Dan Torop

Ocean

I've worked on the digital Ocean since 2000. It is a real-time, physics based, interactive manifestation of the ocean.

I was spending a lot of time out at the ocean, photographing the waves. It was sublime. But, apparently, also determined by the laws of physics? So I researched a bit, found some fluid dynamics math, and began work on an implementation of the ocean.

The project's gone through permutations over the years. Initially I thought of it as a still piece, a screen one could walk over to and see a preset variant of the ocean. Soon, though, I hooked up a gamepad to allow control of viewpoint, the wind and the rain, gravity, the sky color. Eventually an archipelago and a moon both seemed necessary. There is also scary mode.

Some videos of the ocean in action:

The images below are from a CD I made in 2005 for North Drive Press #2 containing 640 images of the ocean and sixteen movies of it in action.

ocean9098-00031
ocean9098-00031
ocean12986-00073
ocean12986-00073
ocean10097-00008
ocean10097-00008
ocean19809-00037
ocean19809-00037
ocean14758-00063
ocean14758-00063
ocean16964-00115
ocean16964-00115
ocean16964-00203
ocean16964-00203
ocean16964-00237
ocean16964-00237
ocean16964-00289
ocean16964-00289
ocean16964-00347
ocean16964-00347
ocean16964-00386
ocean16964-00386
ocean3780-00018
ocean3780-00018
ocean5706-00049
ocean5706-00049
ocean5706-00036
ocean5706-00036
ocean5706-00056
ocean5706-00056
ocean19809-00050
ocean19809-00050
ocean16964-00138
ocean16964-00138
ocean16964-00158
ocean16964-00158
ocean18763-00107
ocean18763-00107
ocean19375-00015
ocean19375-00015
ocean19375-00073
ocean19375-00073
ocean19809-00057
ocean19809-00057
ocean19809-00059
ocean19809-00059