Last November I was approached by Dublin City University (DCU) to be one of five artists in residence creating work for a project called SEED.
The brief is to create an artwork that presents complex environmental data without prioritising the sense of vision in the artwork. As a **visual** artist, this is obviously a challenge.
Even more challenging – it is at the artists' discretion what data to use. Sometimes having no limitation on a project can just make it more daunting.
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This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •I've used smell, touch and sound in works before, so it's not new ground for me, but I don't think I've ever prioritised these other senses. Visual is my method. So I relish the challenge.
The first problem, however, has been to find data that tells enough of a story. I figure if I can find the data set, then the method should come to me.
2/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •In December, I was reading the popular science book 'The High Seas' by Olive Heffernan and came across a reference to the 'Continuous Plankton Recorder'.
This strange device looks like a metal duck and swims in the ocean, dragged behind large and small fishing vessels. It catches (and squashes) tiny plankton onto a silk screen, and these are later counted to show the populations in different waters.
The experiment began in 1931, and is still running today. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuo…
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marine biology monitoring programming
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •The CPR is interesting for a few reasons. It was the first device to pick up plastic floating in the ocean in 1965, and in the late 1960s it began to record microplastics in the ocean. There is now a 65-year plus record of microplastic increase as a result of these devices, with a 95-year record of plankton recording.
I decided this was my dataset (with agreement from the team at DCU).
4/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •I'm not sure why I'm recording this here. I guess sometimes my process is a bit of a mystery to colleagues and friends, so I thought I'd write it up a little. I'm at the stage now where I'm trying to figure out how to present that data in a non-visual form.
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Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •My earliest thoughts have been about water. Water as a sensing device, as something you touch, and as a visual medium too (not prioritising visual doesn't mean not using it).
My other thought has been about tension, particularly how stress in one area creates tension in another.
Finally, about plankton, who are crucial to food webs across the ocean. Where their numbers reduce, so do fish, whale, mollusc and other species'. They are keystone in ocean environments.
6/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •I've done some experiments using a linear actuator to tension a cello string across a glass fish enclosure that I used in a past project. It sounds and feels good, and I think this will work for the 'output' of the work.
For how the audience might provide input, I was struggling until last Monday when I met Dr Trish Morgan, who is running the project. I wanted human interference to be the trigger. She suggested another box with water that people could move, touch, change. I like this.
7/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •So if the work can somehow show the story behind the data, that one stress in one place creates tension in another, I think I could have a nice artwork.
I also changed my mind on the cello string. Fishing wire makes a lot more sense as a medium. And automating the whole thing with some DIY electronics should be possible, although actuators are maybe overkill for the job.
Lots of testing still needed, but the project ends in April so I'll update here as it develops.
8/TBC
Raye
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Fionnáin
in reply to Raye • • •@raye yeah the result isn't unlike that. It's beautiful but also pretty upsetting as it kills the plankton that get stuck in the silk, so the process is violent. I want that also to be present in my artwork, a comment on that violence, but I haven't figured that out yet.
It reminds me a bit of a moment in Jacques Cousteau's 'The Silent World' where the crew of the ship drop dynamite into a bay, and then count the numbers of creatures that float to the top to show what 'lives' (lived?) there.
Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ
in reply to Raye • • •@raye I've read the whole thread to my teen (A-Level art student) and her first suggestion was a response in felting.
The CPR reminds me of a pasta making machine - sorry, don't mean to be facetious, and not sure where that would lead. Food connection?
Fionnáin
in reply to Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ • • •@baoigheallain @raye yes, thanks for sharing your thoughts! (and nice approach from your daughter – that's thinking like an artist!).
Felting makes sense, although in my practice it would be more as a research process toward a final artwork.
Pasta machine? Ha, I guess so, if the poor squashed plankton are the unfortunate pasta. I sometimes think of the CPR as a weird sea creature. Food is always part of my work, and is the role of plankton for so many sea creatures; I'll give this some thought
Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ
in reply to Fionnáin • • •@raye
Thanks for the reply.
Her thought was a plankton trapped in felting that would somehow change to plastic over a series of panels.
'You gave my idea away' she has shouted at me.
Fionnáin
in reply to Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ • • •In my experience, two artists using the same idea will still come up with two completely different outcomes anyway, so you'll just have twice as much good art. Ideas shared just enrich the world.
In line with this: I love her idea. She should make it! It's very clever. She can cite the CPR.
In my practice, I create installations from mixed materials like glass, electronics, video and timber. So even with the same base concepts, our approach will be very different 😀
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Today I had a conversation with the senior numerical ecologist at the CPR survey and this whole process is fascinating.
Each plankton recorder is boxed up and sent to some port in the world, where it is attached to a ship that has a regular route. The plankton is collected, then boxed up and sent back to Plymouth where a team of 12 analysts observe and tag the individual plankton by hand. Thousands at a time, recorded by hand!
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Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •The survey team interpret the data based on their knowledge of plankton behaviours, such as how phytoplankton act at this time of year, at this buoyancy, at this ocean temperature, etc. It takes extraordinarily complex knowledge to understand what to expect and what to look for, and I am out of my depth(!)
I love these complex projects, but I often feel overwhelmed by how amazing human beings are. The labour, expertise and competence is mind-boggling.
10/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •This morning I met a staff member from the Irish Marine Institute, who use data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder to estimate fish numbers and to locate algal blooms. It was a fascinating conversation.
The timing of this project is really rich too, as they are very keen to understand the populations of zooplankton in Irish waters, and they have offered lots of resources (surveys, papers, records). I will be using some of their data in my artwork.
11/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Following my earlier contact, The Marine Institute of Ireland sent me a big bank of academic papers last week that document plankton numbers in the north Atlantic and the Irish Sea.
Although they are too technical for me, the weighted measures used on the data, the methods and the results are fascinating. They show how human-led climate change is having an adverse effect on plankton numbers across this area, although there is a small increase in diversity of zooplankton.
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Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •These are the types of climate stories that never really make headlines, because the research is too complex. They don't make good news, but they are the most important stories.
As an artist, this is also hard to present. I can make an artwork that tangles up all this complexity, but in my experience this often leads to really confusing or overly cerebral art. Although that type of work has a value, I try to be a little more 'pop' in my work.
13/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •One human story that I've been introduced to is that the technicians who analyse plankton numbers in the CPR lab in Plymouth, UK, are mostly nearing retirement. Currently there are 12 technicians working there.
There are only a couple of younger staff trawling through thousands of microscopic images of plankton, hand-tagging each one. It is highly skilled, technical work. Without training new technicians, the CPR data analysis will slow down or stop completely.
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Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •I often think about audience at this stage. I once saw Suzie Quatro give an interview on TV where she said the hardest gigs to play were the bars she played when she was young, with only one or two people leering at her. If she could reach them, then 60,000 people at a festival was easy.
My parents are intelligent, but always struggle with the complexity of climate science. They are my target audience. If I can help them understand what the CPR tells us, I'm sure I'll make something good.
15/?
Fionnáin
in reply to Fionnáin • • •I need to know a little more about the Continuous Plankton Recorder technicians in Plymouth, and am now looking into how I can visit there, ideally in the next few weeks.
I'm also going to visit the Irish Marine Institute, because a lot more comes of being on-site than of reading from a distance.
(reading these posts back and I notice what a wriggly path these projects can bring me on – and I just drift around like plankton in a current)
16/?
Will Tuladhar-Douglas
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Fionnáin
in reply to Will Tuladhar-Douglas • • •@yetiinabox thanks for saying so! I'm not very good for posting on social media, because I often don't know what to say or how to say it, so I lurk and stay quiet. I'm glad if anyone finds this interesting.
And yes, this data is astounding. What a gift that it has been recorded for this long, to give an accurate picture over a near 100-year history.
Fionnáin
Unknown parent • • •@raye an interesting update to the previous messages – not to belittle the violence here, but it seems that the amount of plankton killed for these records is something akin to the amount a small fish would eat in the same time, per journey. The numbers recorded are extrapolated to estimate populations.
While I am not diminishing the acceptability of violence, I'm glad the recordings are not indiscriminately killing in huge numbers. Just thought I'd update you on this too.
Ciara
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Fionnáin
in reply to Ciara • • •@CiaraNi thank you! I'm delighted to be involved, and I appreciate the kind words.
I realised a while ago when talking to someone on here that what I do as an artist is often opaque, so I thought it would be an interesting journey to write this up as it happens.
I'll keep going too – the project officially ends in mid-April, although I will probably be making artworks from the research for a long time beyond that.
Ciara
in reply to Fionnáin • • •Fionnáin
Unknown parent • • •Raye
in reply to Fionnáin • • •