In the 19th century, the invention of the halftone screen
allowed printers to easily reproduce photographs by translating shades of gray
into a pattern of black dots that varied in size according to the depth of
tone. A close look at photographs in the newspaper shows the same process at
work today. In “Tide Pool,” Robert
Covington digitally applies a particularly rough version of that antiquated
analog mode of reproduction to a moving image, even endowing each dot with the
slight illusion of three dimensions. Although the artist’s subject—taken at the famed photographic location of Point Lobos—would be difficult to
grasp in a single frame, when viewed in motion with a subtle hint of sound, the graphic abstraction easily translates into an image of reality, thanks to the
mind’s irrepressible urge to find order in chaos.