Oceanic

Oceanic considers how in this moment of COVID and climate change can we mourn the loss of people, places and capacities, and build new queer abolitionist futures. Oceanic is a multidisciplinary art project that includes poetry, dance, installation and Augmented Reality (AR) to engage with landscapes and aquatic species threatened by climate change, stitching the line from colonization to neoliberalism to racial capitalism through holographic dance performances captured with volumetric video.

Oceanic presents audiences with the coast of the Pacific Ocean at Natural Bridges State Beach, with a series of performances that consider how climate change is a racial justice issue. The creation of this project includes volumetric video of dance performances by Cynthia Ling Lee, Gerald Casel and micha cárdenas, in collaboration with Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong, Anna Friz and Ian Costello.

Oceanic presents volumetric, or 3-D, video of movement performances, alongside 3-D LIDAR scans of ecotonal coastal environments which are disappearing due to sea level rise. These scans include other species who live on the coast, including starfish and sea urchins. Oceanic will also present words from chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, who wrote about this 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.