Misregistration Signals
Research project exploring the local and international infrastructure of marine aids to navigation, focusing on a south cardinal buoy at the farthest extension of the Port of Ayvalık and the chain of events following its disappearance.
In January 2021, we were invited to an artist residency by Gate 27 in Ayvalık, a small town on the Aegean coast of Turkey. The residency located us in a remote house on the tip of an isolated peninsula where we watch the mountains of Lesbos in the horizon during the day. In the evening, the red, green and white flashes of maritime buoys guide the boats from open waters to the security of the port through the treacherous underwater topography of the strait. However, the purpose of the buoys is not only to provide safe passage. They also function as an extension of port security as they are points of reference on the fluid surface of the sea for state and port authorities.
The south cardinal buoy we focused on was anchored out in open water when we first arrived. While it could hardly be seen with the naked eye during the day, its six short, one long light flashes in the evening made it sharply visible. We developed a daily practice of filming it during sunset and sunrise. A week after our arrival, following days of harsh weather, we woke up to find the buoy in an entirely different location. Three days later, the buoy was gone.
The disappearance of the buoy, as common in all infrastructural ruptures, activated a chain of events which made visible the human and more-than-human agents involved in the maintenance and continuous re-production of this technical object. In the weeks that followed its disappearance, we tracked the buoy down and followed it through these chain of events.