An Ocean in Your Sky

“An Ocean in Your Sky” 2022 – 2023, by Ryan Seslow, is a story about change.

We will all face times in our lives where we must shed a role, identity and perception of ourself that we no longer are.. Perhaps that metamorphosis can be intentionally induced through a form of creative metaphoric narrative? The medium may be generated through meditation, a gaming engine, animation, video and the written word. That is one small formula, this is my attempt to integrate and simulate such a thing…

The “piece” below contains a series of written passages, looping animation and aesthetically stylized video. The artwork is soundless. I believe that there is great depth and beauty in soundlessness. It is an overlooked medium and energy source that hearing people take for granted. The intention of the soundlessness is to provoke the viewer to go inside of themselves and connect to that pending emotional state that needs to be faced. But “how” does one know once it has shed a self-perception of themselves? That evidence can only arrive through a metric of “time” spent in new and contrasting experiences.. or perhaps, I am simply wrong. I’m OK with that.

This page is the first iteration of the animated art-works coming together in a sequence along with the written text narratives. It is a preview before the works gets unified into a single piece of video art. Im not sure about how I will integrate the texts, perhaps as subtitles? As much as I want to treat the work as a single larger whole, there is a part of me fighting to release each animation individually, slowly over a few days or weeks..

The Montage – A montage has taken form in the familiar narrative of a looping video that continues to glitch. The pang’s of that glitch serve as an invitation, a vision into the future of a functioning module called “you.” It is one of billions, obviously, but this one is yours. It has been built and written in <code>, it will loop infinitely, but you already know that. You have found yourself starting from the middle of this story, back-tracking sequences and then coming full circle to the present as it expands. The story can’t advance without you. You will need to decide how to proceed as all of the fragments must come together to make up the whole..

The Calm – A memory captures your attention, you noticed your body change, a descending of your posture, and how your hands fell so heavily. There was a time when all was calm and fluid, everything was taken care of by others. The giants were called “adults”, they were a metric presence and perspective from the Y axis. They all seemed so equally wise, together and certain, yet also broken.. like the 30-year retention of a chipped fragment from a mug that you once dropped. These memories can be accessed at any time.. but only from stillness.. and the stillness had become a commodity now so so many years ago..

The Emotional Surge – Upon that stillness, a familiar state of being-ness and awareness erupts as its emotional temperature rises. An emotion so strong that it can only manifest through dichotomies of reference. You find yourself reminded of the complete and utter beauty and equal destructiveness of nature itself. An ocean of emotion, an endless ocean of emotions..

The Doorway – The result and manifestation of the emotional surge is “the doorway.” The portal opens and this time you are more compelled to walk through it than ever. There is an “otherness” to this door that is communicating something profound, for the first time you feel like the actual creator and architect of the doorway itself. You grapple with an inner chatter and its warnings as you begin to approach the door. You walk through it anyway..

The Concrete Island – The portal closes and abruptly disappears. The setting changes seamlessly. The landscape of your psychology presents itself as a large city surrounded by aggressive waters. The emotions continue to surge and protect the city. The city vibrates to a droning humming sensation, it can only be felt and attuned into. It was effortless to connect to it.. This new city was now your “home.”

The New Technology – They came in abundance from a single vanishing point on the horizon and they could not be stopped. Millions upon millions of processor chips shape shifted their scale as they flew overhead. Small enough to fit on the tip of a finger, yet their power could only be comprehended through physical scale. Another metaphor. Powered by electromagnetic energy that could only be induced, absorbed and extracted through a meditative state.. a new energy that also now presented itself as <code>..

The Betrayal – The betrayal was staged by the ego itself. Knowing it soon would have to die, it mounted its final siege of manipulation and self-sabotage.. its energy dissolved and it witnessed the loss of its grip.. A birth from within takes place. The artist, the physicist, the programmer, the meditation teacher, the game designer & the storyteller came together and formed a new collaboration. A shift in perception displayed a vastness of potential outcomes, something had changed, an ephemerality of forever trans-mutated into the now..

The Befriending – A “being” appears hovering in place as the landscape of your psychology reappears in the distance. The being is benevolent, warm and sending telepathic communication to you. You understand and welcome the new feelings. The being is human like but its body and limbs are made up of vine plants. A strong metaphor, yet another one, and another.. onward.