Contest makes Earth a canvas

A Geographic Information Systems committee is now accepting entries for the third annual Earth as Art contest in celebration of GIS Day on Nov. 18.

This year the contest, open to the general public, will allow multimedia entries for the first time, said Anna Radue, co-chair of the planning committee for GIS Day.

“People can be as creative as they want,” she said. “They can include videos, songs, anything they can think of.”

Examples of multimedia works from Austin, Texas, can be found on IU’s GIS Day Web site.

The first year the contest was limited to the IU community, Radue said. Last year it was changed to include the general public.

A three-member committee will judge the Earth as Art contest entries, Radue said. The deadline to enter is Nov. 16.

IU’s contest is based on the Earth as Art Gallery, an online gallery sponsored by the U.S. Geologic Survey and NASA, Radue said.

The U.S. Geologic Survey is a national center that wanted to introduce the general public to satellite images, Radue said.

“The satellite images are unique,” she said. “The site has a lot of unusual pictures that the staff has identified.”

Satellite images have been collected and admired by the USGS staff more than 35 years, said Ron Beck, program information specialist in the Land Remote Sensing Program for the USGS.

Members of the USGS chose 40 of their favorite images and took them to an art museum, Beck said. After the first set’s success, he said they developed a second set of 40 images that was distributed around the country.

All 80 images can now be found on the Earth as Art Gallery Web site, Beck said.
Anyone can download and use the images without restriction.

“We’re talking about a third set,” he said. “We have four and a half million scenes from which to choose.”

The images are popular with elementary school students as well as other members of the public because they are a way of explaining geology, Beck said.

“You look at the landforms and see how beautiful the planet really is despite the pollution,” he said. “You’re learning more about the planet rather than simply looking at pretty pictures.”

Kaj Johnson, assistant professor of Geological Sciences, said the contest increases public awareness about available satellite technology and how it can benefit scientific activities.

“It’s clearly a fun way to expose students to the technology they otherwise might not be aware was out there,” he said.

See http://gisday.indiana.edu/poster or http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html