Sarah Waterson. Juried Artist
Constellations
Data Wall at QUT Kelvin Grove
Artist Statement
WeatherState is an ongoing project that critically investigates senses of place within the vast heterotopias of the world oceans. In the face of the climate crisis, these enigmatic realms hold profound significance as regulators of global temperatures, absorbing carbon dioxide, shaping weather patterns, and world trade. They act as analogous spaces, as isomorphs for the complexity of embodied understandings of the interconnectedness and entanglements of our current times.
Through data mapping and generative approaches, the WeatherState system maps the historical and cultural complexities of these heterotopias, and presents an immersive, generative screen experience of a complex relational set of data.
As a dataecology, WeatherState interrogates the role of oceans as conduits for trade, climate change and cultural colonialism, by drawing on historical data sets (the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)1880-2020), Global Ocean Temperatures (1901-2022) and the Ocean CO2 sink (1959-2022) combined with 21st century generative techniques, WeatherState presents a world of interconnected phenomena. The aim is for an embodied, sensorial experience of data that builds on current data visualisation practices and pays attention to the ecologies of practice that drive the data selection, presentation and mapping.
WeatherState is a live multichannel experience that seeks to generate an affect of aliveness, challenging extractive modes of visualisation.
About the artists
Sarah Waterson is a media artist and practice-led researcher, driven by themes of mapping, materiality, and data ecologies. Her approach invites audiences to engage with the politics of representation and the embedded systems that form them. With over thirty years of specialisation, she has embraced collaborative, experimental practices, including non-human collaborations, site-specific electronic arts, data-driven installations, generative and software based artworks. Waterson’s research interrogates scientific, historical, and philosophic frames to refine her experimental art forms. She has exhibited interactive environments nationally and internationally, including Hothouse (Cementa2019) Laika’s Derive (Carriageworks, and ISEA2013), 33ºSouth (with Juan Francisco Salazar), and trope (Sydney Writers Festival). Collaborations with Kate Richards produced projects such as subscape- PROOF (Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and Sydney Opera House) and subscape- BALTIC (ISEA2004). Waterson’s career underscores a dedication to expanding experimental art while blending artistic vision with interdisciplinary inquiry. Waterson is a senior lecturer at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, Australia.
Credits: Sarah Waterson