The Depths

Digital Video with tactile sculpture (AI stills, 3D printed bioplastic)
Dimensions: 7.5” x 11.5”

The video portion of this work was generated from AI stills stitched together to form a continuous video shot. The images were created using a series of repeated "zoom out" commands. The sequence is reversed, creating a continuous zoom-in effect from the last image back to the first. The accompanying tactile sculpture represents the journey taken in the piece. The interpretation of speed plays a key component in the tactile work. The relief of the tactile sculpture conveys a sense of fluid changing motion.

The two minute video starts with a scene on the shore of a beach, buttressed by a cliff on the left and the sea on the right. It’s nighttime and the stars shine. The screen bobs and as the view moves forward following footprints in the sand. Through a stone archway it becomes daytime. The view floats over a small stream and into a darkened cave. The zoom continues and starts to speed up as blurry fish are visible. At the exit of the cave, the speed increases to rocket forward through what could be a reef, stopping abruptly in darkness. The view now shows only a lighted area in the far away in the dark of the cave. Moving towards the blue in the distance, past magma, rocks, and eerie light, a dark sphere comes into view. Perhaps there is a tiny sprawling alien city beneath the sphere in the darkness and perhaps the spider-like traces of light on the sphere are the the lights of civilization on continents from a distant space. Or perhaps they are just visions in the depths of a darkened cave surrounded by magma.