Erin Single
Media artist, designer, educator
Project 05
Negative tides
Video installation
Year: 2020
Negative tides
One color monitor, laptop, digital video file (color, sound), wooden box, cotton tablecloth, ceramic tea cups and saucers, ceramic tiles
Dimensions variable
A physical installation with a cinemagraph–a
still image with embedded video loops that creates the illusion of a
subtle animation–of a tide pool in Santa Cruz during the King Tides.
The King Tides are natural phenomena that occur twice a year when the
moon, Earth, and sun are aligned and coastal areas experience the most
extreme difference in low and high tides. During a period of 24 hours
entire tidal worlds are uncovered as the ocean recedes and extreme high
tides allow us to experience for a brief moment a reality that
foregrounds the impact of rising sea levels due to climate change. The
glitch aesthetic of the work plays with temporality and creates a
distancing effect through artificiality when contrasted with the
naturalism of the video which was shot at Mitchell’s Cove in Santa Cruz.
A kitschy tablecloth with tropical reef fish completes an altar set
with three tea cups that generate an invisible sense of thirst for
water. The obfuscation of the past, present, and future in the work
created an eerie glimpse of a future in which we can only experience the
ocean in a digital realm.