The power of representing reality given by smartphone cameras in our pockets is formidable; even considering only the sheer quantity of pictures we’re carrying with us (usually no less than a few thousands) we can clearly see how it’s inevitably affecting our memory with a remarkable artificial extension. But this extension should be also referred to major image repositories representing reality, like Google’s global mapping, especially in its Street View version, and of all the remaining coordinates in space that can be potentially shot by drones. Only the sky seems to be left. And, it’s exactly where “Picture Sky” by Karolina Sobecka, Christopher Baker and Ken Caldeira takes place. They’re trying to create a “a crowdsourced image of the sky”, triggering people to take pictures of the sky, but only during certain satellite flyovers, so that these pictures form a counter image of a satellite image. Conceptually they reach our upper limit, the highest point, invisible, but shared and collectively represented.

 

Tel Aviv Picture Sky