• 01

    Planetary cinema

  • 02:00
    King Mongkut of Siam with Western astronomers and their guests in Wa Ko village, southern Thailand. Telescopes were brought, with an observatory built to observe the total eclipse of the sun on 18th of August 1868.King Mongkut of Siam with Western astronomers and their guests in Wa Ko village, southern Thailand. Telescopes were brought, with an observatory built to observe the total eclipse of the sun on 18th of August 1868.
    King Mongkut of Siam with Western astronomers and their guests in Wa Ko village, southern Thailand. Telescopes were brought, with an observatory built to observe the total eclipse of the sun on 18th of August 1868.
  • 04:45
    Beijing Ancient Observatory depicted in <em>The Book of Ser Marco Polo</em>, Henri Cordier (1920), Bibliotheka Zikawei, Shanghai. Image: Geocinema
    Beijing Ancient Observatory depicted in The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Henri Cordier (1920), Bibliotheka Zikawei, Shanghai. Image: Geocinema
  • 07:05
    Scientists viewing a model for the Sputnik during the International Geophysical Year Conference (1957–58) taken by photographer Howard Sochurek. <em>Program Earth</em>, Jennifer Gabrys (2016).
    Scientists viewing a model for the Sputnik during the International Geophysical Year Conference (1957–58) taken by photographer Howard Sochurek. Program Earth, Jennifer Gabrys (2016).
02:00Image of King Mongkut and party viewing a solar eclipse on the 18 August (1868)
04:45Image of Beijing Ancient Observatory, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Henri Cordier (1920)
07:05Image of Sputnik at the International Geophysical Year Conference, Howard Sochurek (1957)
01Planetary cinema
10:20Situated in the Miyun Satellite Ground Station, China
10:45Quote from Maya Deren’s An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film (1946)
12:32Solveig Suess speaks from the Miyun Satellite Ground Station, China
13:27Reference to Xiao Liu’s Information Fantasies (2019)
13:36Asia Bazdyrieva speaks on the desire to see
13:46Reference to Geoffrey C. Bowker’s “All Together Now” (2014)
14:01Reference to Edward Malecki & Hu Wei’s A Wired World (2018)
02Optic nerves and their time
14:45Definition from OED Online
14:50Situated in the Institute for Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
16:00In conversation with Professor Li, Digital Belt and Road Working Group, Beijing, China
16:30Reference to Digital Earth from the Digital Belt and Road project
16:50Asia and Solveig speak from inside the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
03The algorithm
19:20Situated in the 3rd Digital Belt and Road conference, Tengchong, China
19:50In conversation with UN Environment representative, Alexandre Caldas, Tengchong, China
22:35Reference to the International Geophysical Year (1957–58)
22:46Situated in the ‘Cradle of Remote Sensing’, Tengchong, China
23:06In conversation with media theorist, Jussi Parikka (2019)
23:23Reference to Jussi Parikka, “Infrascapes for Media Archaeographers” (2019)
23:46Asia Bazdyrieva speaks from the volcanic fields, Tengchong, China
04The earth is so big big like a watermelon
26:20Passing the Bang Sue Grand Station, Bangkok, Thailand
26:51Solveig & Asia speak on the construction made under the Belt & Road Initiative
28:50Solveig & Asia speak from inside the Sri Racha Satellite Ground Station, Thailand
05Calibration
33:00In conversation with ecologist Sergey Kostarev, Omsk, Russia (2018)
33:16Reference to ecologist Sergey Kostarev, Omsk, Russia (2018)
33:36Situated in Gazprom’s techno-park, Omsk, Russia
33:56Reference to Gazprom’s digital framework for Arctic logistics (2018)
34:30With a trainee of Gazprom’s risk management programme, Omsk, Russia
34:55With Andrea Marinoni, Earth Observation department, Arctic University of Norway
06The future forecast
35:22In conversation with a taxi driver in Beijing, China (2019)
36:50Reference to William Doberck’s ”Instructions for Meteorological Observation Prepared for Use in China” (1887)
37:11Sketch of the August 18th, 1868 Solar Eclipse by Captain Bullock (1900) & M. Stephan (1868)
07Cinematic circles

Making of Earths acts as an investigative documentary into large-scale systems and infrastructures amid growing ecological and political anxieties. Eclipse The film begins inside a cinema-globe situated at the center of the 中国科学院 Chinese Academy of Sciences, and then enters the  the 卫星地面站密云 Miyun and สถานีดาวเทียมภาคพื้นศรีราชา Sri Racha ground stations,  the มหาวิทยาลัยรามคำแหง climate research center of Bangkok,  conference halls in the 腾冲火山带 Tengchong volcanic district,  and the risk-management rooms of oil conglomerate Газпром нефть Gazprom in Omsk, Russia. Eclipse Under the guise of environmental protection, representatives of nation-states, international organizations, and scientific bodies gather in search of an alternative geopolitical model, eager to cooperate with  数字丝路 China’s Digital Belt and Road. Eclipse Through the documentary’s disorientating gaze, tensions are held between distance and intimacy, totalities and fragmentations, pasts and present-futures of the Earth. Eclipse

Footnotes to the Making of Earths

The online screening of Making of Earths is footnoted with personal field-notes, references and informative accounts taken during Asia Bazdyrieva and Solveig Suess’s year-long, documentary-led research into ‘Geocinema’- the data infrastructures of the Belt and Road and their cinematic feedback loops. Organised through 7 chapters, the footnotes are visible as phases of the eclipse, clickable on the screen's leftside bar.

Credits

Geocinema

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