[HN Gopher] Roden Crater
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       Roden Crater
        
       Author : DanielKehoe
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2021-05-14 23:27 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rodencrater.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rodencrater.com)
        
       | jazzyjackson wrote:
       | If you prefer a narrative (+lots of pictures) I found out about
       | Rosen Crator when I walked by Smithsonian magazine at the
       | library, here's the article an an excerpt
       | 
       | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/james-turrell-vi...
       | 
       | "One of the tunnels that Turrell has completed is 854 feet long.
       | When the moon passes overhead, its light streams down the tunnel,
       | refracting through a six-foot-diameter lens and projecting an
       | image of the moon onto an eight-foot-high disk of white marble
       | below. The work is built to align most perfectly during the Major
       | Lunar Standstill every 18.61 years. The next occurrence will be
       | in April 2025."
        
       | bsenftner wrote:
       | Roden Crater is the life work of James Turrell, a sculptor whose
       | medium is light - he creates visible immaterial objects by
       | constructing spaces that bounce and reflect light to create
       | unreal spaces and objects. It used to be common for people to
       | fall into his installations because they could not sense the
       | boundary between their observer space and the art.
       | 
       | I first become aware of James Turrell when a 3D graphics
       | researcher during the late 80's. His work and creating 3D
       | renderers capable of simulating his art was an inspiration.
       | 
       | Side tangent: his writing about his art is the inspiration for
       | the "Tyrell" character in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"
       | (BladeRunner novel). I remember reading that in a PKD interview.
        
       | owyn wrote:
       | I have seen a few installations of his work and they are really
       | amazing to see in person. His work really messes with your
       | perceptions in the best way.
        
       | jakeva wrote:
       | This looks like a structure you'd find on a planet in The Outer
       | Wilds
        
       | crystalball909 wrote:
       | really uninspiring and unworthy website for something like the
       | roden crater. even in the state its in right now, the website
       | feels buggy. from the interface hijacking the scrolling, to the
       | way the videos switch to a still image when you scroll down, it
       | just feels broken, boring, and feels like it was put together in
       | a hurry, and doesn't make me think 'wow i want to see what this
       | is all about.' sad, because it would have been interesting to
       | have seen something captivating that would have complimented
       | james turrell's work.
        
         | dvh wrote:
         | Yes, broken scrolling and failure to tell me what it is made me
         | hate it.
        
       | greatgoat420 wrote:
       | This seems like a very interesting project, but the website kinda
       | reads like a mad-person wrote it with the bizarre(to me) rhetoric
       | about space and time and somewhat poor quality 3-D renderings.
       | Clearly a lot of people are interested and invested in this
       | project and making this space. Could anyone give a good
       | explanation of what this project is/where this fits in modern
       | art/science exploration?
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | It is a naked-eye observatory built in the cinder cone of a
         | volcano. A place very far from light pollution where you can
         | stand in a comfortable place and look up to behold the heavens.
         | James Turell's pieces are all about the feeling of being in an
         | "other" sort of plane, so you can expect a lot of trippy rooms
         | inside the facility that will make you question what it means
         | to exist. Or that's what happened to me inside of one of his
         | pieces, anyway.
        
           | greatgoat420 wrote:
           | Thank you for this very nice response, that does sound more
           | interesting!
        
       | stuhood wrote:
       | The Long Now [10,000 Year Clock](https://longnow.org/clock/) is
       | another interesting exercise in patience and long term thinking,
       | high in the desert.
        
       | paulsutter wrote:
       | In 2001 I actually drove to Roden Crater on back roads using
       | paper USGS maps and following the dotted lines. I entered through
       | the back entrance, and drove to the top of the crater. As I was
       | driving down a pickup truck was approaching, and there was only
       | one route down.
       | 
       | It was James Turrell. He was none too happy. I apologized, and
       | drove out. My architect girlfriend was livid with me for days
        
         | snypher wrote:
         | I'm glad you made this trip. People shouldn't own places like
         | this, let alone have the hubris to dig a million yards of rock
         | out of it and then say _you_ are trespassing.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-15 23:02 UTC)