High Water is a permanent public artwork at the Green Square Plaza in Sydney. It is a collaboration between Indigo Hanlee, Michael Thomas Hill and Lightwell.
Installed in 2018, the artwork is a nine metre two-sided blade with high resolution LED screens which graphically interpret local weather patterns and tidal information using integrated sensors and live data feeds.
High Water's program is created using a mixed style of hand-created watercolours and generative art that constantly transforms in relation to linked live data.
For the sky, temperature changes the display of colours, humidity affects the size of the blooms, wind direction is represented by the movement and velocity of the animation as it tracks across the screen, and rainfall becomes water droplets that run down the screen. The sea level is shown slowly rising and falling from low tide to high tide, with its colour also reflecting the temperature throughout the year.
Our data comes from WillyWeather, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and local weather sensors installed at Green Square Plaza.
Once an hour the artwork sends its visual data to the online archive www.highwater.sydney. This archive allows visitors to understand the data, colours and patterns in real time and see visual summaries of local environmental conditions over the day, week and year.
High Water was commissioned by the City of Sydney. Special thanks to Jisuk Han, Big Screen Projects and Event Engineering for their help on this project.