Twelve miles from the coast, 2026—ongoing
Ongoing data visualisation series, investigating the relationship between the invisible industry of maritime logistics, its missing data, people, and the effect on the climate crisis.
Twelve Miles from the Coast is an ongoing series of data-driven works exploring the sea as a space of movement, infrastructure, communication, and human activity through data, computation, image, drawing, and sound.
The series originated during the development of the artist residency Ninety Percent of Everything, a collaborative project presented at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, in September 2026. Four works from the series were incorporated into the project’s collective audiovisual installation. Twelve Miles from the Coast continues beyond the artist residency as an independent and evolving body of work.
Collective Body, 2026 — Real-time generative audiovisual data visualisation, TouchDesigner, continuous duration.
In 2025 only, an estimated 1,892,720 seafarers work aboard merchant ships engaged in international trade, including 857,540 officers and 1,035,180 ratings. Collective Body translates this largely invisible workforce into a parametric visualisation composed of millions of particles.
Seen from above, the particles form the shifting surface of a digital sea. Individual elements dissolve into a continuous wave-like movement, evoking the relationship between the individual seafarer and the collective body sustaining global maritime trade.
It’s an Underestimated and Little‑Known Job, 2026 — Real-time generative audiovisual data visualisation, custom software (Processing), TouchDesigner, continuous duration.
The visualisation constructs a collective lexicon from conversations with the crew of the Grendi Star, recorded during the residency on board the cargo ship. Interviews and notes were transformed into a textual archive and analysed through custom software developed in Processing to identify recurring words and patterns.
The resulting language becomes the material of a generative visual system: rather than representing numerical quantities, the work treats words as data and algorithmic matter, allowing fragments of individual voices to form a shifting collective portrait of maritime labour.
The title It’s an Underestimated and Little-Known Job is drawn from the words of one of the seafarers interviewed.
Moles Esto et Molias, 2026 — Real-time generative audiovisual data visualisation, TouchDesigner, continuous duration.
The visualisation maps the names of 351 Italian ports as nodes within an interconnected network. Links and trajectories continuously form and dissolve between them, turning the maritime system into a shifting constellation of connections and ruptures, a space that simultaneously unites and divides.
The title Moles Esto et Molias (“Be a barrier and calm the storms”) is drawn from an inscription on a seventeenth-century votive shrine (1634) on the façade of the Fontana dei Cannoni, near the Church of San Marco al Molo in Genoa’s Old Port.
Loading, 2026 — Real-time generative audiovisual data visualisation, TouchDesigner, continuous duration.
The visualisation reveals fragments of cargo as it is loaded onto the ship. During her time on board, Alocci repeatedly found herself wondering what the containers carried while observing loading and unloading operations lasting several hours.
Drawing on the visual language of CCTV surveillance, the work evokes the voyeuristic gaze of monitoring systems, turning cargo into an object continuously observed, tracked, and watched.
Timelapse footage by Fish Tank Collective.
first presentation and exhibition
The works from the series were originated, developed and first presented as part of the interdisciplinary artist residency Ninety Percent of Everything, which culminated with a collaborative exhibition at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, on display until October 4th 2026.
The installation intertwines environmental data, recordings, images, and testimonies gathered during the artist residency on board a working cargo ship sailing in the Mediterranean Sea. It uses technical datasets and scientific information, employing data visualisation and data sonification practices.
“The residency and the installation invite a dialogue between contemporary art, scientific research, and geography, encouraging the public to reflect on the invisible infrastructures that shape our everyday lives and on the environmental, social, and geopolitical implications of logistics.” — Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of Palazzo Ducale Genova
The artist residency took place from 15 to 30 May 2026, spanning the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, the operational port, the CNR IRBIM experimental station and a voyage aboard the cargo ship Grendi. The artists were given access to port infrastructure, engaging with maritime workers, researchers and logistics operators, whilst gathering images, sounds and testimonies and analysing scientific and logistical datasets relating to shipping flows, marine biodiversity, port infrastructure, cargo and maritime labour.
Press Release available on request at press@tizianaalocci.com
Ninety Percent of Everything, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 2026
Ninety Percent of Everything, 2026 — Collaborative two-channel audiovisual work, 15 min.
Developed collaboratively by Tiziana Alocci, Stellare (FiloQ, Ale Bavo, Raffaele Rebaudengo), Fish Tank (Jennifer Yue Yuen Yu, Shawn Pak Hin Tang), Fathom30 (Tamara Keller, Sofia Daniela Rudi Kent, Sun Woo Yoon). Photographic research: Simone Lezzi. Scientific supervision: Francesca Garaventa, CNR-IRBIM. Data visualisation assistant: Chiara Sabbadin, NECESSITY.INK. Includes four generative audiovisual data visualisations from Twelve Miles from the Coast by Tiziana Alocci.
Ninety Percent of Everything is curated by Maria Pina Usai. Artists: Tiziana Alocci, Stellare (FiloQ, Ale Bavo, Raffaele Rebaudengo), Fish Tank (Jennifer Yue Yuen Yu, Shawn Pak Hin Tang), Fathom 30° (Tamara Keller, Sofia Daniela Rudi Kent, Sun Woo Yoon). Photographic research: Simone Lezzi. Scientific supervision: Francesca Garaventa, CNR-IRBIM. Systemic design: Martino Punzi e Tomaso Boyer, Itinerari Paralleli. Data visualisation assistant: Chiara Sabbadin and NECESSITY.INK. Video setup and installation: Nicola Villa, Visualsubstance. Audio setup and installation: Tiziano Scali. Exhibition setup: Alessandro Queirolo, Palazzo Bronzo. Visual identity and graphic design: Annalisa Gatto, Nom de Plume. Press office: UC Studio e Palazzo Ducale. Honorary thank you to Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of Palazzo Ducale Genova.
