Going underwater : perspectives from the eyes of an artistic swimmer : a personal exploration through an audio-visual practice-based project

Abstract

As a little girl, if someone had to ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would say that I wanted to be a mermaid. I had this obsession with mermaids and their interaction with the underwater world. The closest thing I could do to become a mermaid was to go to swimming lessons. Later on, a two-time Olympic champion, Saho Harada (1982-), approached me during one of my swimming lessons and asked me if I would like to try a sport called synchronised swimming. At the time, I had no idea what this sport entailed, as it was Harada herself who introduced this sport to the island in 2010 when she came to Malta to learn English and was surprised that this sport was not practiced here. Since I am always on the lookout for new experiences, I went for it and due to that decision, I am where I am today, twelve years later, an ex-artistic swimming athlete and currently passing my knowledge about this beautiful sport to younger athletes as a coach. When I entered the University of Malta and decided to read for a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Fine Arts back in 2021 and later choosing Fine Arts for the Honours Degree, I always believed that this sport would be featured in my final dissertation project. I would interact with mediums or media that I learned and refined during the last three years in fine art practice. One example could be photography, which featured in the study unit titled ‘Grammar of Photography’ taught by Dr. Gilbert Calleja, and other study units, for the audience to put themselves in my shoes, or better to say, in my swimsuit and experience, what it is like being immersed in water with other athletes from a different perspective. With the technological advances we have today, I aim to create a multi-media installation where the audience can immerse themselves into it. I want to create an experience where my personal relationship with the sport and artistic practice, such as photography and videography, merge together. Instead of showing what happens out of the water, as one typically sees in the sport, I want to show the sport from another perspective, that is, the underwater perspective. With this in mind, I aim to replicate an underwater pool environment in an enclosed space, by using light, sound and projections. These projections would show multiple videos taken from under the water and will be presented on the walls, with athletes taking over them, as they perform different movements involving the whole body submerged under the water. With my final project installation, I hope to bring the audience closer to my vision of the project and also to an important part of my life. The audience will be allowed to feel what it is like to be an athlete in a water sport, through a variety of senses, through an audio-visual practice-based project.