Variablemedia Press Release

SeaPoint
by Cliona Harmey and Dennis McNulty at http://www.varablemedia.org

Variablemedia is pleased to announce SeaPoint, the first project to be
hosted at their variablemedia.org site. SeaPoint is a collaborative
Internet project by artist Cliona Harmey and electronic musician Dennis
McNulty. Starting on June 9, 2002 with updates occurring daily, SeaPoint
will run for a period of 28 days.

During each day of the project Harmey will record a 10 second digital
video sample of the Irish Sea from a fixed location on shore at Seapoint
on the south Dublin coast. She will process the day's recorded images
into a video animation file and allocate this file a number and
description from the Beaufort Scale. The Beaufort Scale (for use at sea)
measures wind speed by observing the visual effects of wind on water and
allocates a number ranging from 0 for calm conditions to 12 for a
hurricane. This measurement for the day's images, combined with various
chance procedures, will be applied to the concurrent audio recording in
a resampling process devised by McNulty. These audio files will then be
recombined with the video animation as a short Flash film.

The Beaufort Scale (for use at sea) is an adaptation of an original
scale devised in 1806 by Irish born Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. The
visual descriptions of the water, used by this adaptation, are highly
poetic e.g. #1 Scale-like ripples, #2 Small, short wavelets with glassy
crests. The existence of this process reflects an attempt to understand
natural phenomena through classification. Through the interplay of
recordings, written classifications and digital processes, SeaPoint will
evolve as an open-ended document, which blurs any strict categorization
of nature or technology.

Cliona Harmey is an Irish artist who works with a variety of media such
as video installation, photography and the Internet. Her current
practice is primarily concerned with the recording and resampling of the
minutiae of mutable natural phenomena. She has participated in numerous
exhibitions and projects Internationally, including; 'Tis, State of the
Art Gallery, Ithaca, New York; Thaw 01, The Institute of Communication
and Culture, Iowa; Vdor Break 21, Llubijana, Slovenia; The Reading Room,
Catalyst Arts, Belfast. Cliona recently completed a residency at the
Inkshop Printmaking Center Ithaca, New York. She lives in Dublin and
works as a lecturer in Digital Media at Dunlaoghaire Institute of Art,
Design and Technology.

Dennis McNulty works with sound in a variety of contexts. He has been
making electronic music as half of 'Decal' for almost a decade and has
developed numerous sound and music software and hardware systems.
Previous projects include, Decompression 2 for The Captain's Road
exhibition, Dublin; the development of an algorithm for generating
non-repetitive rhythmic streams based on Markov chain analysis, for an
installation by Ralf Nuhn and an audio performance using a Nanoloop
Gameboy Sequencer at one of the Dublin Art and Technology Association's
monthly DATA events. Decal have just released their third album '404 not
found' on Planet-Mu records.

Michelle Deignan and Simon Goodwin created Variablemedia in 2001 to
explore notions of place, process, temporality and artistic practice.
This London (UK) based organisation is now initiating a series of web
projects involving internationally based artists. Artists will occupy
the www.variablemedia.org site for a period of between one and three
months. This empty space is available for them to change, update and add
to during their project's run; a criterion of these projects is that the
artist's present work over time. Variablemedia.org aims to present the
artists work in an unmediated form; all explanatory material and
archives will be held at the sister www.variablemedia.info site.
Following SeaPoint is a project by Edward Dorrian and Sally Morfill,
which will commence on July 7th 2002.

For further information visit http://www.variablemedia.info or mail
[email protected]
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Links for Cliona Harmey:
For a catalogue essay on Sequent Harmey's solo exhibition at Arthouse,
Dublin - http://www.arthouse.ie/exhibitions/sequent/bkgrnd.htm
For a review of Harmey's solo exhibition Sequent at Arthouse, Dublin -
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2000/0823/fea2.htm
For comments on Harmey's residency in New York -
http://www.ink-shop.org/ithjournal.htm

Links for Dennis McNulty:
For a review of The Captain's Road -
http://www.Ireland.com/newspaper/features/2002/0417/2228154592ATVISART.html

For a review of DATA3 - http://www.recirca.com/artnews/123.shtml
For a review of '404 not found' -
http://www.rte.ie/arts/2002/0319/decal.html