THE GLOBAL GROUND TRUTH MONITORING SYSTEM - 1989
In 1989 Van Sant, “with associates from the scientific and art communities,” founded “the California Non-Profit Corporation Eyes on Earth for environmental research and education, and the GeoSphere Project for dissemination of the products and systems developed by Eyes on Earth. The GeoSphere products include the GeoSphere Image, the Earth Situation Room Network, the electronic Global Visual Library and the Global Ground-truth Monitoring System.” [1]
In this equation the Global Ground-truth Monitoring System was intended to complement satellite data by monitoring events on the ground. The System required participation from citizen-scientists around the world; an army of people to gather data about, for example, climate conditions and crop progress, that would contribute to and continually update the Global Visual Library.
Van Sant’s System gained little traction until he began working with Al Gore. The two men, who met c. 1989, shared an environmental vision in which digital communications and new technologies played a vital role. They planned, and Van Sant and his team designed, a system whereby school children and teachers around the world would function as “Ground-truth Monitors.” The plans did not come to pass however, and the Ground-truth Monitoring System never quite got off the ground.
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4411 East Gage Avenue, Bell City Library, Bell, CA 90201
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1960
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Marion J. Varner
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Natural stone, cork
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11 ft. x 12 ft
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Unknown
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Los Angeles County
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In situ and in good condition.
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TVS digital records.
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Also known as Twenty-Six Great Inventions, this work is part of the Los Angeles County Art Collection. After working in Italian glass for the mosaic Fire, Water and Earth (1957), his graduation piece for the Otis Art Institute of LA County, Van Sant began experimenting with natural stone and rock, including for the Tree of Life at the San Merino Congregational Church (1959).
Although he specialized “in police and detention facilities,” [2] Pasadena-based architect Marion J. Varner was also responsible for the Torrance Civic Center (1956).
[1] Bailie Oakes, Sculpting with the Environment: A Natural Dialogue, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1995, p. 251
[2] Marion Varner Obituary, Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2005
