Ocean Beach
Doug Hall + Jim McKee
Ocean Beach is a three-channel video projection that observes the beach at the western edge of San Francisco between Sloat Boulevard on the south and Sutro Baths on the north. Shot over the span of a year, the three synchronized projections, capture the beach’s changing moods as a natural setting and as an urban social space. The visual elements shot and edited by Hall are accompanied by a 7.1 surrounding audio track composed by composer and sound designer, Jim McKee.
Ocean Beach is spectacular—the location of extraordinary changes in light and weather, particularly during the winter months when storms come out of the Gulf of Alaska or blow across from Asia. It’s then that the sea becomes its most violent and dangerous (also its most beautiful), known to grab unaware visitors who venture too far along one of the walls bordering the sea at the edge of the Sutro Baths. In the summer, the extreme contrast between the hot and dry inland areas and the cold water along the coast can produce fog and strong, chilling afternoon winds. On other occasions when the winds subside and the temperatures soar – usually for a few days in May or in early autumn – citizens of the city, representing all of its ethnic, economic, gendered, and political subgroups mingle along San Francisco’s sandy perimeter. It’s then that the beach becomes most alive with the heterogeneous pulse of the city.
To view an excerpt of the video click on the image below
