CLOUD SAMPLE (2020) is a mapping series that utilizes a dataset of NASA “cloud fraction” satellite images as its source. The dataset spans precisely two decades, from 2000 to the present. Through the cartographic re-projections, mapping becomes a critical process in questioning its function as a colonial tool. Despite the scientific precision of the dataset, the re-projections inadvertently create surreal distortions and visual artifacts.
While at ZK/U, Kate will focus on translating the cloud maps over Berlin into drawing machines. The (drawing) machines parallel the absurd labor of satellites in perpetually documenting clouds. Further, she is interested in developing ideas on satellite images as archives, the choreography of machines in relation to Earth, and other speculative possibilities of mapping.