Time Travelling Tours

The heart of the Sunk Shore method is the time-traveling walking tour. In 2017, as an offshoot of TRYST, the first Sunk Shore tour was made in collaboration with Paul Benney. This first Sunk Shore was made as part of the inaugural Works on Water Triennial. Since then there have been tours every year, in a variety of locations throughout New York City, both on shorelines and off. During the tours, participants are led first into the past (to establish the terrain), then into an extrapolated future, using sensory exercises, the surrounding structures, and evocative props.

Time Traveling Tours Year By Year

2024

Trees Future, Trees Past 2

In 2023 and 2024 we took the Sunk Shore method off the shoreline and moved inland. As an offshoot of their residency at Genspace Project, We worked with horticulturalist Sara Evans, Director of the Living Collections at Green-Wood, to identify how the trees and other plant life will change over time in the park.

Trees Future, Trees Past was an interactive walking experience about how the climate crisis will affect the trees of Green-Wood, a cemetery and park that houses an extensive arboretum. The experience wove the past and present conditions in Green-Wood with an extrapolation of the climate future, including adaptations currently being planned and implemented by Green-Wood.

Photos by Kelly AuCoin

2023

Trees Future, Trees Past 1

The first iteration of the collaboration with Green-Wood.

Photos by Sarai Mena

2021

Willets Point 2070

As part of Tending the Edge (a continuation of Walking the Edge, see below), where artists from across the five boroughs spent two months offering points of engagement and weaving relationships across New York City’s shoreline, through districts, wetlands, rivers, and boroughs. Sunk Shore visited Cody Ann Herrmann’s Brownfield Boating tours in Flushing Bay and Creek, and took visitors on a tour to the future, leading them into 2070, where Willet’s Point has two opposing sides, one wealthy and privatized and one collective and resourceful.

Photos by Julian Louis

2020

Sunk Shore East River

As part of Walking the Edge, a collaboration between arts organizations Works on Water and Culture Push, and the NYC Department of City Planning, Sunk Shore took over the Works on Water Instagram account, and via video delivered a report back from the future shorelines of the East River. The tour started in a very stormy 2092, and traveled backward in time to 2068, 2043, and 2020.

Sunk Shore East River Walking the Edge IG links on @works_on_water

2092

Island 10, East River

2068

News from the Citrus Groves

2020

2019

Sunk Shore Governors Island 2

On Governors Island we led participants along a route close to and on the south shore of Governors Island. The tour was approximately one hour and traveled approximately one mile, from Soisson’s Landing on the shore, passing through Liggett’s Terrace and ending at Fort Jay.

Devised by Carolyn Hall and Clarinda Mac Low.

Photos by Emily Blumenfeld

2018

Sunk Shore Governors Island 1

As part of the Works on Water/Underwater New York Residency at the WoWHaus (House 5B on Nolan Park, Governors Island), We led a tour along a route close to and on the north shore of Governors Island. Tours took place Sept. 8 & 23, 2018.

Devised by Carolyn Hall and Clarinda Mac Low, with contributions from Paul Benney.
Credits and Research

Photos by Emily Blumenfeld

2017

Sunk Shore Downtown

Sunk Shore Downtown was a tour of the future of lower Manhattan, devised by Paul Benney, Carolyn Hall, and Clarinda Mac Low as part of the inaugural Works on Water triennial of art that works in, with, or on the water. We led participants along a route close to and on the Hudson River from the Financial District to the shore of Battery Park. At the end of the tour, we provided a pamphlet that contained all the data used to create the tour.

The Works on Water Triennial was co-produced and presented by New Georges theater company and 3LD Art & Technology, and co-curated by 6 artist/curators, June 2017
Photos by Marina McClure and Nancy Nowacek

clarindamaclow.com
carolynjhall.com