The Sonogramm series turns scans of the ocean floor, which are taken by a buoy using side scroll sonar, into paintings. These visualizations, created only from the acoustic reflections, capture the depths of the ocean without its constant darkness being disrupted by light. The precise scanned area is recreated on an orange-yellow spectrum through the means of technology and is surrounded by an undefined black area.
The method of Side Scroll Sonar is based on echolocation, which is used by many marine organisms for orientation. Although life on our planet originated in the ocean, humans rely on perceptual-physiological substitutes to replace their own visual experience of the ocean floor and its depths. The technology necessary for this developed as part of our culture.
The eternal vastness of the unfathomed sea floor is unveiled in some places by high-resolution scans. In the works of the series, the undefined surrounding area, executed with black pigment, forms a single virtual surface. This is juxtaposed with the scan‘s defined area.
An important distinction is particularly visible at the interface between the black surrounding area and the parts with the least reflections and thus the least revealing information, the acoustic shadow, which was painted with deep brown Van Dyck pigment.
