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Synergy

Artist: Troy Ruffels
Scientist: Alan Williams

Troy Ruffels

I was struck when looking at the video footage provided by Alan, at the pannage unfolding as the underwater camera rapidly scanned the ocean floor. A foreign landscape emerged and dissolved as the craft’s alien lights passed over, what was for me, an unfamiliar terrain. Fine debris and tiny filaments of life floated timelessly by, carried in and out of the light on the currents; a slow sideward drift of rain or sleet; of how you imagine the night wind carries dust, pollen, or tiny insects. Images and forms came in and out of focus — revealing a diverse range of matter and organic life; a rich tapestry of colour and pattern; intricate sedimentary trails; transparent glass like plants; delicate webs; and immense breaches in the ocean floor.

I was interested in representing this diversity of form, and in reflecting the sensation of movement, to suggest the rhythm and continuity of cyclical processes to which we are all inevitably tied. It was an attempt to bring an unfamiliar terrain into the realm of metaphor and imagination.

Alan Williams

In a professional sense, both of us deal with the content of multiple photographic images. My eyes instinctively search for data, especially shapes and colours, which enable me to understand seabed ecology based on patterns and associations. Troy's response to the imagery is very different and initially unfamiliar — he starts by confusing the order and removing colour. But then in his interpretation, I see similar things in the apparent chaos, the contrasts and variety of form that make up the big picture.