Memory Machines #3: an oceanic pas de deux

Memory machines is an ongoing archival project exploring the entanglement of historical narratives and the physical storage devices within which these exist, age and percolate. The 3rd iteration in this series, Memory Machines #3: an oceanic pas de deux (2026-28) [MM3] focuses on the creative and poetic ways coastal environments become portals for memory and the way earthbodies (humans and more-than-human bodies) become implicated as inscription devices within them. The title pas de deux also refers to pioneering Canadian animations artist Norman McLaren’s work whose work set the stage for our progress in depicting virtual traces and memory in digital art. Memory Machines #3: an oceanic pas de deux centres around a collaborative dance between a deep sea robot and a terrestrial human dancer to highlight points of tension and synchronicity manifested through a pair of cobots that are tethered physically to each other. Building on current YOLO based programs that are optimized for human post estimation and reconstruction, we used a gradient of generative AI programs to parse movement instructions from videos from both deep sea robots and those of collaborating dancer Lindsay Delaronde into coordinates for directing terrestrial robotic arms.