36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea
In 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013-2022), New York-based artist Sarah Cameron Sunde stands in a tidal bay for a full tidal cycle (12-13 hours) as water engulfs her body and then reveals it again. The public participates. What began in 2013 with an impulsive poetic gesture has grown into a complex evolving series of nine artworks, involving thousands of people in communities around the world: Maine, Mexico, California, The Netherlands, Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Aotearoa-New Zealand, and New York.
Composer Joshua Dumas has created an interlocking score for six of the stands, since 2015. The music is built by sonifying local tidal data and interweaving it with on-site field recording. He then overlays improvised melodies as he observes the stand in real-time. The result is six longform scores to accompany the video documentation of the piece which can be presented individually or simultaneously; when shown simultaneously the scores layer to create new harmonies.