Obscura sets out to explore our entanglement with the seafloor by using seafloor sound and the Javanese traditional instrument Gamelan, mediating our seafloor and human relations. The film indicates how our global mineral production and electronic device consumption has driven more seafloor pollutions.
Sound occupies private and public spaces. However, there is a sound we rarely hear in everyday life: seafloor sound. This underwater sound is situated in deep spaces. Thinking with the seafloor sound matters because the seafloor sound is a primary indicator used to find tin ores, beneath the seabed. Tin ores are a critical metal for electronic devices and automobile manufacturers, which means the sound of the seafloor is the bedrock of our modern infrastructure. In this way, this sonic wave we hear mediates our unexpected ecological relation with a distant yet intimate place, the ocean-floor.