The Metered Tide (Golden Gate, 2019)
The "Metered Tide" video manifests 120 years of sea water level data on the site where that data was collected: The San Francisco Marina. The data is manifested as music, and also in the way the video was edited.
Sea water level data from 1902 to 2019 shows an absolute sea water level increase in San Francisco of almost half a meter. During that time, tides and complex climate events like El Niño created dramatic fluctuations as well. Chris Chafe’s cello music builds on these changes, translating about 120 years of data into about 3.5 minutes of music.
The video shows Chris playing that music on his celletto near the site in San Francisco where sea water levels are measured. The sea water level data governs the video edit as well. Each cut in Chris Chafe’s performance, from one camera angle to another, marks a major shift in flood and storm patterns, based on a statistical analysis of the data. A data overlay over the video shows the spectrum analysis of Chafe’s music, aligned with the ocean’s horizon.
Video by Greg Niemeyer, Data Visualization by Greg Niemeyer, Production Assistants: Olivia Ting, Oliver Moldow. Production Design: Lisa Esters, Data: NOAA San Francisco, CA - Station ID: 9414290
The Metered Tide (Coastal Futures Version, 2021)
In 2021, we made a new version of the Metered Tide for the Coastal Futures Symposium at the University of Virginia. The new version features the same data, but a musical track performed by the EcoSono ensemble. Greg Niemeyer made new graphics for the video using Blender and Python. The technical aspects of the work are discussed here, and the video is linked below.