2016
Video
26:34
Read The Light from the Horizon, by Silver Carlsson
The Distance to the Horizon documents a journey at sea undertaken in an attempt to understand the curvature of the Earth through direct physical experience. On the open ocean, the visible distance to the horizon is limited by the curvature of the Earth. The destination of the journey is the horizon line visible from its point of departure. Using a mathematical formula based on height above sea level and the Earth’s radius, it is possible to estimate the distance to the horizon and the duration of the voyage required to reach it.
The visible horizon is influenced by factors such as the movement of the sea surface and atmospheric refraction, making it impossible for the model to fully coincide with physical experience. The work reflects on how mathematical abstractions of natural phenomena necessarily remain approximations, while the continually receding horizon in the film points toward the impossibility of fully reconciling scientific abstraction with physical experience.
