Mazen Itani: The Mysterious Sundial. “I could not think of a reason why it would be sitting in a field surrounded by not much other than grass and nearby plants…Perhaps an artifact from an unknown period.”
Mazen Itani: The Mysterious Sundial. Sundials have been used to measure the passage of time since at least 1500 BCE, when Babylonian astronomers developed instruments to measure the position and movement of the celestial bodies.
Mazen Itani: The Mysterious Sundial. “Whoever installed the sun dial abandoned the history or meaning behind it, the only markings that I could find were that of vandals.”
A Google Maps Satellite image showing the location of the sun dial from a top down perspective.
Collector Mazen Itani
With its first flight in 1962, the A-12 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft played a key role in the Cold War. The titanium spy plane evaded pursuit and radar detection by moving at three times the speed of sound at altitudes of up to 90,000 feet. Looking for missile sites in the late 1960s for example, the A-12 took just over 12 minutes to fly the nearly 500 miles over North Vietnam. It is currently on display at the California Science Center.
Photograph: Mazen Itani
The YF-23 “Black Widow II.” Developed in the late 1980s by Northrop/McDonnell Douglas for the US Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter competition, this single seat twin engine stealth plane has been described as “one of the most beautiful fighter planes ever built” [1.] Coming second in the competition, the YF-23 did not go into production for the USAF and only two prototypes were built.
Photograph: Mazen Itani
The Northrop Grumman T-38 Talon is a two-seat supersonic jet trainer that the US Air Force has been using to train pilots since the 1960s. This T-38, which is displayed at the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, was delivered new to the US Air Force in the early 1970s and assigned to NASA in 1990.
Photograph: Mazen Itani
Left: A Northrop Grumman T-38 Talon. Center: A Douglas A-4A Skyhawk, which was assigned to the US Marines in 1957 and subsequently deployed in Japan. Right: The YF-23A Black Widow II
Photograph: Mazen Itani
Photograph: Mazen Itani
Supersonic “stealth fighter” the YF-23 Black Widow II
Photograph: Mazen Itani
Rare Airplanes and a Mystery Sundial
Mazen Itani
Academic Computing
Mazen Itani collects images of objects in two categories, which he calls “Hidden Mystery Sundial” and “Rare Airplanes Collecting Dust. ” On the surface of things, they are quite different; but dig a little deeper and both invite us to ponder the poetics of time, space, and memory.
As Mazen explains: “Many years ago, during my childhood, I was on a walk and I noticed something…I was not sure why it was there or what it did…but I realized when I got closer that I had discovered a sundial!”
The sundial, “an ancient device used to tell time based on the position of the sun…yielded an interesting trait, the gnomon (the part that points toward the sun) faced East rather than North.” At the time, says Mazen, “I thought it was the coolest thing ever and would often gather around it with friends.”
Years went by and Mazen forgot about the sundial. His memory revived while shopping for a smart watch – a device, unlike the sundial, with limited battery life. The sundial is now enclosed by fences, but Mazen was determined to reach it. “I felt that I had an obligation to share the story of my old friend.”
Regarding “Rare Airplanes,” Mazen divulges another memory: “my father was a man of few words, but there was one way to get him to talk. I once asked him what he actually did during work and out came the photo album showing him in cockpits, or in a jumpsuit surrounded by instruments and buttons.”
“We would on occasion frequent airshows…This fueled my model airplane hobby, and I became a fan of anything that had wings, especially if it was rare or vintage…In adulthood I stumbled upon some of these gems in “plane view.” These once-great flying works of art and engineering are now just collecting dust somewhere…”
NOTES
[1] Virtual Pilot 3D: https://virtualpilot3d.net/yf-23-black-widow-ii-declassified/ Accessed 12/19/2020.