Undertow Underneath is a video work that has been a continuation of the photographic exploration called Undertow that focuses attention on the conservation, or lack thereof, throughout the marine landscapes along the Great Ocean Road.
The beaches of the Great Ocean Road are vast, wild, and beautiful. They are also calm, quiet havens, places to sink feet into cold sand and paddle. There are pockets of the picturesque and sublime, they encompass the gentle awe of rockpool finds, and the terror of heaving undertows. The deep and frigid saltwater beyond the safety of shore is more mysterious, unknown, and rarely explored. This marine expanse, overflowing with complexity, is also a largely unprotected and fragile environment.
In 2022 only 10.4% of Australia’s marine coastlines have been deemed protected areas. Shockingly, Victoria only protects 5.3% of its coastal marine areas from activities such as fishing, dredging and mining, and only 9% of the water along the Great Ocean Road is within Marine Sanctuaries or Marine National Parks. With rising sea levels and the refusal of state governments to expand sanctuaries it’s not hard to determine the impact on many of the endemic species that call the Great Ocean Road home.
Undertow Underneath documents the ocean spaces within the boundaries of the marine protected areas to question the systems in place that determine what is of value and what is distinctly not. As the rise of technology only grows by the hour, it is clear that although we are still spending time within natural environments, we are prioritising the accelerating evolution of human tech and ignoring the perfect balance of our world around us.
Untouched footage of rock pools flourishing has been paired with an artificial intelligence interpretation of their world to depict the engulfment of an online life opposed to an natural existence. The presence of underwater audio supplemented with crashing waves against pebbles guides you within the unknown world of our underwater marine life. The audio transports you underwater and can pour calm over you, potentially linked to similar noises heard in the womb as an infant.
If displayed in a gallery context there could be an opportunity to display the back half of the video onto the floor and the AI component onto the roof so it feels as if the artificial intelligence is falling and on top of the natural world, ready to overthrow it any point.
