MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Forever inspired by the sea, where I grew up, I am mesmerised by the movement of the water and saddened by its current condition. Many people do not take time out of their day to realise the immense crisis our planet is facing regarding plastic pollution. Message in a Bottle visualises a dataset of real waves from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have a data buoy centre that have weather stations world wide. I researched the different stations nearest the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and discovered station 46246, (50°1'2" N 145°10'12" W). The NOAA has historical data for this station going back to 2010, the data is logged every 30 minutes and includes information on the wind speed, sea temperature, wave heights and the period between waves. For this project I chose to focus only on the significant wave heights.

The sounds played in the installation are from recordings I made at home in Dublin. I found bottles floating near the shore and captured the sound of the plastics colliding and interacting with the water allowing the viewers to feel immersed in the installation.

N.Y.SEA

Commissioned by Data X Design for New York Open Data Week, 2023

This work uses historic recordings of the NYC river levels in conjunction with storm flood water predictions to communicate the vulnerability of the New York subway system. The data controls the vertical movement while the sinusoidal cam-shaft creates undulating movements along the fabric where the artist has hand embroidered the various subway routes. The installation serves as a catalyst for introspection and dialogue, challenging audiences to reconsider their relationship with the environment and the limits of human understanding. "N.Y.Sea" stands as a testament to the transformative power of art and technology illuminating the complexities of our shared existence.
Soundtrack: Olsen, Boards of Canada

372.5 ~ HOWTH

372.5 ~ Howth is a visualisation of the effortless distribution of water during the 6 hour tidal period. Using tidal charts from the artist’s home town of Howth, Dublin, the installation uses a system of pulleys and weights inspired by the historical methods of tidal measurement to recreate its current behaviour.  The piece is a continuation of research into hyperobjects and how abstract data can transform using technology to make natures complexities tangible.

The sea is not a landscape or facilitator of human activity but an entity of vast geographical and temporal scale that possesses agency. It’s behaviour is constantly being predicted, recorded and stored. 372.5~Howth explores the effortless distribution of water during a tidal period. The piece is a continuation of O’Leary's research into hyperobjects and how abstract data can be transformed using technology to make natures complexities tangible.

There are patterns in nature we can see and understand but there are also patterns we cannot seem to figure out. There is a common understanding of the ebb and flow of tides but less awareness of the volume of water that is stretched within the typical 6 hour time frame (372.5 minutes). Having grown up by the sea I have been exposed to these shifts and have experienced the tidal movements whilst on the water sailing, swimming and paddleboarding. 372.5 ~ Howth uses a system of pulleys and weights inspired by the historical methods of tidal measurement to recreate its current behaviour. 

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

This piece is a continuation of my research into hyper-objects, climate change and nature. It is a starting point of a larger piece that will be a high-dimensional phase space, plotting multiple states of nature and this WIP attempts to recreate nature’s mechanism with physical computing.

SEA / SICK

I'm not homesick, I'm just missing the sea... After moving to London to do an MFA in Computational Art I realised how much I was missing the sea. Using wave data collected from the West Coast of Ireland, the corners of the fabric are tilted using micro-servos. The degree of rotation is determined by the wave heights and is connected to the fabric using invisible thread. The reflection of the fabric and the wave like motion hopes to connect people to the sea when they cannot physically get there.

HYPEROBJECTS

In 2020, 53 million facemasks were disposed of everyday in the UK in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID19. Humans have made drastic lifestyle changes in response to the coronavirus and yet there is still reluctance to accept climate change. This work is an experimentation, using the facemask to address the overwhelming scale of the current ecological crisis and single use items.