Snowflake on the sand

Through the lens of a microscope you look at a sand dollar. A sand dollar is a flattened, burrowing species belonging to the order of the sea urchins. This natural sea creature is held in a custom-built manipulator, which is programmed to move the object in such a way that the viewer feels like they are flying over its magnified surface. At first you have a general idea of how that sand dollar looks in its actual size, but no clue how things evolve on a more minuscule level.

Through headphones, a story is read. As you watch and listen, your perceptions change, slowly. And when you stare a little longer, the structured pattern becomes more tangible, more rugged and uneven. Gradually the surface adopts a sandy disguise. Some tiny holes echo footsteps in snow.

The interaction between the unfolding of the unusual landscape and the voice over makes you appreciate the object differently and identify certain aspects which weren’t striking at first. It encourages you to look at an ordinary object and to picture it as something more than the material.

This work navigates effortlessly between a vast imagined landscape and a miniature world, situated between moving image and moving object. It shows that everything can become many things, as long as you allow your imagination to look beyond its current reality.