Exhibition

Fields of Industry Studio Technogeographies 02.02.2024 - 18.02.2024 | Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium

Cloud Archaeology

By Elin Aspfors and Weronika Grec

Since the Blue Marble, images of Earth have evolved from a single-perspective snapshot to a complex, browsable map. Based on satellite and aerial imagery, services like Google Maps offer a seemingly cloud-free, daylit view of the world. In reality, the atmosphere is a shifting sea of clouds, a vital part of our planet’s ecosystem. This new image is made possible by computed processes such as cloud masking.

Cloud Archaeology reimagines satellite imagery creation to include time and cloud cover. Clouds are outlined and extracted by hand from Landsat 8 data, reconstructed as layered maps revealing the superposition of time. The usually discarded clouds are rescued as artifactual images where meteorological phenomena and ground are combined.



2023