Nicola Rae/UKMON (UK Meteor Observation Network)
Nicola Rae
Meteor Sightings Reframed
Online archives, including citizen science projects, have increasingly informed and become part of my art practice. Working with shared data as a ‘commons’ has become a way to engage with scientific observational archives as well as the citizen-science movement.
The films in this installation were recorded by a community of ‘amateur astronomers’ called UKMON (UK Meteor Observation Network). With over 150 cameras networked across the UK, they operate using open-source software on the Raspberry Pi 4. This community engages in collaborative teamwork to triangulate where meteors have fallen, as well as the open sharing of data.
UKMON's films have been reframed by being back projected onto weathered aluminium portholes salvaged from a WWII concrete minesweeper in Essex, throwing images forwards and backward within the space. The installation continually shifts focus between porthole screens, allowing the transitory appearances of meteors and fireballs to retain an unpredictability of presence and trajectory.