October 26, 2020

The Ocean Memory Project has awarded $50,000 in seed grants to support researchers and practitioners exploring ocean memory. The projects chosen represent a wide range of teams and approaches to advancing and deepening our understanding of ocean memory, especially tied to cognition and genomics which was the subject of an Ocean Memory workshop held virtually in June 2020.

“We’re very excited about this first set of seed grants,“ said Ocean Memory Co-Leaders, Jody Deming, Daniel Kohn, and Heather Spence. “The projects and the players involved represent a remarkable diversity of perspectives and ways of expressing creativity that will continue to enrich our collective understanding and experience of ocean memory while strengthening ties within and beyond the ocean memory network.”

SEED GRANT PROJECTS:

Blue Dreams – A video projection artwork of ocean memory at monumental scale for global audiences, $10,000

• Samantha Joye, Marine Biogeochemist, University of Georgia
• Rebecca Rutstein, Visual Artist
• Rika Anderson, Marine Virologist, Carleton College
• Tom Skalak, Science and Innovation Strategist

Combining scientific inputs, artistic abstraction, and animation, this project aims to develop a prototype model of a large-scale video art piece to inspire awe for the role that microbes play in ocean memory and human life. The team envisions their piece projected on the side of large, prominent buildings in cities around the world.

Descent & Transformation: A Multichannel Video/VR Installation, $10,000

• Kathie Foley-Meyer, Mixed Media Artist and Doctoral in Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
• Max Marcellus, Video Producer, HARBOR Picture Company
• Melody Jue, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Stefan Helmreich, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Through the creation of an immersive gallery and virtual reality experience, this team will apply the construct of Ocean Memory to explore Blackness using ocean residence time of Black Africans tossed overboard during the Middle Passage. The experience tracks the journey from country of origin, deck of a slaver, overboard into the ocean, descent into the depths, and transformation into an elemental/microbial presence.

The Ocean Memory Cabaret, $10,000

• Lisa D’Amour, Playwright, PearlDamour
• Monique Verdin, Artist and Storyteller, Another Gulf is Possible
• Alexander Kolker, Coastal Ecologist and Assistant Professor, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
• Julie Huber, Microbial Oceanographer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Integrating climate justice, ocean health, and community engagement, this project creates an Ocean Memory Cabaret experience in the Gulf of Mexico region. Scientists, elders, artists, and activists will offer perspectives on ocean memory through stage performances and podcasts.

An analog analysis of the ocean and climate: Exploring Ocean Memory and the materiality of historic data, $5,000

• Patrick Rafter, Ocean and Climate Scientist, University of California, Irvine
• Christine Lee, Interdisciplinary Artist and Assistant Professor of Art, Arizona State University
• Kathie Foley-Meyer, Mixed Media Artist and Doctoral Student in Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine

This exploratory, process-focused project will perform an analog analysis of the ocean and climate change. Scientific data and expertise on past ocean conditions will be translated in three rounds of interpretation and response by artists using a variety of media. The products will include physical representations of data sets and videos of the process that would be shared on social media and potentially suitable for exhibition.

Overcoming the Ineffability of Ocean Memory in 3 Nodes (OIOM x3): Octopus Cognition, Genomic Transcoding & Non-anthropocentric Storytelling, $15,000

• Timothy Weaver, Biomedia Artist and Professor of Emergent Digital Practices, University of Denver
• Dana Hemes, Artist and Exhibition Content Developer, New York Hall of Science
• Dominic Sivitilli, Doctoral Student in Comparative Psychology and Astrobiology, University of Washington
• Stephen Fiore, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, University of Central Florida

These three ”nodes” of work are connected by their aim to move beyond human expressions of ocean memory. One node will design an interface that allows humans to experience the virtual body and distributed cognition of an octopus in informal science settings. Another will explore data sonification and develop an interactive listening space for trans-species memory, with the goal to empower audiences through body movements and embodied cognition that create novel listening environments. A third will explore storytelling as a means to preserve and shape collective memory, asking who/what are the ocean storytellers? How can humans share these ocean memories?

Funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative in 2018, the Ocean Memory Project is a collaborative network of more than 30 scholars and practitioners across the sciences, arts, and humanities. For more information on the Ocean Memory Project history and current activities visit www.oceanmemorypoject.com.

Contact: oceanmemoryproject@gmail.com