Oceanic: Queering the Ocean
“A cinematic meditation on how climate change harms the oceans and how those effects are distributed along the lines of race and gender. The film includes 3D scans, dance performances, and volumetric video to visualize landscapes and aquatic species threatened by climate change and to stitch the line from colonization to neoliberalism to racial capitalism.
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Excerpt from the short film “Oceanic: Queering the Ocean.”
““Oceanic: Queering the Ocean” presents audiences with an experience of the coast of the Pacific Ocean at Natural Bridges State Beach, with an original soundtrack and a series of performances that tell the story of how climate change is a racial justice issue. The film includes words from Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, who wrote about this specific beach to think through solidarity across identities in women of color feminism, such as the former exclusion of trans women, which she tried to undo.”
"Oceanic: Queering the Ocean" is conceived as one output of several more to come under the umbrella project, "Oceanic," a multi-modal, multidisciplinary art collaboration between micha cárdenas, Gerald Casel, Cynthia Ling Lee, Susana Ruiz, and Huy Truong, with contributions from Anna Friz. “Oceanic” will output several more projects, including a mobile app that will present volumetric video of movement performances and 3D scans of ecotonal environments and native species who live on the coast.
““Oceanic: Queering the Ocean” premiered as part of the event Infinite Points on a Circle at the Toronto International Film Festival Lightbox (TIFF), curated by Syrus Marcus Ware.”
Researching ways to visually interpret the relationship between the human body and the environment, the team used a combination of anamorphic video for the landscape and volumetric capture for the dancers.
Stay tuned for more from this multi-modal, multidisciplinary art collaboration, including an installation at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in NYC and an augmented reality (AR) mobile app for iOS and Android.