Mere Cui
​Thermal Algorithm
Speculative Interactive Installation, 2025
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Thermal Algorithm is an interactive installation developed from my Environmental Studies thesis on climate-driven marine movement. The project centers on two species I studied closely: the Eastern Pacific green turtle and the bull shark. Both have begun to shift their routes and ranges as warming waters, changing thermal corridors, and recurrent ENSO cycles reshape the ocean conditions they rely on. I rebuilt their skeletons as metallic forms, with each body reflecting movement shaped by environmental pressure and by routes that no longer remain stable.
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The installation creates a small climate surface across the table. Sea surface temperature patterns, ENSO variability, and migration research guide a projected field of color and motion. The slow transitions in hue, pace, and texture are shaped by the temperature patterns I studied, including thermal anomalies documented in NOAA datasets and observations from recent marine movement research. The visuals do not present the data in a literal way. Instead, they move with the unsettled rhythm of a warming ocean.
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During my field visit to El Paredón, I spent time on the water with local fishermen and observed how the absence or altered timing of certain species could be sensed even without formal measurement. That experience shaped the interaction in the installation. When viewers move near the work, a gesture-based system changes the projection’s balance. Colors shift, the motion becomes less predictable, and the field searches for a new equilibrium. This response reflects the way marine species continually adjust to drifting temperature gradients, revising familiar paths as their environments change.
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The installation combines environmental research, anatomical reconstruction, and interactive media. It invites viewers to sense climate change through proximity and motion rather than explanation, allowing the reconstructed bodies to carry a quiet memory of instability and the feeling of an ocean where movement has become a form of adaptation.
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