During the September, 2024 Ameriflux conference, fluxArt resident Julia Oldham connected with Dr. Dave Bowling (University of Utah) while presenting video work in a poster session. Dr. David Bowling and Dr. Andrew Richardson (Northern Arizona University) were interested in tracking an analemma shape using PhenoCam imagery, and invited Julia to help with the project. An analemma is a figure eight shape that can be observed by photographing the sun from the exact same location at the exact same time every day for a year. The inverse of this shape can be observed by tracing a shadow in the same way.
“I pored over thousands of PhenoCam photos, looking for a site where I could identify a shadow that stayed in the image frame all year long. With guidance from Dr. Richardson about what types of sites might be most useful to examine, I discovered a shadow that I could trace throughout the year at the Southwest Experimental Garden Array in Flagstaff, AZ (segaarboretum10). After compiling a 9:30 AM timelapse video of one year of Phenocam images, I hand-traced the shadow using animation software and my drawing tablet to visualize the analemma. To create sound for the video, I sonified a drawing of all of the points that made up the analemma shape. – Julia Oldham