The centre of the world is one of many areas in our reality where fact and fiction overlap.

Hosted by NOMAD Aberdeen, ‘Letters to the centre of the world’ took the form of an exhibition and alternative letter writing workshop in which participants were invited to send messages to ‘The Centre of the World.’

Null Island is a fictional land mass situated at exactly 0° North and 0° East that has been created for geolocation purposes. Visible only through technology, it both exists and does not exist. Google maps shows a definitive island outline but if you were to pay a visit to the island’s coordinates, what you would really find is one lonely weather buoy- ‘Station 13010: Soul.’ The Island has become somewhat of an internet sensation. At one point it even had its own tourist website which featured a fictitious map and a short history of the land. People on forums share folk tales and travel tips whilst Null Island Buoy has his own twitter account. On one hand, Null Island represents a solution to a problem; on the other, it is a perfect example of our human desire to tell stories. 

At the end of the workshop the resulting letters were sent to the National Buoy Data Centre in the Stennis Space Station, the database for all weather buoys, including Station 13010 at 0,0.

Photography by Abby Beatrice Quick