Leviathan’s Temple

Meckin, David; Williams, Keir; Fairweather-Hole, Joe; Evans, Rhiannon

Abstract

Leviathan’s Temple takes the shifting currents of the Gulf stream as a starting point for an exploration of social and environmental change in the post-industrial maritime communities of the South West of England and the Arctic reaches of Northern Norway.

Temple
_The flat part of either side of the head between the forehead and the ear.
_A place devoted to or seen as the centre of a particular activity or interest.

Conceived as part of a series of installations invested in creating contemplative places, Leviathan’s Temple is the latest chapter in an ongoing collaborative process by Live|Digital|Design collective. The Whale (a barnacled angel, traversing the globe in its aquatic world) has been documented in mythologies in many cultures and many epoch. Leviathan’s Temple depicts the inside of a whale skull as a conceptual non-space without temporal constraints, presenting the receptive with the time and space free from disquiet, a place for contemplation.

A reclaimed timber structure hangs from the ceiling like a stalactite, shocks of light illuminate the space like synapses firing in the brain matter, moving through the space one will be able to feel the audioscape of ‘whale song’, fractured sonic elements composed to flow together and create an eerie sound, like a song on the wind, muffled then explicit. The light synapses reacting with the audio, reflecting the undulating rhythm within the space. As the shifting shadows play, audio will sooth and discomfort along its journey.

Citation

Meckin, D., Williams, K., Fairweather-Hole, J., & Evans, R. Leviathan’s Temple. [Wood; video projection; audio; dynamic lighting.]. Exhibited at Submerge Festival & We The Curious, Bristol. 1 March 2019 - 14 June 2019. (Unpublished)

• Exhibition Performance Type: Exhibition
• Start Date: Mar 1, 2019
• End Date: Jun 14, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 8, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7249619
• Additional Information: Role: Artist, Sound Designer and audio-visual programmer.