Navigating Seaways

Simon Penny’s Orthogonal featured in Embodied Pacific exhibit at UC San Diego

Simon Penny, professor of art at UC Irvine, will present his project Orthogonal in the Embodied Pacific exhibition from September 27 through December 6, 2024, at UC San Diego’s Visual Arts Gallery at Structural & Materials Engineering (SME). As part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: Art & Science Collide initiative, the exhibition features 30 artists collaborating with researchers from laboratories, field sites and archives across Southern California and the Pacific Islands. 

“Orthogonal is a multi-year project to design and build a modern sailcraft for sustainable interisland transport and trade, based on the design and dynamics of Micronesian voyaging canoes,” shared Penny.

On display is a 25% scale model of the sail craft alongside four video monitors showcasing various aspects of the project, including discussions of Pacific seafaring traditions, 3-D animations of the Penny reversible shunting rig and the concept of research-driven practice.

The exhibition invites audiences to engage with the intersections of oceanography, Indigenous design and critical craft through an immersive framework, bridging the arts and sciences in interdisciplinary ways.

Image: Simon Penny with UC Irvine students preparing to install masts on Orthogonal, June 2024. Photo by Jaime DeJong.

The Embodied Pacific exhibit is presented in collaboration with UC San Diego Visual Arts and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, with exhibitions, workshops and programs across six venues.

To learn more about Embodied Pacific, visit embodiedpacific.com. For more information about Orthogonal visit simonpenny.net/orthogonal. To read more about Simon Penny’s work, visit his website at simonpenny.net.