(CCA) | Agulhas Drifter
Agulhas Drifter connects gallery viewers with wave conditions in the open ocean. The artist launched a custom blown glass buoy with embedded electronics into the Agulhas current off the coast of Durban, South Africa, and created a light and sound installation that mirrored satellite transmitted wave data in near real time. The buoy captures the pitch, roll and vertical acceleration of waves. This data is transmitted via satellite every eight hours. On the gallery side, an installation visualizes ocean conditions by enacting the most recent wave motion data using kinetic sculpture to project a shifting horizon line of laser light throughout the room. Through the repeated viewings, gallery visitors will experience the ocean as a living, changing force, at times calm and serene, and at other times wild and kinetic.