Sea Change

2015 | Archival Video, 1080p Video, Generative Video | 5.1 Surround Sound | Belize City, Belize | Variable Duration

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
-- from Ariel's song in The Tempest by William Shakespeare ( i. ii. 403 )

Sea change (idiom) - a metamorphosis; a profound or notable transformation; a change wrought by the sea.

A performance video work, Sea Change explores environmental transformation, diatoms, mircoalgae, loss and transcendence, the impermanence of life, and the permanence and recycling of carbon. Video is projected onto three walls of a stage, sampling from footage of laboratory microscopy of oceanic microorganisms, documentary video of cod fishing and bycatch shot in the Greenland sea, and data visualization of plankton movements. Audio is a compliation of electronic drones and data sonification, field recordings, cello, and human voices sampled, stretched, and resampled to create atmospheric content. The video is stitched and animated live and performed in concert with live electronic audio.