Ocean ARTic is a partnership aims to brings creatives and marine climate scientists together to explore innovative ways tell the story through climate data of the impact of climate change in the Arctic and Scotland.
Funded by Creative Scotland and led by MASTS, this work was established in a pivotal year for climate change negotiations at CoP26, and the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
Elizabeth Alker, host of BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified programme, played a track from Light Water Is Black Water on 20th January 2022. The Ocean ARTic was also described in the introductory blurb. It is on iPlayer just now. The track is introduced at around minute 30.40: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013jsb
when a date is announced tickets can be bought here for this in-person live performance. Michael collaborated with researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Association for Marine Science to develop new musical work from data models describing the impact on atmospheric and ocean conditions as a consequence of diminished Arctic Sea ice. The work would have been impossible to realise without the research and data models created by Lukrecia Štulić, along with her colleagues Tido Semmler and Thomas Rackow. Thomas also provided field recordings. Sian Henley, at the University of Edinburgh, provided data and insight into the ‘Spring Bloom’ of biomass arising in May each year.
To explore the Holding the Ocean stories, Ossian will take you on a journey through the stories in partnership with inChat. Meet Ossian here! Ossian will be your guide as you journey through our stories of the ocean and land interactions in a novel and one of kind conversation.
Curious about the story of Ossian? Learn more.
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The album is now live on digital platforms, inc Apple, Spotify and Bandcamp.
Live stream it here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2SDccfrlJWwghWhHGQK46b
Access it here on Itunes: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/light-water-is-black-water/1588533412
Streamed from the Creative Informatics Lab, Online audiences joined Michael, Eve and some of the researchers they have been working with to find out how they developed their Ocean ARTic works, and enjoyed a live performance of Michael’s Light Water is Black Water composition with Black Glass Ensemble.
The Ocean ARTic project commenced in April 2021 and runs until March 2022, with the following key components:
Ocean ARTic is bringing art and marine science together to look in depth at how climate change is affecting the Arctic and, in turn, Scotland.
Thank you to everyone who submitted applications to be paired with marine scientists and work collaboratively to develop a proposal for a creative response to the marine science data.
MASTS Members: Chris Leakey and Hannah Ladd-Jones
Project partners: Blue Action EU project, People Ocean Planet, Creative Informatics.
Steering Groups partners: Marine Scotland and EcoArtScotland
Chris Leakey: “MASTS is delighted to set this in motion as part of our People Ocean Planet initiative for greater impact from marine science. Ocean ARTic will not only result in exciting works for public impact in this most critical year for tackling climate change, but will also pave the way for further collaborations between Scotland’s creative and marine science communities. Other key partners include Blue Action, an international climate research project, and Creative Informatics for inspiring and enabling data-led, innovative and digital creativity.”
MASTS was founded in 2009 to be a unique collaboration between marine research organisations, government and industry.
Charity Number: SC045259
Company Number: SC485726
We’re working behind the scenes to bring you a suite of useful, and updateable, resources including:
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