When I Was a Buoyant

Climate change challenges the limits of human comprehension of causality and complexity, particularly the space-time dimensions of local vs global actions-and-consequences in the here-and-now vs distant future. When I Was a Buoyant is research project that comprises of a photo-portrait series of climate change data physically projected onto participants' bodies, to illustrate sea level rise measured against the human body. The project mapped and modelled past, present and future (predictions of) climate data to render apocalyptic imagining of what different climate trajectories mean for the planet in human-scale and planetary-scale time and space. The portraits are presented to illustrate techniques for exploring how climate change challenges collective and individual agency, and of the space-time dimensions of natural and human history.

The project was initially produced through an Artist Residency at Marrickville Council in July - August 2012. It was exhibited at the exhibition 'Fixing Futures: Planetary Futures between Speculation and Control' at the Museum Giersch at Goethe University, April 5, 2025 - August 31, 2025.