Oceanomicon | Sound installation with a touch-responsive map made with fabric | format: Cyanotype on canvas 4m x 3m, computer, field recordings, two speakers and two theremins
“Can a sonic sensitivity raise empathetic awareness about such a silent climate change as the ocean acidification?“
Work description:
The Oceanomicon is a cartographic artefact which emerges from the corrosive wake of the Carbon Gas in the One Ocean. This large-scale object made with fabric and cyanotype is more than a mere world map that one can only appreciate by sight; it is a sensory cartography of knowledge and affect, operating on the edge of human perception. From the folds of this liminal atlas, a conductive wiring harness and a bundle of audio devices are interfaced between the fabric’s membrane and the antenna of two theremins, creating an infra-sensible channel of amplification.
By touching the blue of the map with the tip of your fingers, find the porosity between the terrestrial and the oceanic life. If you channel the ether waves of the theremins in you, an environmental murmur will be unveiled by the ebb and flow: the intimate sound of the seawater in your veins under the increasing acidification.
Context:
The Oceanomicon was made as part of my major project for my MA Sound Arts degree at the London College of Communication. This sound installation was driven by my reflection of finding a sensorial and engaging way to narrate the ocean acidification, a climate change phenomenon which is both little-known and complex to comprehend.
More detailed informations about my research process are available in this additional webspace by clicking here.
From 2nd to 3th December 2021, this work was also part of “Festive Labour”, curated by Irene Revell, an exhibition with the students from the MA Sound Arts course at Dilston Grove gallery in London.
https://southwarkparkgalleries.org/festive-labour/
