Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the mid Atlantic and has a long history of being an industrial, manufacturing, and transportation driven city. The Patapsco River is still heavily impacted by a wide range of source pollutants from the dense urban development adjacent to it. Measures are being taken by many organizations to help clean the River so that it may become a destination for both social and environmental ecologies once again. The movement and flows of water are part of the natural cleansing system which people are attempting to enhance to expedite the healing process. 

Wading in the Harbor, will be a record of the river’s movement by making a digital recording of the Patapsco’s undulating and dynamic surface and redisplaying it during the light festival. A buoy will be deployed in an area of the Patapsco for a period of a week during the month of October 2016, recording the water surface in the harbor of a specified area. During the festival a series of masts will be erected to digitally replay the information, creating a field of light which users can ‘wade’ throughout giving them the ability to experience the Patapsco from the walking surface of the harbor. The masts will take the form of wet-land Typha, commonly known as cat-tails found in the Chesapeke wetlands. This field sensory condition will give users an experience of immersion in the river throughout the tidal cycles of the earth’s rotation.

/  Project Team  

Jonathan A. Scelsa, Jennifer Birkeland, Giacomo Sartorelli.

/ Collaborators

Danil Nagy - Deluxe Modular

/ Project Info

/ Project Type - Folly Proposal
/ Location - Baltimore, MD
/ Client - City Lights
/ Project Date - 2016