N SKY C

Mike Bodge

N SKY C. 2011.
Digital media.
Courtesy of the artist.

In June 2011, New York City-based artist Mike Bodge launched the website NSKYC.com, a visual record of the average sky color outside his office window. Bodge designed a web camera to photograph the sky every five minutes, and wrote a computer program to process this information. The program averages pixel colors from the photos, and compiles them into a grid which updates in real time. Transforming raw data into potent color, Bodge elevates the ordinary fluctuations of the sky to the status of art, and prompts us to reconsider the array of blues, grays, oranges and rare pinks which constitute a normal day. This particular camera observes the ceaseless, subtle changes of the Gambier sky, recording its familiar transitions in a compilation of arresting breadth.

Hanna Washburn ‘14