I Stood Before the Sea is part of an ongoing project exploring the relationship between poetry and digital video. Inspired by the aesthetics of camera-less films and degraded filmstocks, I experiment with video compression algorithms and digital color correction to “sculpt” my footage into abstract forms. On a trip up the coast in Northern California, I recorded a video of the ocean out of a car window. Moved by the presence of the ocean, I wanted to capture the feeling of passing along its edge. In the original unedited video, the ocean is visible but its presence is entirely absent. Through editing, I tried to encounter the sea again in the few seconds of footage that are distorted, recolored and looped. Letting go of legibility, the footage became clay, a few scattered words, and the beginning of a poem.