Of sky and sea
2023
Durational public artwork: moving head searchlights, custom software, endangered languages data set, live website, artifact
Victoria Dock, Naarm/Melbourne
Lead artist: Michaela Gleave
Programmer: Warren Armstrong
Lighting Designer: Bosco Shaw
Technical Production: Additive
This project builds upon elements of the previous work Messages of Hope, Messages of Love created in collaboration with Fausto Brusamolino.
Of sky and sea has been commissioned by Now or Never in collaboration with Experimenta.
Of sky and sea considers the interconnected impacts facilitated by maritime ports as sites of colonial expansion and globalisation, and the ongoing connections and disconnections resulting from these endeavours, with language acting as a key marker of this process.
Using the discontinued maritime language of Morse code signal lights, Of sky and sea takes the form of a large-scale light installation in the middle of Docklands harbour, beaming a list of endangered and dormant languages up into the night sky over a four-night period. The transient light from this transmission exists momentarily on Earth before travelling out into spacetime forever.
Once a language is forgotten it becomes a cipher, a code, indecipherable unless that knowledge is regained. In an act of mourning, this coded message is projected into the future as an echo of what has and is being lost.
The project website mirrors the Morse code signal as it journeys into the universe, each language listed with their geographic locality and vulnerability status. The website will terminate the moment the signal leaves the outer limits solar system, 1.87 years after the transmission is sent. An artifact of the project marking this moment will be held at the Library at the Dock in perpetuity,
Data in this project is sourced from the Endangered Languages Catalogue, a global project mapping the world’s endangered languages.
The installation component of the work was viewable live in the Docklands Harbour between 7-10 pm, 17-20 August 2023.