BEHIND THE HORIZON, 2010

I am sitting on the beach and I keep a yardstick in front of me, parallel with the horizon. They say that the earth is round and I want to verify whether this is true. But either my yardstick is too short or the earth is not round enough.
Ief Spincemaille, childhood memory

In Behind the Horizon, Ief Spincemaille aims to visualise the curvature of the Earth. On 14 May 2010, Spincemaille, together with 285 volunteers, went to the beach of Ostend, Belgium, carrying a giant yardstick with them. The stick’s middle point was resting on the ground. Five kilometers to the left and five kilometers to the right of this centre the stick was already rising 229 cm above the Earth’s surface.

Twenty metres of images stitched together make for a comprehensible image of the Earth’s curvature over a distance of 10,8 km. 

Ief Spincemaille (B)
°1976, Leuven

Ief Spincemaille is a Belgian visual artist, living and working in Leuven. His practice varies from photography and video to installations, using a diverse range of materials depending on the concept at hand. Since 2006, he’s also active as an independent set designer. Spincemaille graduated as a master in Philosophy from the KU Leuven, and studied jazz, modern music, and music and technology at the L'aula de Musica in Barcelona. Together with Kurt d'Haeseleer, he coordinates the organisation Werktank, a production platform for media art since 2010.