undertoe is a fully immersive, interactive environment which traces the invisible vibrations of participants’ footsteps visibly into a pool of water above their heads. Wherever one steps, water ripples out from directly above where their foot landed. Tip toe, and make gentle waves; hop to produce bigger, sustained rolling; jump or stomp to create large swells of water. Soft lamps shine focused beams through the undulating liquid, illuminating bands of light and dark on the space’s walls and floor. As more participants cross the threshold into undertoe, their waves disperse and dissipate over time, interfering with one another, and emerging as ever more complex waveforms.

undertoe is the experience of walking on water and watching yourself from beneath the surface. It re-presents the imperceptible currents of vibration our bodies unwittingly produce; these are sensed by the piece and transduced into water - a medium that slows down and re-embodies this resonance as perceptible. Our sweeping effects and affects slowly creep across the water’s surface, and perform potentials and relations with other bodies in and as space.

undertoe is an experiment in material memory, shared affectivity, and spaces both tangible and intangible.

details:

Here a four by seven meter blue tank will be suspended in an even larger room, filled with a grid of half-meter by half-meter interactive squares, each placed another half-meter apart. Stepping on any of these thin wooden pads results in a faint hum, and then waves in the water overhead. As this blue liquid ripples out, light bands itself across the room, redoubling its intensity. Each step produces another hum and more waves just above where you step. If you stomp harder or softer, they form longer and shorter ripples – each combining and reforming with the last. As more participants enter the space, their movements erupt outwards in counterpoint to others’, taking long strides across the room and each other. Two or more carefully choreographed individuals can work in tandem, at a distance or side by side, creating improbable formations with their bodies, in the body of water above, and in reciprocity with the space around them. undertoe was initially conceptualized in collaboration with greg shakar