Planet Earth is Blue

Interpreting Commander Hadfield's Photographs of Earth Taken From the International Space Station

Abstract

Planet Earth is Blue: reinterpreting Commander Hadfield’s images of Earth taken from the International Space Station, investigates drawing and written language in relation to current acts of representation and interpretation. Through undertaking a series of drawn reinterpretations of images of earth, the author attempts to visually describe that which she sees in the images while asking whether (or not) a drawing may convey an idea to an audience more precisely than words. In this practical process issues related to ways of seeing and interpreting in particular Pareidolia, Apophenia, Dyslexic Visual Literacy and Visualcy are investigated. The images examined in this paper were sourced and responded to through social media (Twitter), and although this author recognizes the significance of Twitter’s contemporary theatre of exchange, this is not an in-depth investigation into social media issues. Rather this paper intends to address contemporary imaging and how new points of view (earth viewed from space and technical advances in visual imaging), might impact contemporary ways of seeing and perceiving.