Ocean Memory is a concept born in 2016 at a transdisciplinary conference of the National Academies of Science, Medicine and Engineering devoted to the Mesopelagic (or deep ocean). At that workshop, a group gathered to explore concepts around biodiversity and the microbiome and came up with a question:
“Does the ocean have memory, and if so, what form does it take?”
The Ocean Memory Project, born from that early seed, seeks to bring together researchers from across disciplines in science, the humanities and the arts, as well as from diverse cultures, to explore and develop this question through a trans-disciplinary lens.
Our primary modality is to organize thematic workshops in which participants are invited to present and collaborate in a horizontal and open way. These are followed by a funding opportunity meant to support collaborative research across disciplines and cultures to explore and develop new concepts and explorations of ocean memory.
As we transition from being a sponsored project of the National Academies of Science and the Keck Foundation (NAKFI), we are exploring various models and practices for becoming a self-led community called to study humans’ interactions with the ocean through both scientific and art-based discovery.
