water surface
water surface is an installation that connects the gallery space to current conditions on the surface of the oceans all over the world. As wave levels and structures fluctuate in globally distant locations, the installation reflects this activity by creating continually varying three-dimensional patterns in a matrix of LED lights.
To articulate the LED matrix, a total of six pieces of information pertaining to current wave conditions are used. Wave swell height, wave swell period and wave swell direction are overlaid with wind wave height, wind wave period and wind wave direction. The wind and swell waves often have varying height, period, intensity and direction and overlaying this intersecting data creates complex, ever changing three-dimensional patterns in light within the matrix. Current wave conditions at specific locations determine the intensity or subtlety in the composition of the sculpture creating a situation where the patterns are rarely identical.
The sculpture uses data from a selection of five different buoys from the NOAA network chosen for their remote and varied locations across the globe. Every hour the sculpture switches to a different buoy in a new location giving observers a glimpse at the current wave conditions from all over the world.
Using data to articulate the sculpture in this way enables the installation to produce simulations of real-time conditions in a variety of distant oceanic locations within the local environment.
