Tomorrow was Yesterday
for The Buhl Planetarium
Carnegie Science Center May 3, 2026
Home Run Pictures
Carnegie International 2026
Notes:
We are indelibly tied to enigmatic realms of the sea floor. It's a connection made concrete from the minerals that infuse our infrastructure, the paradoxes that politicise our quotidian, and the geographic tragedies that underscore our impact. As our existence is intertwined with the ocean's depths, Tomorrow was Yesterday is an exploration informed by the state change, distribution, and movement of water, soil, and rocks in extraction economies.
Questions:
How might these studies teach us more about the liminal space between being human capital and an autonomous, liberated being forged by indeterminacy? Is there potential for intimate communion of the geological and historical past? How do specters take shape when the ocean floor is opened? How do geologic and human time stretch and fold on each other? What is the scale of sound in the deep sea? How is infrastructural animism useful while imagining more liveable futures? What of syncopations in new world-building? What are we listening for?
The Short Animation
key themes:
-Extraction infrastructure.
-Scale and distance.
-Folding time and space
-Abstraction
-A fault block is a mass of rock bounded by faults on at least two opposite sides. These blocks can be large, even hundreds of kilometers in extent, and are formed by tectonic and localized stresses in the Earth's crust. When these fault blocks move due to tectonic forces, they can create distinctive geological formations, such as fault-block mountains.
-An anticline is an arch-like fold in rock layers where the layers slope downward from the central crest or axis
Where are oil and gas found and how?
Seabed Extraction/Subsea Production System
BPTT The company holds exploration and production licenses and production-sharing contracts covering more than 1.6 million offshore acres of the country’s east and north-east coast. It operates 15 offshore platforms and two onshore processing facilities that produce gas and associated liquids. BPTT is the biggest natural gas producer in Trinidad and Tobago. The company’s gas production represents approximately 55% of the country’s production.
Matapal project is an offshore gas project, Gas was discovered during the drilling of the Savannah exploration well.
The Savannah exploration well was drilled into a fault block situated to the east of the Juniper gas field, at a water depth of 534 ft, in 2017. Drilled by the Ocean Victory semi-submersible rig (The Ocean Victory has been involved in various projects, including drilling operations for BP's Juniper project offshore Trinidad and Tobago. It has also worked on projects in the Gulf of Mexico. )
The exploration well encountered hydrocarbon reservoirs in two intervals, containing net pay of approximately 650ft.
Note: Juniper Juniper is an offshore gas project in the. Columbus Basin located in the East Mayaro Block (Block EM) between Trinidad and Tobago. It is made up of two gas fields, Corallita, which has three subsea wells, and Lantana, with two subsea wells. The two fields are located 50 miles off the south-east coast of Trinidad and Tobago, in water depths between 330ft and 360ft. The wells are tied in to a platform that will gather gas from the two fields.
-five multiphase flexible flow lines
-an umbilical line from the platform location to the subsea distribution unit, flying leads, and control equipment.
-The subsea production capacity will be 590 million metric standard cubic feet a day (MMscfd) of natural gas and 2,500 barrels a day of condensate.
Matapal project involves the development of a three-well subsea tie-back (subsea pipeline system) to the existing production facility at the Juniper gas field, which will reduce the development expenses and related carbon footprint. The hydrocarbons from the field are transferred to the Juniper platform through two 9km-long infield flexible flowlines.
Maersk Discoverer semi-submersible drilling rig
-The North Sea Atlantic advanced subsea construction vessel was used to install the subsea infrastructure for the project (Subsea construction vessel)
Maersk Drilling Rig (drilling suppliers)
Subsea pipelins
Wells
The Columbus Basin contains two primary structural trends, anticlines trending towards east-north-east and normal faults oriented towards north-north-west. The late Miocene Lower Cruse Formation is believed to be the source of the oil in the basin, while gas is found in Pliocene-Pleistocene pro-delta shale rocks. The extensional faults were partly responsible for the migration of the hydrocarbons to the Pliocene-Pleistocene reservoirs.
Subsea gas production infrastructure and how it works
Gas fields are made, and subsea wells are installed
-Corporate partnerships
The story: We find ourselves the size of an ant crawling on the outside of a section of the sculpture. We make our way inside the sculptures and find Metapal and Ocean Loyalty inside, both embedded in one of the paintings. After we find our way to the seabed, we explode and morph into particles.
Questions: Can everything exist in fragments? Can there be a relationship between the macro and the micro that is non linear? Can we play with the sequence of the story?
Location: Columbus Basin to move inside the sculpture.
The two fields are located 50mi off the south-east coast of Trinidad and Tobago, in water depths between 330ft and 360ft.
Subjects: Ocean Loyalty and MetaPal 534.777 ft bellow sea level
Objects
Atmosphere
I had this sculpture in mind to begin, but we can discuss using others if we go this route.
Can the motion of our camera also travel through sculpture? How would this work with Fish eye cam?
We can choose one of these paintings to place one of the objects. Again, can the motion of our camera also travel through Painting? Can the flat planes become volumes we travel on or through?
Inside the paintings?
Movement and Sound
Subsea: This is a scorebook I made recently and am turning into a storyboard as I get the hang of this process. At the moment, it is fully abstract. However, it plays with movement and scale. I'm thinking about it as choreography. I'll be working toward a larger storyboard as our conversation progresses. I'm thinking about the rhythm and timing like a school of fish. That is to say, something that looks improvisational and intuitive.
I also plan to score the film. Please listen to a sample below. The sound, scorebook, and storyboard inform each other. I would love to discuss this further.
Seismic Days
I will be working on more storyboards as we talk through the sequence. Working my way to illustrations.
Storyboard 1.
Light
Sarah-Teng- Inpiration.
I have a question about color and would love to discuss.
Thinking about a limited color palette.
I'm thinking about things like height, depth and width.
This is a new piece I made in late 2024. I thought the groves might be a nice space to discuss.
Front Dome
