Beyond Midnight (2023)
Multimedia installation made in collaboration with Michel Droge, Carolina Valencia Gonzalez, Tristan Koepke, and Asha Tamirisa.
In June of 2023, artist Michel Droge was invited to join Dr. Beth Orcutt of the Bigelow Laboratory for
Ocean Sciences located in Boothbay Maine, (USA) and Dr. Jorge Cortés of the
Universidad de Costa Rica, and an international team of scientists and artists
on a month-long expedition off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica to explore the
Earth’s first-ever-discovered octopus nursery. The team returned with hours of
video and media, and Droge with a sense of possibility of approaching the
unknown.
Video source material provided by the Schmidt Ocean Institute
Text excerpts from Undrowned: Black Feminst Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Acknowledgements: The Bates Arts Collaborative, IMPACT21st, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and The Bates Faculty Development Fund.
Photo credits: Phyllis Graber Jensen
In June of 2023, artist Michel Droge was invited to join Dr. Beth Orcutt of the Bigelow Laboratory for
Ocean Sciences located in Boothbay Maine, (USA) and Dr. Jorge Cortés of the
Universidad de Costa Rica, and an international team of scientists and artists
on a month-long expedition off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica to explore the
Earth’s first-ever-discovered octopus nursery. The team returned with hours of
video and media, and Droge with a sense of possibility of approaching the
unknown.
As an immersive multimedia exhibition, Beyond Midnight shares the
experience of the deep sea, a place that is rarely seen by humans. The piece
explores the personal and ecological potentials of moving towards the not yet
defined. The vibrancy and vitality found at these edges reminds the viewer of
what is possible beyond the thresholds of what we know.
Video source material provided by the Schmidt Ocean Institute
Text excerpts from Undrowned: Black Feminst Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Acknowledgements: The Bates Arts Collaborative, IMPACT21st, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and The Bates Faculty Development Fund.
Photo credits: Phyllis Graber Jensen
