Breathing Underwater

A study in soothing rhythm, eye flow, and visual-audio harmony. Imagine yourself sitting on the ocean floor, watching the surface. This is one of my favorites.

The concept of this project was the comfort of repetition and order. To me, this translated simply into animated patterns with simple shapes.

These were made to look and feel like ripples in water, with a soothing pace.

I projected these onto the ceiling in a studio at Ringling, which I chose for its patterns of pipe work. I knew that the lines of light would wrap around them and make a pleasant tapering/blinking effect that would both give the piece dimension and add to the piece's rhythm. In some shots, I mixed the focus of the projector and the camera to make a blend of blurred lines with a sharp background.

Here's a quick video of the basics of the process.