Past / Present / Predicted is a moving artefact developed during the artist’s residency at the Tides Institute and Museum of Art. The piece visualises the tidal rhythms of the ocean through a deeply personal and data-driven lens. Composed of three barograph-style cylinders, the work captures historical, predictive, and real-time tidal data — becoming a tactile meditation on memory, time, and the sea.
Each rotating cylinder represents a temporal dimension: the first charts historical tide recordings, the last renders future predictions, and the middle translates real-time tidal measurements collected by the artist during her residency in Eastport, Maine. Using a depth transducer, O’Leary measured the water levels at the end of the pier multiple times a day, comparing her readings with NOAA data. These three datasets form the basis of this work.
Inspired by the artist’s childhood memories of helping her father replace the paper in his barograph, Past / Present / Predicted becomes a synthesis of personal ritual and environmental observation. It invites viewers into a quiet, contemplative space — where technological precision meets poetic interpretation, and where time is not linear but cyclical, layered, and alive.
This work continues O’Leary’s exploration into how data can be transformed into material, embodied experiences. Rooted in hydrofeminist thinking and systems theory, the piece offers both a sensory and philosophical reflection on our interconnectedness with the sea, time, and the forces that shape both.
