Edited into a tight compositional pattern, the images of Skyvelære#3 show sequences of similar activities and gestures repeated by a range of people working on a range of instruments. Mounted on solar trackers that continually point towards the sun, the instruments are pyrheliometers, a cavity-based device for measuring solar irradiation. The activities of tuning the instruments, verifying their position, counting, reading their data and in other ways observing carefully while adjusting them, are carried out in a concentrated and dedicated manner in rhythmic patterns that are emphasized through the compositional editing of the video.
The video portrays a specific viewpoint through a specific approach for observing the world; the scientific procedure of calibration of instruments to the international standard for measuring solar irradiation during The 11th International Pyrheliometer Comparison Event (IPC-XI) that took place in Davos, Switzerland in September and October 2010 (figure 69). 85 meteorologists and metrologists (scientific measurers) from 45 different countries came together for three weeks at the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos/World Radiation Center to calibrate their own nations’ pyrheliometers in accordance with this standard.
The video portrays and reflects on the informal aspects of producing knowledge, such as gestures and performance, as seen in relation to formal structures, such as rhythms and reference points. While making the work I was concerned with contrasting non-determined processes, which I considered as noise, and form. This interest developed into a consideration of the relationship between formal knowledge and personal gesture.
See an excerpt of the video here.