The Sound of Jura lies between the Knapdale peninsula and the Isle of Jura on the west coast of Scotland. Below the surface is the elusive world of seaweeds - mysterious underwater forests that sway with the current. This archive of seaweed observes the lives and experiences of a piece of kelp that grew on the edge of Carsaig Bay, Scotland, creating a resource to explore the ever-changing conditions of this marine environment.

As you dive into the water, dancing kelp forests are revealed beneath the waves. When brought to the surface and dried, seaweeds are an archive teetering on the edge of becoming alive again at any moment. The potential for rehydration gives the dormant seaweed an agency to store living memory and the possibility to reactivate the living form. When re-saturated, dried seaweeds take on a new role, mimicking their living form in all but their ability to partake in the rituals of life. Their bodies become fluid and flexible, swaying in water as they would have before, and their cells can be used to investigate the scientific qualities of the plant. And yet, since the moment they were severed from their home, they have only existed as limp plant matter.

My project records the journey of an oar weed kelp specimen, from living to dried to re-saturated, as I collect and record the conditions in which seaweeds have grown through film and cyanotypes. I produce the cyanotype as part of the archive process, referencing the work of Anna Atkins, who first published a book of seaweed cyanotypes in 1843 and demonstrating a physical record of my interaction with the algae in and out of water.

Using the notion of a ‘planetary camera’, I collaborate with chance and location to mediate messages between Earth’s processes and its audience. The alchemy of the sea, seaweeds, and weather create an archive of the area, with the wind, rain and tide interacting with the process to provide a contextual backdrop for planetary media.