“We impose vacancy on marine space, seeing the waters as a flowing desert, separating continents and isolating populations. But the sea is not void; it’s superabundance. Life lives where water moves.” -- Steve Mentz Resilience A aims to challenge our perception of the ocean. As Steve Mentz explores in his writing, we often view the ocean as vast emptiness. We know there are pockets of life, but we see them as sparse and spread out rather than a single interconnected Network. Every facet of the ocean plays a role in its homeostasis, from the life under the sea to the currents and gyres that circulate water. Within the context of the Anthropocene, a term to describe a geological age where natural and manmade constructs cannot be separated, we have noticed the decay and destabilization of oceanic processes. Coral dies, fish go extinct, and plastic piles up on our shores. We view these things as human-made tragedies, and they are. But in the wake of these tragedies, we begin to associate an entity covering 70% of our earth with weakness and fragility. This is an ill placed sentiment. Throughout all of history, we have seen the power of the sea: biologically, culturally, and even mythically. It persists, it recovers, and it evolves. Resilience A explores just one instance of oceanic resilience. Being the fragile flower of the sea, even touching a coral can kill the delicate polyps that make up the organism community. However, when left alone, it can flourish. By creating a dynamic sculpture, audiences will see how their engagement with the coral will impact its health. Only by carefully considering how, when, and why we interact with the coral will we be able to appreciate it for a long period of time. Hopefully, users will walk away with a new appreciation for the autonomy of the sea.
RESEARCH
This research began with the Chicxulub Bolide Impact 66 Million Years ago. This was the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Not only did it eviscerate the land, it caused oceanic collapse at the basal trophic level. For the next 30,000 years places like the Indian Subcontinent were on fire. However, research suggests that within 100 years, the ocean began to experiment with single celled life. The life that persisted eventually became a part of the ecosystem we see today, regulating everything from carbon levels to the food chain. The ocean has a pliability that allows it to persist among some of the most harsh conditions. And it goes beyond the biology of the ocean too. When we look at something like the pacific garbage patch, we see something humans created, but refuse is brought there by the gyres. This is a natural disposal system, and to strip the ocean of that kind of function steals its individuality. Yes it is negatively impacting the world and yes that kind of pollution is our fault, but the manifestation of the patch is that of the sea. It is brought there, rather than randomly distributed across the seas. How can we toss that kind of intentionality aside? How can we look at the ocean as formless and meaningless?
Please feel free to reach through a more formal organization of this research here. My thoughts are constantly shifting on this topic since it is still new to me. Understanding the ocean as an autonomous system requires an abstraction of thought from what we once were taught. If you want to discuss further, please reach out to me at pac446@nyu.edu
TECHNICAL DETAILS
This project relies on an illusion called Pepper’s Ghost. By placing a screen 45 degrees to a piece of glass, you create a reflection that appears to be behind the reflective surface. This is then combined with an Unreal Engine Project that uses a Niagara particle system populating along a piece of coral generated in SideFX Houdini. When the on-board kinect sensor detects a user, it influences a decay value that slowly changes the lifetime and number of particles spawned per frame, only when left alone will the decay value diminish and the coral return to its full health.
