gap between our everyday lived experience and the context that contains us: on a tiny and fragile planet, in a massive solar system, within a galaxy among billions.
Jessica has been nominated by our key partner Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) for a residency at Artica Svalbard.