My 1st Geoglyph

Going back to my ambition post from my blog in January of creating an image visible from outer space.  I decided to progress with my biggest project yet. Last wednesday 5th june I created my first large scale image called a Geoglyph. This is a large land based image traditional produced using materials from the earth such as rock or soil. A good example to the left would be 'The Nazca lines/ ant' from peru.

To create my Geoglyphic image I used a stencil aesthetic sand drawing at the beach in Lytham St Annes. The large open sandy beach and dunes were a great choice of location to create this work. The dunes would provide the elevation I needed to capture an areal view of the work. I planned how best to approach my image with my photo buddy Alex and also got Mrs Lansiquot to help us out. We worked on designs that we wanted to create on the day and equipped ourselves accordingly. Luckily the night before making the image, I discovered a photo of Tom Bolland using a rake to make a sand drawing that he was working on. Rakes was something which I had over looked but ideal to have for my itinerary of tools for my Geoglyphic image.

On the day we had narrowed the designs down to just one peace hand gesture stencil. This design was the most important to make as its one that I have originally envisioned for my final master image. We also selected our design based on its balance of complexity to produce. It was not too basic or too hard to achieve. However like all my great plans it was another of these ideas that was a lot harder than first thought. It took three people to produce. We fell into natural roles such as art director and technicians. We worked out the best way to transfer our design from paper to sand by a system of delegation and a giant dot-to-dot joining method. Raking away dry top sand and digging out the lines and markers required lots of physical effort. The intention was to fill the positive space of the hand with wet sand to create a solid image rather than an outline. But this proved a mammoth physical and time consuming task, that we were not willing to commit too. Especially as this image was a first attempt at producing a geoglyph. I felt that it was preferred but not necessary for this attempt. I have attached a video taken from the day so that you can see us working on the image.

When the image was finally completed I was glad to see it finished. I was so grateful to both Alex's for helping out. Without their help I don't think I would have been able to achieve the picture. Looking at the final outcome I think that it is questionable that It looks like a peace hand gesture. It may be because we had made the hand too wide or the angle that it could be viewed from was too shallow. However I am still proud of this Geoglyph. Its magnificent. It is a symbolic first step towards the huge undertaking of creating a picture visible from outer space. Creating this project feels like I'm part of a NASA program trying to launch a rocket into space. Metaphorically speaking, achieving this ultimate goal is like building prototype test rockets that eventually succeed through trial and error, through learning and developing from each new prototype built. This in effect is my first prototype that I must learn from and develop into something bigger and better. "I will achieve my goal of making an image that can be viewed from outer space".

Below are the pics I took from my geoglyphic shoot. These pictures may not have existed had I not have remembered to ensure that the memory card was actually in the camera. I almost walked away after creating this work without any pictures. DOH! Amateur mistake. In my defense I was sharing one card between two cameras. I will have to get myself another memory card.