Genomics & Cognition – The Ocean Memory Project https://oceanmemoryproject.org A Cross Disciplinary Approach to Global Scale Changes Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:30:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.4 https://oceanmemoryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cropped-OMP_Logo_Hand_1_WHonTransp-32x32.png Genomics & Cognition – The Ocean Memory Project https://oceanmemoryproject.org 32 32 The Ocean Memory Cabaret https://oceanmemoryproject.org/ocean-memory-cabaret/ Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-copy-of-senses-submerged/

The Ocean Memory Cabaret

The Ocean Memory Cabaret

The Ocean Memory Cabaret is a series of public events that bring together artists, researchers, advocates, educators and elders to share stories, science and artwork that reckons with and revels in the wisdom and wonder of the ocean – her memories, current realities and future possibilities. Imagine an evening of 10-15 minute performances featuring voices rarely heard together: a scientist sharing research about underground bayous flowing down ancient river channels, alongside an elder telling a story of traditional fishing practices threatened by climate change, accompanied by an artist sharing a poem about ocean memory and a climate justice advocate sharing a song, story or series of photos, calling people to action to remember their connection to the sea. This grant will facilitate collaborative meetings between two scientists and three artist-activists to develop and deepen the idea; fund a small “test cabaret” with students and faculty at the University of Houston; and help produce the first cabaret in the Fall of 2022 in Bvlbancha – the original Choctaw name of the New Orleans area. Conversations during our collaborative process will be recorded and adapted into two hour-long podcasts, focusing on ocean memory and art-science collaboration

Team Leader:
Lisa D'Amour
Lisa D'Amour

Playwright,
PearlDAmour

Team Members:
Monique Verdin
Monique Verdin

Writer and Activist

Globe
Kolker
Kolker
Cardona
Cardona
Julie Huber
Julie Huber

Benthic Microbiologist,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

]]> Descent & Transformation https://oceanmemoryproject.org/descent-transformation/ Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-the-ocean-memory-cabaret/

Team Leader:

Descent & Transformation

Descent & Transformation

A condition of Blackness is that it functions within the realm of the impossible, exceeding limitations via crucial strategies of fugitivity and adaptability. Frank B. Wilderson III, Black studies theoretician and author of the recently published “Afropessimism” notes that the classification of humanity has always kept certain lives outside of its boundaries, and that the positionality of Blackness within the designation of “human” retains a status of nonbeing, such that Black people are subject to an unrelenting stream of gratuitous violence and social death. In our attempt to experience the impossible—to know a part of our shared history—we are thwarted by the linear time of our corporeal present. “Descent & Transformation” endeavors to skirt that boundary with an interactive, immersive experience that fuses art and science

Team Leaders:
Katie Foley-Meyer
Katie Foley-Meyer

Assistant professor of biology at Carleton College

Max Marcellus
Max Marcellus

Filmaker

Team Members:
Melody Jue
Melody Jue

Associate Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara

Globe Twitter
Stefan Helmreich
Stefan Helmreich

Professor of anthropology at MIT

Globe
Anya Yermakova
Anya Yermakova

Composer, sound artist, scholar and performer

Globe Twitter Instagram
Anna Davidson
Anna Davidson

Multimedia Artist

]]> OIOM: Octopus Cognition https://oceanmemoryproject.org/octopus-cognition/ Sun, 12 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-copy-of-the-ocean-memory-cabaret/

OIOM: Octopus Cognition

OIOM: Octopus Cognition

Human social intelligence, and the associated ability to conceptualize the individuality, agency and mental state of other beings, provides us with an incredible capacity for empathy.

This capacity, however, is limited by our sensations, perceptions, and motor abilities. Technology, when catered to these elements of our behavior, can extend our capacity for empathy by interfacing humans with unique capabilities of information acquisition and movement. The ancient evolutionary path of the octopus in parallel to vertebrates has led to highly divergent cognitive and morphological characteristics.

These animals serve as an appropriate model for testing the potential for technology to augment our empathy. Octopuses will be given computer designed 3D printed behavioral tasks to complete. These tasks will be used to test theories of octopus sensation, perception, and 3 Sivitilli, Dominic 02704618803 cognition, and this information will be used to intuitively interface a human controller with the body of a virtual octopus in virtual reality (VR).

Author:
Dominic Sivitilli
Dominic Sivitilli
Globe Twitter Instagram
]]> An Analog Analysis of the Ocean and Climate https://oceanmemoryproject.org/analog-analysis-of-the-ocean/ Sun, 12 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-copy-of-the-ocean-memory-cabaret-2/

An Analog Analysis of the Ocean and Climate

An Analog Analysis of the Ocean and Climate

Knowledge of how the global ocean evolves on geologic timescales is key for identifying potential “priming” events for ocean memory. Our understanding of past ocean conditions comes from scientists such as PI Rafter, who use the geological archives (e.g., fossils in ocean sediments) to create time-series of past ocean conditions and analyze this reconstructed ocean history using standard statistical methods.

Here, we propose a new method for analyzing ocean history that draws upon traditional Ocean Memory Project tools (e.g., ideation among artists and scientists) to investigate the history of the ocean and climate via canonical datasets. Among the datasets to be used include the history of ocean oxygenation during the Paleoproterozoic, the Cenozoic change in deep-sea temperature (Figure 1), and the mid-to-late Pleistocene global ocean salinity. Each of these well-known datasets include large changes that can be considered potential “priming events” and therefore would be part of a collective Ocean Memory

Team Leader:
Patrick Rafter
Patrick Rafter

Scientist in the Department of Earth System Science at UC Irvine

Globe Twitter
Team Members:
Chris Lee
Chris Lee

Sculptor

Instagram
Kathie Foley-Meyer
Kathie Foley-Meyer

Mixed-media Artist

Globe Linkedin
]]> OIOM: Non-anthropocentric Storytelling https://oceanmemoryproject.org/non-antrhopocentric-storytelling/ Sun, 12 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-an-analog-analysis-of-the-ocean-and-climate-2/

OIOM: Non-anthropocentric Storytelling

OIOM: Non-anthropocentric Storytelling

Memories are made up of information fragments– residue collected through experience. These fragments gain meaning through context, strung together to build stories. Storytelling is a method of preserving and shaping collective memory. Who/ what are the ocean storytellers? How can humans share these ocean memories?

OIOC:C/H 1 is an exploratory first chapter. The storyteller is the cephalopod. A non-anthropocentric methodology helps us to greet the storyteller’s experience, on their terms. By taking actions to reposition ourselves more like cephalopods, we shift our perspective. Drawing from cognitive science on theories of embodied and extended cognition, we posit that the act of trying to experience the world as a cephalopod creates a cross-species empathy that may reveal pathways to understand their worldview, stories, memories.

exploratory actions include: transcoding experiments, movement analysis, cognitive research. Transcoding experiments allow us to use our senses in alternative ways, to shift our worldview to better align with the cephalopod’s. Movement analysis leads to a cephalopod lexicon– translating movement into language and/or meaning. Cognitive science provides the theoretical foundation to help translate perspectives on behaviors to possible motivations. All actions aim to increase cross-species empathy.

Author:
Dana Hemes
Dana Hemes

Interdisciplinary artist

Globe Instagram
]]> OIOM: Genomic Transcoding https://oceanmemoryproject.org/genomic-transcoding/ Sun, 12 Mar 2023 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-an-analog-analysis-of-the-ocean-and-climate-2/

OIOM: Genomic Transcoding

OIOM: Genomic Transcoding

Sensory-interactive engagement with complex data deepens the understanding of our biology and reinforces profound visceral connections to distant lifeforms. Translation/transcoding of complex data to alternative sensoria (from scientific data to interactive 3D soundscapes) enables a shift in cognition, conceptual dialogue, generation of novel interpretations and transformative experiences for art-science public audiences.

An extension of this paradigm would reinforce the perception of space and time through access to sonic-based equivalents of trans- species genomes/morphologies – as representations of the moments, conditions and residues of ocean origins 3 Weaver, Timothy 02704623262 and memory. This proposed project will design, develop and prototype a multimedia environment coordinated by data- transformation software for spatial interaction to expand the understanding of the foundations of life and memory between cephalopods and humans as intelligent free-moving beings.

As an art-science investigation the goal is to empower audiences thru body movements/embodied cognition to create novel listening environments and sound pattern compositions for the presentation of data for expressive, investigative purposes and public/exhibition outreach – offering the listening experience as a comparative bridge between lifeforms from oceans to the terrestria

Author:
Timothy Weaver
Timothy Weaver
]]> OM – Cognition and Genomics https://oceanmemoryproject.org/om-cog-gen/ Fri, 19 Jun 2020 12:00:27 +0000 http://www.dev.oceanmemoryproject.org/copy-of-movies-youtube-channel/ June 19-20, 2020

If human cognitive memory can be defined as the faculty of the mind by which experience is encoded, stored, and retrieved, and ultimately used to shape future outcomes, then the ocean’s capacity for memory may have much to teach us for the future.

What do cognition and genomics bring to Ocean Memory? Cognition brings perspectives on memory mechanisms, and the history of dealing with and observing the ‘black box’ of the mind, figuring out ways to study the intangible. Genomics brings different perspectives on mechanisms of memory, and frameworks for considering organisms and their environments. Both bring new ideas of scale, time, and process. What does Ocean Memory bring to cognition and genomics? We hope it brings new analogies and models, new questions, and new takes on old questions.

Over two half-day virtual sessions, a select group of 28 accomplished professionals from diverse backgrounds explored the emerging concept of ocean memory and its connection to cognition and genomics. At the beginning of this seminar each participant had two minutes to present a question related to cognition and genomics. Those lightning talks are presented below.

Following the lightning talks, the questions were sorted and grouped into four over arching themes. On the second day, participants joined breakout groups of their choice to delve deeper into one theme. Each group engaged in a productive, free-flowing exchange of ideas during this creative work period, and the entire group reconvened to share what emerged from their conversations. Following the workshop, participants had the opportunity to submit applications for funding to explore their ideas further.

Lightning Talks

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