Michaela Gleave
The World Arrives at Night (Star Printer)
2014
Dot matrix printer, mini PC, custom computer program, fanfold paper, table
Programming: Michael Fitzgerald
Duration: infinite
Installation view: Melbourne Art Fair. Photograph: Michaela Gleave
The World Arrives at Night (Star Printer) continues the artist’s longstanding engagement with astronomy and the night sky as a site of enquiry. A collaboration between Gleave and astronomer Michael Fitzgerald, the work combines astronomical knowledge, geo-positioning technology and specially developed source code to chart the gradual rotation of the earth specific to its location. A dot matrix printer registers the appearance of stars over the horizon, printing key information such as the star’s common name, its constellation, spectral type, distance from the sun in lightyears, and magnitude, at a rate of one star per minute, theoretically for eternity. Over time, this incessant flow of data accumulates as a concertinaed pile on the floor, majestic trajectories of celestial movement compressed into plain typed records lost in a sea of paper. Synthesizing macrocosmic and microcosmic perspectives, The World Arrives at Night (Star Printer) helps us navigate the edges of experience by interrogating the structures and frameworks that shape our knowledge of the universe.
Text by Nina Miall