N.51º09’23” W.39º11’55”
The ocean is an alien. A landscape becomes familiar over time as we get to know the different folds in a range of hills. But a landscape of water can never be grasped. There is no difference as far as the eye can see and yet it is utterly different in every moment.
In the book ‘Solaris’, Stanislaw Lem describes a future where mankind has discovered an ocean planet that is in fact one huge, undulating mind. When you are in the middle of it, the ocean feels like this – a giant brain that is hard at work dreaming unfathomable thoughts that go on for ever, in every direction, for always. An organism that is totally indifferent to your presence. I love it. It’s a fantastic thinking space. In fact you can’t avoid thinking – there is something hypnotising about the waves and the air that pulls out thoughts from your mind like a seagull working at a clam.