A breadcrumb trail of project notes
The Hydrobot performance will take approximately five minutes and represents a single cycle of the ocean from high tide to low tide and back again. It should give the feel of a good surfing session with high tide being dull, building waves as the tide ebbs eventually leading to poor conditions at low tide, then better conditions again on the way to the end of the day. Each of the four jets of the hydrobot can be thought of as different points (underwater rocks with the potential to create breaking waves) on a beach which faces an incoming ocean swell. Each point is assigned its own height value, which determines if incoming swell will pass over the point, break on it, or be closed out (break in a turbulent way).
If an incoming wave is more than one wave height above the point, it passes without breaking. If a wave is less than one wave height above the point, it will “break”, and the jet for that point is open for a period of time proportional to the height of the wave over the point. If the height of the wave when it breaks is too high, the wave is closed out and the jet will pulse rapidly and irregularly.
As the piece begins at high tide, the points are submerged and the waves do not break. The water from the jets is in this case constant. As the tide ebbs, the points will begin to break. As the tide lowers further, the points will become closed out, and the piece will be cacophonous with rapid bursts and irregular rhythms. As the tide rises, the piece returns to rhythm and then to a steady stream.