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The nocturnal dervive began at this imposing satellite ,the giant monolith was disarming. Its known locally as Arthur or GHY1.
GHY1 beamed Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon to a global audience as well as making the transmission of large musical events to the world possible.
What are you sensing? what non-human entities are you sharing radio waves to communicate with?.
The large edifice which became obsolete decades ago however is still maintained. I have shared strange moments at night with the circular listening ear to the stars, witnessing it becoming suddenly illuminated for brief durations. I am wondering if its intergalactic sensing capabilities are becoming more than just latent possibilities?. The future plans will hopefully secure GHY1 otherworldly legacy upgrading the antenna for radio astronomy as part of e-Merlin, the UK's National Radio Telescope Interferometer at Jodrell Bank Observatory. Will GHY1 reach far beyond our solar system and human perception? helping us understand more about the formation of stars enabling observation of other galaxies and study black holes. -
The prehistoric Dry Tree Menhir stands next to Goonhilly Satellite Station, strange sonic oscillations and acoustic vibrations create harmonic droning in the air. The dish Guinevere is visible to the left of the stone, visiting the site several times and each time a different view of the dish is visible as it moves tracking, tracing and communicating.
A strange confluence of time juxtaposing the ancient early bronze age stone a well preserved ceremonial and marker to map space the solar system, to the high technology of the engineered structure of the satellite looming in the background. The uses and origins are bound up in folklore and mystery. Its presence is undeniable its makes you pause and contemplate the rich and rare red data book list plant species surrounding it on Goohilly downs. It evokes a time beyond anthropocentric capitalist time ,displacing the human, disintegrating hierarchies and allowing other worlds of possibilities introducing the realm of deep time. -
Goonhilly provides access to all types of satellite from commercial geostationary communications satellites to low earth orbit (LEO) earth observation (EO) satellites, from the International Space Station to lunar and deep space communications.
A myriad of antennas operate in all space frequency bands including VHF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, Ka as well as higher frequency experimental bands.
Exploring the non human, the extra-terrestrial ,unknown forms and processes, expanding our limited human perception beyond the electromagnetic spectrum and frequencies and into a unknown sonic vibrational language. What sound waves are you emitting? Who are you communicating with. What latent mysterious possibilities are embedded in your concrete grandeur?
Goonhilly and its heavy satellites grounded on the granite serpentine strata are a base for space related AI and deep learning. The earth station brings together a large network of scientists. Out of view fenced in beyond the rare heathland is a Institute housing a state-of-the-art GPU-enabled data centre with the latest high-performance GPU solutions and equivalent to Tier 3-4 standard. Goonhilly is quietly preparing and mapping its AI Journey in this unassuming hard to locate site. -
Reaching out your earth bound branches sensing and detecting light and gravity. Antenna like branches sensory appendages communicating with the cosmic dust. Gathering light, staying stable in the wind, adapting in the unforgiving serpentine microclimate. How I can learn from you my arboreal elder.
Intermittently plunged into terrestrial darkness I relish the pauses between the time the engineers illuminate the satellites. Immersion into a nocturnal sonic landscape all-encompassing my senses, tuned into a unfamiliar vibrational field. A sense of connectedness came over me as I listened sitting under the burnt lights of dying planets filling the night sky.
A image of the night sky compresses the space time continuum of trillions of kilometres onto its flat two dimensional surface like a botanical sample pressed onto card–a coexistence of light and time. Gazing into the black void punctured with a sea of stars and planets, and of course GPS satellites . A portal into the past, going into the realm of look-back times. Because of the finite speed of light, when you gaze up into the night sky, you are looking into the past. The bright star Sirius is 8.6 light years away. That means the light hitting your eye tonight has been traveling for 8.6 years. When you look at Sirius, you see it as it was 8.6 years ago.
As you look at more distant objects, the effect becomes bigger and bigger. The stars of the Big Dipper range from 60 to 125 light years away. When you look at Dubhe, the front star in the “bowl” of the Dipper, you are seeing light from before you were born. I marvel how a single image can contain such profound compression of time.
