Document:Q9793

SeaPoint was a collaborative project between Dennis Mc Nulty and Cliona Harmey.
It was inspired by the Beaufort Scale which measures wind speed. This work was produced specifically for Variablemedia, a London (UK) based organisation which initiaties time/process based web projects involving internationally based artists. SeaPoint began on June 8, 2002 at the variablemedia.org site. With updates occurring daily, SeaPoint ran for a period of 28 days.
During each day of the project Harmey recorded a 10 second digital video sample of the Irish Sea from a fixed location on shore at Seapoint on the south Dublin coast. She processed the day's recorded images into a video animation file and allocated this file a number and description from the Beaufort Scale. The Beaufort Scale (for use at sea) measures wind speed by observing the visual effects of wind on water and allocates a number ranging from 0 for calm conditions to 12 for a hurricane. This measurement for the day's images, combined with various chance procedures, was applied to the concurrent audio recording in a resampling process devised by McNulty. These audio files were then recombined with the video animation as a short Flash film.
The Beaufort Scale (for use at sea) is an adaptation of an original scale devised in 1806 by Irish born Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. The visual descriptions of the water, used by this adaptation, are highly poetic e.g. #1 Scale-like ripples, #2 Small, short wavelets with glassy crests. The existence of this process reflects an attempt to understand natural phenomena through classification. Through the interplay of recordings, written classifications and digital processes, SeaPoint evolved as an open-ended document.