Transitional Landscape (2022)
I take out my instrument, strap over my head—held tight between my hands. I walk in a straight line, always looking down. I soften my focus and allow myself to become part of the microcosm that exists at the edge of the ocean. Inspired by Alister Hardy’s Continuous Plankton Recorder, I measure intertidal zones and coastline changes in Key West. I use my senses to observe and my instruments to extend my vision, collecting unexpected data. Through the use of video, audio, photography, and a condenser microphone that collects sound from the gallery space, I ask the viewer to question their relationship with both distant and immediate landscapes. This work is a search for transitional landscapes and methods to quantify them. The process of looking at the tiny ecologies that exist outside of my periphery allows me to understand and respond to the rhythms of the natural world. This, in turn, allows me to reflect on how divided we are from it. The work exists in a liminal space that portrays the immediate landscape, my direct experience, and the imagined future of a coastline.
Materials:
condenser microphone, mic stand, amplifier, concrete, video, copper tape, mylar, acrylic, Key West palm frond, sandbags with Florida Keys sand, aluminum mesh, photographic survey of coastline, fiducial markers, foam, bespoke surveyor chain, Key West audio overlayed with real-time audio collected in gallery space, inspection mirror, marking whisker, map of key west
