From September 2020, for nine months, an underwater network camera was installed in Aigio, Greece looking out to sea.

The camera was installed on a ship which had anchored in the Old Port to sit out the pandemic and was situated on the upper deck by the captain’s cabin.

Current captured the seascape from Aigio throughout the year continuously constructing images pixel-by-pixel from the top left to the bottom right of the screen (like writing on a page). Each image took twelve hours to complete – approximately the time it takes for the tide to rise and fall.
The ‘current’ of the title refers to both the currents of the sea, as well as current in terms of the ‘now’ moment of a work that is constantly in flux in a continually updating present.

The original intention for Current was to install the underwater network camera on the Harbour Wall of Aigio’s rarely used Old Port located level with the median point of the surface of the water at high/low tides so that the viewpoint would alternate between above and below water, depending on time and tide. The plan was disrupted however by a number of ships returning to port unexpectedly having been grounded due to the Covid crisis and obscuring the original vantage point.

The ships that had anchored finally set sail from the Old Port in 2022 and in October 2023 the camera was finally able to be installed in the original intended location.

Current was made for the Primarolia Festival 2020 exhibition Images of a Floating World, 12 – 30th September 2020 curated by Nansy Charitonidou

Current II is being exhibited as part of the Primarolia Festival 2023 exhibition(ISAXO) in response to your letter (ACEUK) weather is approving, 18 November – 3 December 2023, Villa Kolla, Patras, Greece curated by Nansy Charitonidou and Bill Psarras

Please see Current II for the latest version.

Part of an ongoing series of works transmitting and composing images over time from remote locations Current II – now in its original intended position at sea level – is the first work in the series from the perspective of the water itself.

More images from the work can be found on Instagram at @susanalexislandscapes

Current was made possible thanks to:
OTAQ Offshore, for generously providing the underwater camera and subsea equipment
Matt Jarvis, as always for his creative programming and inventive solutions
The Port Authority, Aigio for agreeing to host the camera and the ship who agreed to take on a new digital crew member at very short notice
and last but not least the goodwill, generosity and inventiveness of Nansy Charitonidou and Bill Psarras and the Primarolia Festival Team