The Shoreward Surge of the Sea is a live interactive projection work that celebrates people who act against climate change. Audiences use their phones through a custom-deigned mobile enabled website to submit the names of those who have inspired them to act, or who they feel are helping the climate. These names then appear (within 30 seconds) as part of an ever-growing tide, moving up the surfaces of buildings and structures and flooding across public space, immersing people in light. Different layers of projected names work at a counterpoint to each other, creating a rippling effect. This reflects rising seas, but also creates a sense of the rising swell of commitment towards reducing climate change.
This artwork was first staged in Wellington at The Performance Arcade 2019, and then at Te Papa in 2020, where it projected from the Wellington waterfront up and over the seven-storey-high seaward face of Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s national Museum. It then installed at Te Ramaroa and Vivid Sydney in 2021 and 2022. In each instance the installation began with only fifty names, but swelled to thousands of names as the online and in-person audience continued to submit them.