Created by Lisbon based studio Entangled Others, Liquid Strata is a digital and physical installation resulting from an art-science collaboration with the oceanographer Joan Llort, who has researched the aquatic phenomena of marine snow. Installation attempts to create a “fly on the wall” experience through an a-life (artificial life) type simulation to convey both the rich biodiversity of this twilight zone phenomenon and the beauty of its complexities.
The phenomenon of marine snow is composed of the fall of organic matter, which largely originates from the digestive waste of zooplankton and other organisms, falling until reaching the ocean floor. Because this “snowfall” of tiny organic particles happens at a global scale, directly observing them in a meaningful manner is infeasible. Therefore, our understanding of it comes in fragmentary form: a collection of observations, sparse recordings, and more. Modelled from the combination of different observational and data-based research, the resulting process of complex simulation is represented not as a cohesive whole, but as a patchwork of digital and physical fragments.
As they sink, these sparse clump together forming visible falling clumps that appear “snow-like” to us. These snowflakes act as a carbon sequestration mechanism, transporting carbon from the surface to the depths wherein it may remain indefinitely. Furthermore, this phenomenon occurs in the context of the mesopelagic, a vertical “layer” of the ocean that begins at -200m below sea level and extends down to -1000m, a range of depth we cannot access without mediating technology.
Engangled Others
Snapshots from the lengthy process of creating a suitably accurate representation of marine snow and the diel vertical migration through simulation.
Accompanying visual elements is the sonic composition by Daphne Xanthopoulou that sonifies scientific data to create yet another experiential “window” into the mesopelagic.
Simulation system modelling of marine snow was written using Python and Javascript, combined with a styling pass using a small set of Neural Networks (small diffusion-based architecture) trained upon a scientific dataset of microscopic images of marine snow collected by sediment traps. The modelling system was developed weaving observational data, scientific hypothesis and more to form the guiding framework then utilised to simulate the full 24hr cycles that make up the complex carbon sequestration mechanism. The simulation was built from scratch over a few months in collaboration with Joan Llort (oceanographer at the Barcelona supercomputing centre. The hardware utilises a handful of GPUs, and the final sequence was composited in Davinci Resolve.
Project Page | Entangled Others
This installation was made possible thanks to Ajuts Joan Oró of the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe. Collaboarators included Joan Llort, Daphne Xanthopoulou, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, AZTI Summer Project Horizon 2020 and Advanced Music, S.L. Sonar+D 2024.
