All Tomorrow’s Oceans 2019 ongoing

I scraped images that were found through searching keywords “ocean” in commercial stock photograph archives, and later the database of ocean images through an artificial intelligence algorithm. The machine-generated morphing pixels bear a visual resemblance to sea waters. It is the idea of “ocean” or the “oceanic desire” that is controlled by the representational power and cultural authority of the stock image ecosystem, while the bio-political control is compounded by the algorithmic economy. The final installation is sound reactive, featuring a generative composition which was later evolved into an improvised audio-visual performance where I mimic whale vocalization with my own voice and sequence the sounds in “recursive” rhythmic patterns that are common in humpback whale songs.

The contradictory connotation of the title lies in that the ocean is an idea beyond individual human experiences and spacetime. “All Tomorrow’s” expresses a timeless vision of symbiosis with nature, from the past to the present, and an ultimate nostalgia towards the ocean.