About the artwork

American Index, Transatlantic Sub-Marine Cables Reaching Land, VSNL International, Avon, New Jersey

Taryn Simon
Photograph, chromogenic color print
113 x 94.6 cm
2007

Edition 2/7 + 2 AP

 

These VSNL sub-marine telecommunications cables extend 8,037.4 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Capable of transmitting over 60 million simultaneous voice conversations, these underwater fiber-optic cables stretch from Saunton Sands in the United Kingdom to the coast of New Jersey. The cables run below ground and emerge directly into the VSNL International headquarters, where signals are amplified and split into distinctive wave-lenghts enabling transatlantic phone calls and internet transmissions.