Time Delayed Exhibition
(Photographic Message in a Bottle)

Media: photography

Print size: 4x5 inches

Number of prints: 10

from the
Transatlantic Series

Number of bottles: 7

Dimensions: 7 x 3 x 3 inches
Color: bright yellow

Launch dates: December 9-14, 2017

North Atlantic, Celtic Sea and English Channel
PREFACE

In English, a message is a form of information providing meaning and content. It is also by definition, the form or vessel of the information by which it is conveyed. The result, is that a message can also be the message.

PROJECT

Time is the DNA of photography. Photographers who record and represent time beyond the limits of human vision use the camera in different ways: at high speed for example, capturing a bullet in mid air piercing an apple (Harold Edgerton, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964) or with a slow speed exposure of the flow of river water, which when printed looks like soft serve ice cream (Carleton Watkins, Yosemite, California, 1867). Other camera methods illustrating the passage of time: sequential or interval photographs showing growth and decay, day or night, human aging etc.

This work does not use the camera to explore the concept of time: it uses the photographic print. Seven waterproof bottles, each containing a micro exhibition of 4x5 inch photographs, were jettisoned in the North Atlantic, Celtic Sea and English Channel. Each bottle is now a time capsule, carrying portraits of the ocean itself. The intent is to externalize the core nature of photography by using an elapsed time method of exhibition, presenting work to an unknown audience at an indeterminate future.

This floating exhibit is displayed and viewed when each bottle has been retrieved and opened. To date, only one has been found (off the coast of France). Thus, this work continues to exist, passively weaving and bobbing through water and time.

CHANCE AND HISTORY

Bottle messages have historically been used as a means of communication by sea faring people. These messages relied on chance for the bottles to survive and on the receptivity of the finder to keep or share the message.

These vessels have been used for science (studying the ocean currents) [1] [2] and leisure (to memorialize a pleasant summer day on a lake). [3] Children on seaside vacations have embraced their use [4] [5] as well as romantics seeking romance. [6] [7] Perhaps the most touching are the farewells from those who faced death. [8] [9] [10] [11] These are some of the myriad ways they have been used to reach out and communicate with another human being.

FOOTNOTES

[1] German Naval Observatory, 1886. Thousands jettisoned and only 662 messages returned. Also the Glasgow School of Navigation, 1914. 1,890 research bottles sent adrift. To date, 315 found and returned.

[2] The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), 1960's. The WHOI deposited more than 165,000 bottles by ship and plane along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. They have an estimated 10% rate of return.

[3] Tillie Esper and Selina Pramstaller, 1915. Their bottle was found in 2012 at the bottom of the St. Clair River, Michigan. It had been tossed from a ferry by the two young women 98 years before.

[4] Zoe Averianov, 1990. Zoe, at age 10, threw the bottle from a ferry traveling from Hull, England to Belgium. It was discovered 23 years later in the Netherlands.

[5] Sidonie Fery, 2001. Sidonie was also 10 when she threw the bottle into the ocean from Long Island, New York. It was found 10 years later in Long Island. Unfortunately, Sidonie had died two years previous from a hiking accident at the age of 18. The message was forwarded to her mother.

[6] Frank Hayostek, 1945 and Ake Viking, 1955. U.S. Medical Corpsman Hayostek, returning from service in France and the Swedish sailor Viking both tossed bottles from ships. When the notes were found, both met and dated the young women who were the recipients. Viking married his recipient but Hayostek did not.

(Hayostek's bottle was found by an 18 year old girl in Ireland. Viking's was found by an Sicilian fisherman, who gave it to his 17 year old daughter to respond).

[7] Craig Sullivan, 2017. A year after Sullivan's wife died, he drove around the U.K. and sent out 2,000 bottles with messages hoping to meet a new partner. To his chagrin, Sullivan received complaints about releasing them near salmon breeding grounds and for littering when 30 bottles washed up on just one beach.

[8] Chunosuke Matsuyama, 1784. The story oft told is that Matsuyama and his crew went on a sea expedition; the boat was destroyed in a storm; they took refuge on a deserted island. With minimal food and no fresh water, they slowly wasted away. Before he died, Matsuyama carved a message on a coconut shell telling of their dilemma, which he placed inside a bottle and threw into the ocean. 151 years later (in 1935) the alleged bottle washed up to the shore of his home village.

[9] Jeremiah Burke, 1912. Burke and his cousin, Nora Hegarty, booked passage on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Thirteen months later, his last message washed up on a beach near Cork Harbor, Ireland.

[10] Private Thomas Hughes, 1914. On his way to France at the beginning of W.W. 1, Private Hughes tossed a bottle with a message to his wife into the English Channel. It was found 85 years later in the River Thames. 2 days after writing the note, he was killed in action.

[11] Martin Douglas, 1956. Douglas of Miami Beach, Florida, lost power on his motor boat off the coast of Florida and presumably died at sea. Two years later his last message to his wife washed up on a beach near Sydney, Australia, and was conveyed to her.

LAUNCH COORDINATES

Bottle 1:
December 9, 2017, 4:00 AM
40° 25.0N
073° 36.9W
Bottle 2:
December 10, 2017, 12:21 AM
41° 21.0N
064° 57.3W
Bottle 3:
December 11, 2017, 12:51 AM
44° 1.9N
052° 57.8W
Bottle 4:
December 12, 2017, 12:01 AM
45° 15.1N
040° 58.2W
Bottle 5:
December 13, 2017, 12:02 AM
46° 0.4N
027° 52.8W
Bottle 6:
December 14, 2017, 12:01 AM
47° 48.9N
015° 6.0W
Bottle 7:
December 14, 2017, 10:24 PM
49° 59.0N
003° 38.3W
Retrieved by Monsieur Patrick Casas at Baubigny, France, December, 22, 2017
Time Delayed Exhibition - Photographic Message in a Bottle

Monsieur Patrick Casas
with bottle #7
(Photograph by Etienne Guezou)

Time Delayed Exhibition - Photographic Message in a Bottle

Time Delayed Exhibition
(Photographic Message in a Bottle)

Time Delayed Exhibition - Photographic Message in a Bottle

Time Delayed Exhibition
Map of Bottle Launch Coordinates