Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen at Birch Aquarium Merges Science and Art

La Jolla, CA (September 10, 2024)—On October 4, Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego will unveil their latest exhibition blending art and science into one unique experience with Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen. 

Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen invites you to explore Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Indigenous science through the eyes of contemporary artists. These installations offer guests the chance to engage in scientific exploration through immersive, interactive experiences. Collectively, the exhibition asks us to consider how ocean science technology is not just about “high-tech” but also very much about the tools we use to shape our understanding of the ocean’s unseen mysteries. 

Eighteen artists across 10 projects come together in one immersive exhibition. Installations include: 

Archiving an Aquarium, Hans Baumann and James Nisbet + Birch Aquarium
Birch Aquarium uses technology to pump, filter and adjust seawater for its animals, simulating a real ocean experience. In this installation, artists Hans Baumann and James Nisbet explore how this technology shapes our understanding of ocean ecologies. Using archival footage and blueprints from the 1992 Hall of Fishes they create a “virtual aquarium” that highlights the evolution of the aquarium's efforts to bring the ocean to the public.

Fish Phone Booth, Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey
Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey create an interactive audio and sensory media experience where storytelling meets a guided sound bath. This project brings research from ocean acoustics and the internet of animals to life, translating data from outside the limits of human perception into bodily and sonic experiences.

How to Look Into the Ocean, Claudine Arendt + Zooglider
Large-scale biomorphically shaped sculptures draw us into a dimly lit space. The sculptures, created by Claudine Arendt in collaboration with Scripps Oceanography scientists Mark Ohman (PI of the California Current Ecosystem project) and Sven Gastauer, are snapshots of plankton drifting through ocean water. Guests will interact with these sculptures by touch to bring them into the world of these tiny organisms.

Kumeyaay Ha Kwaiyo, Stan Rodriguez with Priscilla Ortiz, Andrew Pittman and Nan Renner
In the Ha Kwaiyo installation, a mid-size tule boat (by Priscilla Ortiz) hangs above guests, as if floating on the ocean surface. A nearby film by Andrew James Pittman tells the behind-the-scenes story of how boatmaking embodies Indigenous resilience, resistance and revival.

La Jolla Forest, Dwight Hwang and Oriana Poindexter + Mohammad Sedarat of the Smith Laboratory
La Jolla Forest is an immersive artwork created by Oriana Poindexter and Dwight Hwang to highlight both the beauty and the fragility of Giant Kelp. The installation draws attention to the biodiversity of La Jolla’s marine ecosystems by blending their expertise in cyanotype creation and traditional Japanese Gyotaku fish printing. 

Mosaic Ocean, Judit Hersko + Jaffe Laboratory
In Mosaic Ocean, Judit Hersko explores the diversity of zooplankton by blending traditional and cutting-edge technology. In this installation, guests view images of plankton through the portals of multiple stereographic lenses, a plankton-observation methodology developed by Scripps Oceanography researcher Jules Jaffe.

Our Worlds, Catherine Eng and Kilma Lattin
Our Worlds is an immersive storytelling application by Catherine Eng and Kilma Lattin that uses augmented reality technology to overlay interactive Indigenous narratives onto real-world locations. Through this app, guests will unlock stories, videos and 3D models of tule boats and Kumeyaay oceangoing stories, narrated by Embodied Pacific artist and educator Stan Rodriguez.

Passengers of Change, Danielle McHaskell, Joe Riley and Audrey Snyder + the Smith Laboratory
An invasive species can act as both a “driver” and a “passenger” in ecosystems. In this collaboration with marine ecologist Danielle McHaskell, the artists investigate whether global shipping has turned the algae Wakame into a major invasive species. Guests will explore how human trade affects marine ecosystems and reflect on our role in this process.

R/P FLIP R.I.P., Rachel Mayeri + FLIP
The FLoating Instrument Platform (FLIP) debuted in 1963 as a first-of-its-kind strategy for understanding ocean water columns. To shed light on FLIP’s second act as a marine acoustics platform, Rachel Mayeri – in collaboration with humanities scholars Deborah Forster and David Serlin and Scripps staff – produced a large-scale triptych video artwork to take us inside the recently decommissioned vessel through new and archival footage. 

Superradiance. Embodying Earth., Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstader + SOARS
Superradiance. Embodying Earth. is a data dramatization of complex ocean simulations, distilled and re-imagined in the form of abstract visuals and sounds inspired by the Scripps Ocean Atmosphere Research Simulator (SOARS). SOARS is a 120-foot-long wave tank researchers use to replicate and study air and sea interactions under controlled laboratory conditions.

Unbleached, Scott McAvoy + Sandin and Smith Laboratories
Unbleached is a digitization and visualization of key coral reef environments over time. Projected video re-creates coral clusters at Palmyra Atoll, a small island in the central Pacific Ocean, on a 3D printed reef to explore changes to the reef over time. This installation was created in collaboration with the Sandin and Smith Laboratories and archaeologist Dominique Rissolo and the 100 Island Challenge.

Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen is one of the six locations of Embodied Pacific which features projects by 30 artists working with researchers in laboratories, field sites and archives in Southern California and the Pacific Islands. This partnership between UC San Diego Visual Arts and Birch Aquarium at Scripps invites immersive engagement in oceanography, Indigenous design and critical craft through exhibitions, workshops and programs.

Embodied Pacific is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. PST ART is a groundbreaking cultural collaboration.  Every five years, PST ART unites hundreds of artists around a single, electrifying theme at more than 70 exhibition spaces. While the theme is different each time, the heart of PST ART is always the distinctive cultural identity of Southern California, and the universal hunger for artistic and intellectual discovery. In a region famed for its films and theme parks, PST ART provides a different kind of gripping experience — and the most distinctively Southern Californian of all.

 Birch Aquarium is open daily and Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen is included with General Admission. Visit aquarium.ucsd.edu for more information including the Daily Schedule. 

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About Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Birch Aquarium at Scripps is the public exploration center for Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Birch Aquarium features the groundbreaking work of Scripps Oceanography and UC San Diego scientists as well as conservation breeding programs, and interactive exhibits. Birch Aquarium’s mission is to connect understanding to protecting our ocean planet, which the aquarium achieves through engaging hands-on learning opportunities for more than 500,000 guests and 40,000-plus pre-K-12 students each year. Visit aquarium.ucsd.edu for more information. 

About PST ART: Art & Science Collide

Southern California’s landmark arts event, PST ART, returns in September 2024 with more than 70 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. Dozens of cultural, scientific, and community organizations will join the latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, with exhibitions on subjects ranging from ancient cosmologies to Indigenous sci-fi, and from environmental justice to artificial intelligence. Art & Science Collide will share groundbreaking research, create indelible experiences for the public, and generate new ways of understanding our complex world. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art