This project is a multi-stage experimentation with ocean memory, featuring an interdisciplinary residency and performance as the primary creative research space and point of departure. Rajna Swaminathan’s Mangal ensemble gathers improvising musicians alongside visual and movement artists to experiment with the concept of a “score”– whether it resides on the page, in the body and senses, or in an underlying relationship to the environment. Oceanic modes of understanding sound and movement are deeply relevant to this inquiry, leading us to ask: how can the score move beyond inscription-based intelligibility and embody the opacities of immersion, absorption, and dissipation? The preliminary residency and performance offer an opportunity to share materials, find sense-bending prompts, and improvise together.

Building from this momentum, offshoot “scores” and research questions are invited to take shape, led by the team members in conversation with a broader community network (local, institutional, and beyond). Sensing the Abyss unfolds through (1) the documentation of a one-week residency/performance by Mangal at Seattle’s Chapel Performance Space, followed by (2) a visit to UC Santa Barbara, where collaborators will meet and discuss further experimental possibilities, culminating in (3) a virtual meeting and open feedback session to compile ideas for independent and collaborative research/creation. Through the multiple phases of this project, we hope to offer a fruitful sounding board for future-oriented projects that combine artistic, humanistic, and scientific modes of inquiry to transform how we sense and relate to ocean memory and the climate crisis.