Artist Turns Volcano Into Naked-Eye Observatory

An anonymous reader writes "Unlike most Bond villains, 70-year-old James Turrell has turned a 389,000-year-old extinct volcano into something other than a secret hideout; he's turned it into a naked-eye observatory. From the article: 'Inside, the crater's naturally lit viewing rooms are precision-engineered to observe specific celestial events. While outside, Turrell has reformed the rim of the crater to create a beautiful "vaulting effect" of the sky in a way that we almost never see it. "I'm very interested in how we perceive, because that's how we construct the reality in which we live," Turrell says, "and I like to tweak that a little bit. I make structures that arrest and apprehend light for our perception."'"

Comments

"Unlike most Bond villains"

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor sentence structure here. Is he a Bond villain? Is he not? We need to know, surely.

Re:"Unlike most Bond villains"

[Anonymous Coward]

My demands!? My demands!? Hahaha, Mr Bond. Surely you jest!

I demand that we should sit quietly together and contemplate creation, and yes, be good to each other and... I think that on the whole that pretty much covers it, when you really get down to it.

Oh yes, yes. Sorry I forgot HAHAHAHA AND THEN YOU DIE

Re:"Unlike most Bond villains"

[K. S. Kyosuke]

You can argue that it makes no strict inference, but 'unlike most X, X2 is...' is in common vernacular as a way to introduce a fact about X2 that subsets it within X, does it not?

I think the term you looking for is "English pragmatics". Of course, that's the stuff you won't find in the parse tree.

(Although, perversely, reliably constructing a parse tree for a natural language sentence without understanding pragmatics is often impossible even if the resulting parse tree won't contain it, it's probably not the case here - you can't parse it just fine; however, only pragmatics will tell you that "unlike most Bond villains" could imply that it could refer to Turrell as well.)

Re:"Unlike most Bond villains"

[LiavK]

I saw him speak several years ago. He came across as one of the most humble, thoughtful, engaged, humorous people I've ever met. Great cover for a Bond villain.

I clicked "Caldera"

[John.Banister]

under "Property Features" in the Realtor.com, but nothing ever turned up. I wonder what an extinct volcano went for in 1979.

James Turrell is on the donation drive again

[Deluvianvortex]

Roden Crater has been 'closed' for quite some time. Previously, the only way to get in was to drive into the hills, backpack about ten miles from the nearest road, approach on a new moon at midnight, and blend into the construction crews as they arrive in the morning to get them to give you a tour of what they're building (they like giving tours). That, or donate about a million dollars to the project. Then you can shake Mr. Turrell's hand and have him fawn over you like you're some golden child (which you just might as well be if you're forking over that kind of dough for what amounts to being a science museum) I don't think its ever actually going to open. If it did, it wouldn't last long, and I'm betting that Turrell, like every other major artist, has realized if they just pander to the rich, their art can stand the test of time (especially considering all this is, is just environmental art). So why is Mr. Turrell talking about something he has no intention of having the wider world to know about? Because he needs money. He's basically just begging. confession: I am a BFA

Re:James Turrell is on the donation drive again

[Deluvianvortex]

No, you'll get arrested for trespassing if you do that these days. He is asking for money, he doesn't care about the poor, or the rich, he just wants to 'finish' his pet project before he dies. He cares about money, but only because otherwise he wouldn't be able to do this.

Saw it on TV

[braindrainbahrain]

I saw a preview of what the artist has done with the volcano on the TV series "Sculpture Diaries". BTW, I don't know why they are calling this an "observatory". It really is an art piece (depending on you view of what is art).

I'd visit it if I could.

For deep crater action Liamuiga is the place.

[TheRealHocusLocus]

I'm not sure what's going on in the article, it seems more of an artsy-fartsy place than really rugged volcano-ey belly of the beast thingy. If you are looking to trek up, over and down into a hopefully-extinct volcano will take your breath away, that is accessible and is not overrun by tourists and access roads, here's the place:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=17.369741&lon=-62.80873&z=14.2&r=0&src=yh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Liamuiga
http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=2174
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147374-d147557-r157740414-Mount_Liamuiga-St_Kitts_St_Kitts_and_Nevis.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/18/travel/climbing-a-st-kitts-volcano.html

Here's my suggestion: plan a night in the crater. Everyone should be in decent shape. The hike up the mountain is not too demanding and even pleasant if you make a 4-5 hour trek of it. Take at least 1-1/2 gallon drinking water per person, compact food for a couple good meals, mosquito repellent and light tents for shelter from bugs and rain. There is a lake in the crater that you might find drinkable. I did, it was the most delicious water I have ever tasted. Make sure everything is carried on your backs or can dangle comfortably, you will need both hands and feet for the final ~400' climb down into and out of the crater. It will be a careful scramble using both hands to cling to tree roots as you face the hillside and lower yourself, there are short lengths of rope left by previous climbers. Bring 50-100' of rope to use if existing ropes are in bad condition and to leave for future adventurers. It is rigorous but I do not recall that any part of the decent as terrifyingly vertical or overhanging.

Once you're down in the crater set up camp. There are a few active fumaroles along the rim, in places you can see faint steam rising and there is a faint odor of sulfur but the crater has good air circulation within it. As a common sense precaution site your camp on high ground within the crater, and if you are particularly nerdy you can bring a gas detector to check for H2S but it's probably not a big deal.

Regardless of the weather you will be in a place like no other and will consider yourself grateful to be alive. Framed by the circular crater rim's cliffs above you a sharp celestial bowl of stars might roll above you, untainted by light pollution. Or perhaps a light rain punctuated by echoing thunder and circle of lightning along the sharp peaks of the rim.

If you camp overnight have at least one good hands-free head mounted flashlight in the group in case of emergency, for someone would need to climb up to the crater's rim to call for help. Volcanic craters tend to have bad cellphone reception.

It is a little known fact that compatible and like-minded individuals are implicitly married as they descend into the crater of hopefully-extinct volcanoes so there is no need for pomp or ceremony. Just get on with it.

Sure he's an artist

[93 Escort Wagon]

With the exception of Dr. No, I seem to recall pretty much every Bond villain played some other role to the outside world. Wealthy industrialist, media mogul, Prime Minister, horse breeder, philanthropist... So why not an artist?

Sky looks different down there?

[yawaramin]

Is it true that from the bottom of a deep well (or a volcano as the case may be) the sky looks darker and you can see stars in broad daylight?