Our First Ocean memory gathering 

What does it mean for the Ocean to have Memory?

We assembled a diverse group of thinkers from across oceanography, other scientific specialties, and the realms of art, history and literature to consider this question.  

Our collective goal was to reach across wildly divergent scientific and artistic practices to broaden understanding and awareness of all ways in which the ocean, especially the deep ocean, may retain and express memory. 

More specifically we asked: 

Does the ocean, as a whole or in its parts, as a physical system or an ecosystem, exhibit information storage and recall? Is it useful to ask whether the ocean remembers and does this question open new opportunities for understanding the ocean and our perception of it? How do we begin to pursue this line of inquiry, both within our specific professional niches and as a community? We have planned an interactive four day workshop including opening plenary talks by key participants to orient us to the possibilities, an excursion on a research vessel to experience and sample the ocean, and smaller interactive ideation sessions before returning to full session at the end. 

Our time also included initial presentations on epigenomics, metaphors of memory, deep sea biology, art and interdisciplinarity, and perspectives on memory from cognitive science. It also featured sustained group brainstorming sessions on “design thinking.” Topics of interest that emerged included: emergent properties of the ocean; the possibility of the ocean having distributed cognition; an art installation on deep ocean memory attuned to gravity and verticality; an ocean/planetary memory space opera; a manta-shaped sensing tool for measuring ocean memory; and an exploration of memory and phase states of water, among many others. 

No explicit product was expected beyond defining what was meant by Ocean Memory and charting our way forward, potentially through joint writings and art forms, towards our second art-science workshop.