Heidi Neilson imagines 12 orbits, beginning and ending in Esch. Each loop takes a different direction around the world and is inspired by the unique character of the path travelled – from the point of view of an orbiting body tuning into multiple radio frequencies simultaneously, listening to the sounds of the earth from the ground and into space.
Orbits is framed by the time that a low-orbiting satellite takes to make a complete circuit around our planet. The 22-hour work is comprised of 12 segments, each an imagined orbit, and each beginning and ending in Esch. Each orbital loop takes a different direction around the world and is inspired by the unique character of the path traveled, from the point of view of an orbiting body which can tune into multiple radio frequencies simultaneously and listen to the sounds of the earth, from the ground and into space.
The program begins in Orbit 1 with the past—a tour through the history of the transmission soundscape from satellites in earth’s orbit—and then commences with chapters roughly coinciding with circadian rhythms from the point of view of Esch. The orbit that intersects the end of Esch’s workday concerns the commute (Orbit 3), followed by an orbit touching on the astronaut's exercise regimen (Orbit 4). Late at night in Esch, we find some sleep in the quiet car (Orbit 9), and in the early morning arise to wake up songs curated by Mission Control-Houston (Orbit 10).
In between are more ambient orbits: 2, 5, 7, and 8 are framed by terrestrial broadcast radio stations, listening to the radio below our orbital path, as if the earth is a giant spherical phonographic record, and we the orbiting body are the needle. Each minute covers about 445 kilometers, and we hear multiple stations at a time, catching regional language and sensibility shifts minute to minute. The vastness of areas uninhabited by people—particularly the oceans and poles—becomes apparent as long stretches of time without radio station programming. In these areas, we tune into field recordings from land and sea.
Orbits 11 and 12 take the points of view of different weather satellites and explore data and the process of the collection as a material and method for audio expression. Orbit 11: GRB-RGB uses image swaths across earth’s equator and “reads” them as audio, following the scanning path that the satellite imaging instrument takes as it creates a composite of the Earth’s full hemisphere. In Orbit 12: Weather transcription, we hear the audio of a low-earth-orbiting weather satellite’s continuous transmission of image data of the earth passing beneath it and hear the transcription of what some of that data conveys.
Heidi Neilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between people on the ground and off-planet conditions and infrastructure. She works in multiple mediums including radio transmissions, sound, prints, books, sculpture, electronics, and video. She is currently co-operating HereGOES Radiotelescope, a sculptural receiving station for the GRB transmission from GOES-16, a NOAA weather satellite, and mining the volumes of earth observation and space weather data collected by the station for a variety of projects. Other recent work includes Moon Arrow, a mechanical sculpture which continually points at the moon, and Sonic Planetarium, an immersive sound installation made from recordings of orbiting satellites. Born in Oregon, USA, Heidi Neilson received a BA in biology from Reed College and an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute, and lives and works in New York City. Her ham radiocall sign is KD2ESI.