Aerial Landscapes
Visibility
One of the striking things about the Mine Water Treatment Sites is their visibility, but not usually from the ground, as despite the intensity of the colours the sites themselves are usually hidden behind fences, off tracks, along relatively inaccessible stretches of land - but from above through Google Earth they are clearly discernible, sometimes from many kilometres ‘up’. I have found the sites on Google Maps on my iphone, if the site can’t be found by its nearest post code, then I pull over to zoom out and up to see where I am, and where the site is.
Cuthill 55°50 59.82 N 3°36 34.65 W 513m
Saltburn 54°34 07.37 N 0°57 42.87 W 1130m
Deerplay Hill 53°44 07.95 N 2°12 10.84 W. 1460m
Six Bells 51°43 33.56 N 3°07 58.63 W 638m 
Tan-y-Garn 51° 46 10.01 N 3° 59 05.93 W 418mVanishing Point
The satellite images of the earth that have helped construct these journeys have become part of the imagination of these landscapes. Seeing; finding the site from above and arriving on the ground by van, walking and digging out buckets of ochre sludge from the settling lagoons: Perception of these colours/places is partly shaped by Google Earth - I see the colour through the satellite’s eye. How to separate these different images; from above, from the ground and from underground.
Link
Flat Time House (FTHo) website: http://flattimeho.org.uk/events/aerial-landscapes/
