an·a·lem·ma ˌa-nə-ˈle-mə: a plot or graph in the shape of a figure eight that shows the position of the sun in the sky at a given time of day (such as noon) at one specific locale measured throughout the year.
Supported by an L.L. Stewart Fellowship through the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts, video artist Julia Oldham is visiting long-term collaborator Dr. Christopher Still as an artist-in-residence at Oregon State University. Julia has been exploring how she might incorporate PhenoCam imagery in her art, and how the image time series might be used to generate soundscapes as well. After meeting another long-term collaborator, Dr. David Bowling (University of Utah), at the recent AmeriFlux meeting, Julia combed the PhenoCam image archive to find sites with with just the right shadow geometry so that the analemma would be traced out on the ground. Using imagery from the SEGA Arboretum Meadow site, Julia developed the video below. “There are so many beautiful PhenoCam sites — what an amazing resource for seeing place and time and transformation,” Julia wrote.
Just another example of the irresistible intersection of science and art!