Project by Vasiliki Zochiou
“Hudson is one of the most intensely monitored rivers in the world. Data regarding its water level, temperature, oxygen, salinity, currents, as well as its species’ lives, are registered every 15 minutes, transmitted and published every hour, and federally collected and archived for the past 30 years. Hudson’s data travels from small devices across the river (sondes, recorders, eel mops) to monitoring stations, ground satellites and supercomputers all over the States, eventually available to our screens as diagrams, once per hour.
However, the Hudson River’s data is creating a stock of information, but not a narrative. In an era when environmental monitoring fosters skepticism—while data removal creates even more—it is important to weave the data into meaning.
Meanwhile, Hudson is a tidal river. Deeply defined by the periodic movement of its waters, its currents diverse direction every 6 hours, creating a vibrant ecosystem of natural periodic circles.
In this notion of rhythm and periodicity lies the unifying system of these two bodies: the body of water and the body of data. The Hudson Institute of Tidal Choreographies is an ensemble shaped by tidal pulses and technological rhythms. Seeking new forms of engagement—ones that acknowledge the river’s temporal intelligence and ask how to attune to it—the Institute designs techno-natural devices that draw the initiated species—humans, eels, bacteria—into new collective rituals of desire, care, and repair.”
