Dead Reckoning plots a visual and sound journey through a seascape containing monuments to industry, energy and leisure.
Dead Reckoning features cinematic images of the immediate environment - together with underwater video and sound recordings - to create a dialogue between ‘above’ and ‘below’ the waterline. This journey imagines possible relationships between the marine mammals beneath the sea and the human activity above the sea.
This work is a response to maritime environments in the north east of Scotland, and features recorded material sourced from marine researchers at the Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty.
In navigation, ‘dead reckoning’ is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course. Advances in navigational aids which give accurate information on position, in particular satellite navigation, has made simple dead reckoning by humans obsolete for most purposes.
(Dead Reckoning was one of several short films and installations produced by Stephen Hurrel during the Sublime artist residency in summer 2012, based at the Lighthouse Field Station, Cromarty, initiated by IOTA, Inverness and supported by Aberdeen University and Creative Scotland)
