C-print mounted on alu-dibond
90 x 73 cm
+
Ink and pencil on paper
6@ 170 x 150 cm

A photograph of a puddle – taken at Cabo de Roca in Portugal – was printed at 1-to-1 scale and then traced and measured with different units of measure, which resulted in radically different totals for the perimeter. This is a cartographic problem known as the “coastline paradox.” The coastline paradox is the counter-intuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length. This results from the fractal-like properties of coastlines. More concretely, the length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it. Since a landmass has features at all scales, from hundreds of kilometers in size to tiny fractions of a millimeter and below, there is no obvious limit to the size of the smallest feature that should not be measured around, and hence no single well-defined perimeter to the landmass.

For instance, if it were possible to wind an infinitely small measuring tape around every single pebble and grain of sand on an island’s – or puddle’s – perimeter, the coastline’s seemingly finite length would actually unfurl into millions upon millions of kilometers. The more precise mapping becomes, the more challenges it presents to quantification.

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Fleeting Sea: Measuring the Coastline of a Puddle