1980 - 1989
PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER EXHIBITION POSTER, C. 1980
VAN SANT SHOWS A PROTOTYPE MIRROR STATION TO TOM FEYNMAN, C. 1980
VAN SANT AND SOME OF THE REFLECTIONS FROM EARTH TEAM IN SHADOW MOUNTAIN, C. 1980
TOM AND RYAN VAN SANT, C. APRIL 1982
VAN SANT PREPARING TO FLY HIS SHOWSTOPPER KITE, JACOB’S LADDER, AT THE SECOND SKY ART CONFERENCE, LINZ, AUSTRIA, C. 1982
VAN SANT AND COLLEAGUES CALIBRATE THE MIRRORS FOR DESERT SUN, ALABAMA HILLS, CA, C. 1986
EYES ON EARTH FROM SPACE, SCREENSHOT, C. 1986
“A SPECIFIC PROPOSAL FOR NOAA DATE,” A GLIMPSE INTO VAN WARREN’S NOTEBOOK, C. 1988
VAN SANT AND VAN WARREN WITH THE STARDENT, C. 1989
VAN SANT’S “RED, CARPETED, HIPPIE VAN,” C. 1980
THE GODDESS OF DEMOCRACY IN TRANSIT, C. 1989
VAN WARREN AND VAN SANT IN FRONT OF THE BACK HOUSE IN WHICH THEY COMPLETED THE GEOSPHERE IMAGE
FEBRUARY 26, 1980: TVS and Lisa Pumpelly exhibit their work at the Pacific Design Center, LA, CA
1980: TVS buys property in Oak Creek, Independence, CA.
MARCH 27-30, 1980: TVS participates in California 101, a conference sponsored by the CA Council of AIA, where he flies Jacobs Ladder.
JUNE 11, 1980: TVS and team complete Reflections from Earth, proof of concept for the Birthday Cake Proposal. It is the first of the three works that he names Space Trilogy, and which earned him the title ‘father of Space Art.’
SUMMER 1980: TVS meets Otto Piene, director of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) who coined the term “sky art” to describe his work, and CAVS fellow Elizabeth Goldring. Van Sant, Goldring, and Piene become friends and collaborators and TVS becomes a significant participant in the Sky Art movement.
DECEMBER 9, 1980–APRIL 1, 1981: LA’s Craft & Folk Art Museum exhibits TVS’s “Flying Sculpture.”
1981: Artist Lisa Pumpelly marries Tom Van Sant.
JUNE 18, 1981: TVSS and Rose Marie Rabin, a founder of “Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility,” speak on Controlling Nuclear Arms at the AIA Chapter Office, Pacific Design Center.
JUNE 19-21, 1981: TVS flies his Kites for Milwaukee’s Lakefront Festival of Arts, with kite artists Tal Streeter, Andrew Jones, and Ray Merry.
SEPTEMBER 25-29, 1981: TVS presents his work at the first SKY ART Conference at MIT. The Reflections from Earth image is reproduced on the conference catalog cover. The piece “created ongoing speculation about the possibility of a global event in which the mirror station images of artists would be picked up simultaneously by satellite.” [1]
1981-1983: TVS becomes a fellow at MIT’s CAVS.
DECEMBER 21, 1981: Ryan, son of Lisa Pumpelly and Tom Van Sant, is born.
APRIL 1, 1982: TVS makes Ryan’s Eye, “the world's smallest manmade image.”
1982: TVS makes Desert Dreams for the Wells Fargo Bank headquarters.
1982: TVS makes Birds of Passage for Warmington Plaza, Santa Ana, CA
SUMMER 1982: TVS and “Dick” Feynman visit CERN, Switzerland. The Director gave them an impromptu tour of the facility, which included a costly experiment designed to prove Feynman’s “charge-change theory.” TVS notes that Feynman responded teasingly: “You don’t trust me?” [2]
SEPTEMBER 1982: Tom Van Sant and Lisa Pumpelly attend the 2nd SKY ART Conference, which occurs in conjunction with Ars Electronica, in Linz, Austria. They demonstrate kites and Tom makes a presentation about his satellite work.
DECEMBER 31, 1982: At the 14th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc., the corporation resolved to enter contracts with “Warmington Project, Aerospace Corporation, and Wells Fargo Bank.” [3]
FEBRUARY 23, 1983: Richard Feynman gives his seminal presentation Infinitesimal Machinery at JPL, Pasadena, CA, in which he speaks at length about Reflections from Earth (1980) and Ryan’s Eye (1982).
JUNE 1983: Otto Piene and Elizabeth Goldring visit Van Sant at Oak Creek Road to assess the potential of the nearby Alabama Hills as a site for environmental sky works.
SEPTEMBER 1983: TVS attends the 3rd SKY ART Conference in Munich where discussion turns to a large sky artwork collaboration. The artists sketch a proposal for what will become Desert Sun/Desert Moon, for which Van Sant makes Desert Sun (1986).
DECEMBER 31, 1983: At the 15th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc., the corporation resolved to enter contracts with “King Vidor and Liliuokalani Gardens.” [4] In addition, Tony Sheets retired from directorship.
1984: TVS makes Silent Form for Pereira’s Thomas Bradley Terminal at LAX.
1984: TVS makes Birds of Prey for the William Allen residence, Utah.
SEPTEMBER 24, 1984: TVS’s stepfather, Larry E. Shephard, dies.
OCTOBER 10, 1984: TVS speaks on Public Art, Private Art, Festival Art, and Therapeutic Art in the Humanities Auditorium of Scripps College, Claremont.
DECEMBER 31, 1984: At the 16th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc., the corporation resolved to enter contracts with “Eldorado, L.A. Airport, Smith-Williams, Allen Residence, and Cincinnati Center.” [5]
1985: TVS makes Portrait of King Vidor for the Directors Guild of America.
“To me…art is whatever needs to be done and not just things you like to do.” Van Sant [6]
1985: TVS “reenacts the 1980 event in Shadow Mountains with the Japanese T.V. company that filmed the Reflections from Earth project.” [7]
APRIL 1, 1985: Engineer and computer graphics specialist L. Van Warren starts work at JPL, Pasadena, CA. Although he does not meet TVS until 1989, Van Warren and his work at JPL are crucial to The GeoSphere Image, for which he will become Technical Director in 1989.
JUNE 2, 1985: Van Sant’s work features in the 4-person exhibition Space Art/Art Espace at Galerie Alain Audio, Paris, France; alongside Pierre Conte, Joseph Mac Shane, and Jean Marc Phillipe.
AUGUST 1985: Van Sant uses his kites to decorate "Flights of Fantasy," a benefit for Laguna Beach College of Art. Each guest receives a copy of his serigraph Yes Bird.
OCTOBER 19-NOVEMBER 16, 1985: Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, presents a solo exhibition of Van Sant’s paintings and drawings.
NOVEMBER 13, 1985: William L. Pereira, Van Sant’s friend and colleague of more than 23-years, dies.
DECEMBER 31, 1985: At the 17th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc., the corporation resolved to enter contracts for “sculptured murals for the Paul Briles residence,” and “enter Eyes on Earth space project for Los Angeles Pacific Design Center and Sport Aid Earth for Global Media Production.” In addition, Merritt Van Sant and Jane A. Fischer retire as director and secretary, leaving “Tom Van Sant…as the sole director and chairman, CEO, President, and secretary of Tom Van Sant, Inc.” [8]
1985-1986: TVS becomes a fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS)
1986:TVS makes Sea Form for the Paul Briles residence, Playa del Rey, California, CA.
1986: The CA Museum Of Science & Industry (now the CA Science Center) presents an exhibition of TVS’s work.
1986: TVS makes Sport Aid Earth, “a present-time color image of the Earth generated for the international NBC production of "Sport Aid", commissioned by Global Media Productions, assisted by NASA, U.S. Geological Survey.” [9]
MARCH 19-20, 1986: TVS participates in “West Week,” the Pacific Design Center’s annual design industry showcase and conference, which had commissioned him to make Eyes on Earth From Space.
MARCH 21, 1986: The Eyes On Earth From Space images and sequence are shown at West Week’s closing event, in conjunction with a final panel moderated by TVS. Panel participants are Al Hibbs of Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL), Richard Feynman of Caltech, artist June Wayne, and biologist Paul Ehrlich.
JUNE, 1986: TVS makes Desert Sun in the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine. A sequel to Reflections from Earth and Eyes on Earth from Space, it is also part of a collective sky art project with MIT CAVS called Desert Sun/Desert Moon.
Desert Sun is included in a 1987 Smithsonian World episode “The Elephant on the Hill,” an exploration of digital communications technologies and their impact on contemporary art.
OCTOBER 2-5, 1986: TVS has a teaching residency at Oklahoma Arts Institute, Adult Institute, Quartz Mountain. (It coincides with the 4th SKY ART Conference, which Van Sant is therefore unable to attend.)
“This class is for dreamers and folks with inquiring minds to make kites and design space art. The shape of this workshop will follow the instructor’s interest in flight, satellite imaging, and the viewing of Earth from above.” Van Sant [9]
NOVEMBER 10, 1986: TVS files a $5.5 million lawsuit against Mitsui Fudosan, owners of the AT&T Center in downtown Los Angeles (previously the Crocker-Citizens National Bank Tower) after his 120-foot-long mural The California Migrations (1967-’68) was destroyed during a building remodel. He eventually wins what he describes as a considerable amount, which he uses to help fund the GeoSphere Project.
DECEMBER 31, 1986: At the 18th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc., the corporation resolved to “submit designs for the Glenkirk Presbyterian Church,” and “produce Earth Image for Day of World Pray [sic].” [10]
JANUARY 1987: In response to the destruction of artworks, including murals by TVS and Kent Twitchell, LA City Council votes to appoint a task force to develop an ordinance “to protect the city’s public artworks.” [11] At this time, The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles is formed. TVS becomes a member of its Board of Directors.
MARCH 1987: TVS makes Day Of World Prayer, a color image of the Earth generated for the international NBC production of "Day of World Prayer", commissioned by Global Mete Productions, assisted by NASA, U.S. Geological Survey Studios, New York.
NOVEMBER 7, 1987: TVS speaks at Perspectives ’87: Original Vision, an all-day symposium by the UC Irvine Extension. Approx. 200-attendess hear Van Sant, Brian Eno, Rebecca Allen, and others address the relationship between art and technology and the question “do high-technology tools...enhance or corrupt modern artists’ work.”
“I’m not particularly interested in technology for itself...What is technology? Is it inhuman, is it dehumanizing? Technology is neutral...We’re interested in technology; technology isn’t interested in us.” Van Sant [11]
DECEMBER 31, 1987: At the 19th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc. the corporation resolved to “enter the construction contract for stained glass windows and design of the Sky Cross for Glenkirk Presbyterian Church.” [13]
LATE 1987–1988: During this period, TVS is keen to interest scientists and government bodies in producing a satellite composite view of the Earth from space, but without the clouds. He is unsuccessful in finding partners.
“I spent more than a year flying back east...I got to know the guys in the Earth Sciences division of NASA because they agreed: We have the capability of showing ourselves what the Earth looks like. But they said, ‘We can’t help you. We can start the Third World War if the Russians found out we were making a satellite map of Russia.” Van Sant [12]
At the same time, TVS’s eyesight was deteriorating to such a degree that he had a cornea transplant, which resulted in serious infection. The treatment required that he stay awake for ten days. In a meditative and sleepless stage, he saw a “vision” of the GeoSphere Project.
“It was from this that the vision of the GeoSphere Project began to emerge...A whole new level of scientific visualization-not a level of more complexity, but more simplicity." Van Sant [13]
1988-1989: TVS teaches life drawing at Santa Monica College.
1988: TVS makes Dove and Sky Cross for the Glenkirk Presbyterian Church, Glendora, CA.
JANURY 20, 1988: At UCI’s Peak Performance series: “Artist Tom Van Sant will take viewers 22,000 miles above the Earth…when he discusses how our view of ourselves from space is affecting our lives.”
FEBRUARY 15, 1988: Richard Feynman, Tom’s dear friend, dies after a lengthy illness.
“It was 1988, the Cold War was still on, but we had entered a period of great environmental degradation. Every schoolroom, every boardroom in the world had globes and maps of theE arth with each country in a different color, with black borders. But nobody knew what the world truly looked like.” Van Sant [14]
AUGUST 1-5, 1988: L. Van Warren – JPL engineer, computer graphics specialist, and future TVS-collaborator – visits SIGGRAPH, the Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.
He is impressed by “a high-performance display system that has been incorporated into the overall architecture of the Stellar Graphics Supercomputer Model GS1000.” [15]
Shortly after SIGGRAPH, Stellar Computer Inc. merges with Ardent Computer Corp., forming Stardent Computer Inc. As described by Van Warren, the renamed Stardent GS1000 “could move pixels like nothing we had seen before.” [16]
“ It used the X-11 windows system as a user interface and had a 128-bit wide data path from video memory to the CPU. It was an amazing technical achievement that was simulated prior to construction on an array of Apollo workstations.” [17]
Van Warren, who was by now working on President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) at JPL, was keen to “move pixels” to make a cloud-free view of Earth; firstly, to improve the quality of his digital visualizations of nuclear war, secondly because he wants to see what the planet looked like.
DECEMBER 31, 1988: At the 20th meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc. the corporation resolved to “found the GeoSphere Project for the mapping and educational software, and do business as GeoSphere...[and] produce the first satellite map of Earth, The GeoSphere Image.” [18]
EARLY 1989: Van Sant visits the ailing Millard Sheets: “He looked at the map and asked some questions...And then he said, “Well, this is terrific, Tommy. When are you going to get back to art?” [19]
MARCH 8, 1989: Van Warren is researching large Earth databases, including NOAA weather satellite databases, with a view to making more realistic views of the Earth than those he is currently using to create visualizations of nuclear war at JPL. Will Gould of NOAA tells TVS about Van Warren’s work and interests.
MARCH 31, 1989: Millard Sheets dies at his home in Mendocino County, CA.
APRIL 13, 1989: TVS speaks on “The Art of Future Cities” at a Forth Worth Art Festival symposium.
APRIL 16, 1989: TVS ‘cold calls’ Van Warren at JPL hoping to interest him in the GeoSphere Project.
“I remember taking the phone away from my ear and looking at the handset. It was one of those moments. Tom was a mover and a shaker. He knew how to get things done. I could hear it in his voice.” Van Warren [20]
APRIL 19, 1989: TVS hosts the first meeting of the “Eyes On Earth From Space/GeoSphere Project” at his Entrada Drive Studio, Santa Monica, at 7:30pm (“Dinner by Tex-Mex.”) TVS is “associated with a Who's Who...of aeronautical and aerospace engineering.” [21]
Consequently, in addition to people from funding and finance, environmentalism and alternative energy, and large-scale event production, attendees included ‘Voice of JPL’ Dr. Al Hibbs, aerodynamics engineer Dr. Peter Lissaman, Keven Hussey of JPL MIPL (the Multispectral Image Processing Laboratory that delivered planetary images from space missions), and L. Van Warren.
Although the evening does not generate a body of active project participants, it does cement the TVS/Van Warren partnership, without which the first step for the GeoSphere Project – the GeoSphere Image – would not have been made.
“Somehow from the field of 15 or so people at the dinner it ended up just being me and Tom. It would remain that way for several months. People were unwilling to commit to such an ambitious project with no upfront financial incentive.” Van Warren [22]
LATE APRIL 1989–LATE SUMMER 1989: Van Warren orders 4 Kilometer Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This will be the raw material needed to make a cloud-free image of Earth.
With retired ‘Voice of JPL’ Dr. Al Hibbs exerting some influence behind the scenes, JPL offers to host the project and cover Van Warren’s salary while he works on the GeoSphere Project.
National Geographic offers $25,000 in seed funding if TVS and Van Warren can provide proof-of-concept and present the map for printing by January 15, 1990.
Van Warren initially prototypes on a SUN workstation, but when it cannot handle the large datasets involved, he recalls a supercomputer that had been demonstrated at SIGGRAPH the previous year.
Van Sant buys the Stardent GS1000 and the collaborators move it into Van Warren’s small JPL office, where he “worked day and night” to make small cloud-free sections of the image as proof-of-concept . [23]
“Van Warren knew that the only computer in the world that could handle this size image interactively was the Stardent GS1000. My life savings was $650,000, and I paid $200,000 to Stardent for the computer.” Van Sant [24]
JUNE 12, 1989: TVS and other local Artists Equity Association members make a monument designed by TVS in response to the Tien An Man Square massacre. Modeled on a statue constructed in Tien A Man Square and bulldozed by Chinese troops, the ‘Goddess of Democracy’ is erected without a permit on the Pedestrian Bridge TVS designed in 1974. Despite its guerilla installation, the monument wins official support and stays by City Hall for 3-months before being moved to Chinatown, where it is destroyed by vandals.
[NOTE: Speaking to TVS’s distance from the world of gallery art at this time, an LA Times article about the monument stated: “best known for...popular, off-beat projects, Van Sant is not well known in more established fine-arts circles. Roland Reiss, an artist and art department chairman at Claremont Graduate School, said he had never heard of Van Sant: “No, the name is not ringing any bells.”] [25]
JULY 7, 1989: TVS incorporates Eyes on Earth as a nonprofit public benefit corporation, for environmental research and education, and the GeoSphere Project, to “disseminate the products and systems developed by Eyes on Earth, which included the GeoSphere Image, the Earth Situation Room Network, the electronic Global Visual Library and the Global Ground-truth Monitoring System.” [26]
FALL 1989: At a meeting in the office of JPL director Lew Allen, JPL’s chief lawyer informs Van Sant that NASA owns the GeoSphere Image. As described by Van Warren, “Tom pushed back from the table and said, ‘No’...I couldn’t believe he did that. It was like saying, “No” to the God or something...Outcome: The project was no longer going to be at JPL.” [27]
“We moved the Stardent GS1000 out of the lab that weekend in Tom’s red, carpeted hippie van. It was like grand theft auto, but Tom owned the computer so there was nothing JPL could do.”
After installing 220 volt service for the Stardust, Van Sant and Van Warren moved the computer into the guest house of Van Warren’s Pasadena home, and complete the GeoSphere Image in time for Earth Day 1990 with the help of Leo Blume, Eric Bruhwiler, and James Knighton.
OCTOBER 19, 1989: Al Hibbs and Peter Lissaman become Directors of Eyes on Earth, Inc.
DECEMBER 6, 1989: The first Eyes on Earth Corporate Board meeting takes place at the home of Dr. Albert Hibbs, President of the board. In addition to Hibbs, attendees are TVS (Executive Director), Peter Lissaman, Oscar Janiger (VP and temporary Treasurer), copyright and patents lawyer Bill Pavitt, and Josie Ball (Secretary).
Minutes note that 13 foundations have so far declined to fund Eyes on Earth because, while they are enthusiastic about the project, it does not fall within their funding guidelines. As a result, TVS is the corporation’s sole financial supporter.
Eyes on Earth, Inc. has $5000 in its bank account, a loan from TVS.
DECEMBER 31, 1989: At the 21st meeting of directors of Tom Van Sant, Inc. the corporation resolves to “complete the 1-year mapping effort and enter into contract with National Geographic to publish the GeoSphere Image.” [29]
DECEMBER 1989–JANUARY 1990: TVS participates in Art and Democracy, a group show at Merging One Gallery of work reflecting the aftermath of Tien An Men Square.