Sounds of Unridden Waves is a major interdisciplinary artistic research project by The Ghosts of Nothing (Sean Lowry & Ilmar Taimre) that reconfigures the surf film genre through a posthumanist lens. By entirely removing human surfers, the work foregrounds the ocean as an autonomous force, exploring its aesthetic, sonic, and conceptual dimensions. Developed over three years, the project spans moving-image installation, sound composition, painting, photography, scholarly writing, and artefactual objects, generating multiple research outputs across traditional and non-traditional platforms. The feature-length film, created in collaboration with renowned surf filmmakers, presents a speculative oceanic journey across multiple locations, radically reimagined through experimental editing and an original three-part soundtrack. The work contributes to expanded moving-image practice, sound art, and contemporary exhibition discourse. Since its premiere at Project8 (Melbourne, 2022), Sounds of Unridden Waves has been screened internationally at film festivals and public spaces in Sydney, Berlin, Shanghai and Chengdu.
NTRO Output Category
- Original Creative Work : Visual artwork
Place
MelbourneVenue
project8 GalleryNTRO Publisher
Project8 GalleryMedium
Video, installation, painting, collage, photography and performanceResearch Statement
This project situates itself within contemporary interdisciplinary art, experimental film, and sound studies, engaging posthumanist discourse and oceanic aesthetics. Sounds of Unridden Waves reimagines the surf film genre, foregrounding non-human agency and the ocean’s sublime dynamism through immersive moving image, sound, and installation-based research into perceptual and temporal abstraction.
Sounds of Unridden Waves advances interdisciplinary artistic research by reconfiguring the surf film tradition through a posthumanist lens, eliminating human presence to foreground the ocean’s autonomous agency. This work contributes to expanded moving-image practice by integrating experimental film, sound art, and installation, destabilising conventional spectatorship through non-linear temporalities and immersive audiovisual composition. By synthesising cinematic, musical, and conceptual strategies, the project expands critical discourse on the sublime, perceptual abstraction, and the ontology of artistic practice within contemporary exhibition formats.
Sounds of Unridden Waves is significant for its conceptual and material innovations within expanded moving-image practice, challenging human-centred representations of nature through a posthumanist reimagining of the surf film. Since its well attended initial exhibition and performance program at Project8 (Melbourne, 2022), the work has generated multiple related traditional and non-traditional research outputs, including peer reviewed journal articles, international festival screenings, a three-part soundtrack album, and large-scale public installations—culminating in 2024 screenings in China at Taiku Li Golden Age LED (Chengdu) and Metro Metaverse 3D Dome (Shanghai).Size or Duration of Work
Six week exhibition and screeningAffiliation
Sean Lowry, University of Melbourne
