M.A.R.I.N. invites short proposals to attend Hacklab at the Sea, an informal workshop on an island in the Finnish archipelago combining tinkering and brainstorming of ideas. The workshop explores sensory experience of marine environment and ecologies. Participants should all do hands-on tinkering with the likes of but not limited to, sensors, sensor networks, DIY electronics, low power computing, and alternative energy production. read more: http://marin.cc/seahacklab
Posts Tagged ‘marine ecology’
Hacklab at the Sea July 12-18 /2010 (DL 26.6.)
Friday, June 18th, 2010Abandon unsustainable residencies
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
M.A.R.I.N. is an investigation in how an art and science residency itself can be sustainable and mobile at the same time. Our main area of research are marine biological and cultural ecosystems. For the AND festival, we abandoned flights for a 11-week residency at the Irish Sea. We sailed an equivalent of 4 hours of flight distance, from North of Germany to Scotland, onto Northern Ireland, and arriving to the coast of Cumbria. Hosted by Folly (Lancaster) we did workshops with SoundWave (Workington), The Dock Museum & Dropzone (Barrow-in-Furness) and Tate & Fact (Liverpool).
Workshop participants have contributed with sound, video and stills, some of which you can listen to at Ecolocated Pool group page. For example, youth from DropZone at Barrow-in-Furness did an hour long rap with their own rhymes, and Tate Youth contributed interviews with friends and family of the changing maritime culture of Liverpool. Some fragments are also uploaded to the Ecolocated map based interface, which includes arrival ship blog to Belfast, and audio and water quality data sonifications around the Albert Dock. An experimental stage version of this interface can also be viewed on 3G mobile phones using your browser, and the URL http://marin.cc/ecolocated/mobile.
You can read blog entries by the resident artists Tapio Mäkelä (FI), Nigel Helyer (AU) and Andreas Siagian (ID), who have collaborated on the project Ecolocated - Littoral Lives.
In Belfast, the Ecolocated team was joined by Michael Lake and Daniel Woo, with whom we authored a major 12-channel surround sound, locative installation, presented at Catalyst Arts gallery, as part of ISEA2009, The International Symposium on Electronic Art. In this work we worked with local marine scientists, historians, ex dock workers and other collaborators. We also measured water quality in the Belfast Lough, map of which was the interface for our project. The end result was a collage where users could navigate through several layers of audio, sonified and visualized data.
Also part of the exhibit here at FACT, The CDPDU (Common Data Processing and Display Unit, M.A.R.I.N. Alpha) by Marko Peljhan, Nejc Trost, and Matthew Biederman, draws satellite marine ecology data and environmental sensor data from a field unit in Santa Barbara, CA, as well as some data from a sister project’s (Arctic Perspective Initiative) expedition to Baffin Bay last month.
In Liverpool, M.A.R.I.N. had a very interesting visit to the British Oceanographic Data Centre, and The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory. We participated to a Shelf sea workshop, where scientists (and electronic engineers really) discussed latest sea bed velocity sensors, HF radar for wave detection. In the basement of BODC we saw a sonde that makes our water measurement equipment seem like kids play: a gliding torpedo shaped UAV, which uses ballast to zigsaw through the ocean. At the end of an inspiring tour, a discussion with 7 researchers opened up real possibilities for future collaboration ranging from semantic, cartographic, visual and haptic interfaces to environmental data.
Fishing for Water
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009The Albert Dock, Salthouse Dock, Canning Dock, Princes Dock, Wapping Dock, Queens Dock and the Coburg Dock - today it’s time to go fishing for water! Andreas armed with the Sonde portable water quality sampling equipment and I with camera and clipboard - save for the want of white lab-coats we would look quite official. So we think but not so to the ever vigilant Port security officials - we are quizzed by a burly buzz-cut fellow with a tell-tail spiral cable falling from his ear. Asked if we have permission we smile and say no, asked what we would do if Andre fell in with all the gear, we say we would take a great photo! At least the guy had a sense of humour!
We move off but resume our sampling work as soon as the official disappears, we must look more convincing to the next chap as he is very pleased to see us and wishes us luck with our research! If it was ten degrees warmer I would fancy a dip in the Albert Dock, the water looks surprisingly clear and the dock walls support a profusion of marine life, principally large Mussels much favoured by immature Herring Gulls who pluck them off and litter the pontoons with the empty shells. Later I discover that the Dock water is tested every two weeks and is of Swimmable quality.
We sample along the narrow-boat pontoons in the Salthouse dock and chat with the barge owners, proud of their craft and the heritage of industrial revolution waterways. They are a direct and friendly bunch who unanimously agree that the waterways are radically improved over the past twenty years. It is clearly evident that Britain’s post-industrial condition and the transition from primary industry to a service economy has bought tangible environmental benefits. One could say that Thatcher’s confrontation with the Mining unions that destroyed a major part of working class culture and an entire industry in one fell swoop has ironically set the pre-conditions allowing country to move away from a Carbon based economy!
Data collection from Belfast to Bangor
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Nigel and myself, accompanied by cap Lars took a 2 night trip to Bangor. We wanted to make a data trace from river Lagan using the YSI 600XL Sonde, recording temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen and oxygen reduction potential. It was another summer in Belfast with lot of rainfall, so there should be a lot of nutrients in the water. Weather forecast was luckily wrong for the day we went out: it was sunny with a smooth South-Westerly wind that made it a pleasant sail after the harbor area motoring zone. We also stopped along the way to make hydrophone recordings.
Once in Bangor, we sought permission to take the catamaran onto a slipway. One of its folding propellers had corroded and literally disintegrated. Also it was time to get rid of some barnacles. They are an amazing species, leaving a substrate behind even when removed, leaving a “bed” for new larvae. Think we removed about 60kg of it from the boat, and put into trash. The catamaran looked mighty big when off water, yet also beautifully designed.
Before dusk, Nigel and I took out the little dinghy boat with the water testing kit and hydrophones. At the entrance to the harbour, a dozen of fishermen were casting for mackerell. A few seals also loved this spot, not least to the treats that returning fishing boats would give them, the unused bait. We got pretty close, 2 meter distance from one of the seals, which seemed to have lost one eye. We tested the water in the commercial and yacht harbor, and then went out to Luke’s point, an area where I knew Bangor still has open sewage to the sea.
An unfriendly, cunning rock crept up from the sea to scratch the small engine propeller on the way. When going out to the sea, dissolved oxygen levels improved significantly, but when approaching the spill area, we’d hit values closer to six mg/l DO. The readings were showing worse water quality 200 meters off shore at the spill area than in the visibly polluted commercial harbor of Bangor.
The calculation one city may do is whether the wider impact of their sewage output has long term effects on wider aquatic areas. As it washes out to the open sea, the impact is in the short term, regional. What about the longer term stress on the marine ecosystem?
In the harbor, rather new mussle boat with trawling gear was in the harbor. On the coastal road, there was a sign warning to eat any mussels in Belfast Lough because of pollution. I turns out that the mussels in Belfast lough are replanted in other waters, grown, cleaned and sold.
We slept two nights in Bangor, and sailed off early in the morning to record a track from Bangor to the other side of the Lough near a power station, then up to the beginning of the Fairway buoy. The weather was rather windy.
Our water quality testing is something I would call indexical work. In order for the data to be meaningful for science, it takes a long period of time to monitor a single site to take into account changing conditions, and the possible measurement errors (which always are part of the picture). The mobile kind of monitoring that we do helps give an idea of an existing issue that may be worth investigating closer. For example, there are no permanent measuring equipment stationed in front of Bangor to monitor the sewage output.
No monster under water
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Loch Ness and the joining town of Fort Augusta are surprisingly open spaces; I was expecting tourism to dominate the environment more. Instead, mostly there’d be cyclists and kayakers, besides people on boats. All in all it is fairly quiet - until extremely loud jets roam over the lake, and a tourist speed boat shoots out onto it. From the perspective of aquatic life, I become increasingly aware of acoustic ecology in its environmental sense; how does the noise pollution impact different organisms, has it been studied?
This study suggests that marine mammals suffer from, besides changes in orientation, also direct tissue damage. The monster does not live under water, it always turns out to be the human practices that do not consider the bigger picture.
Nigel and I do a test run with the sonde on a little dinghy to the lake, also taking hydrophonic sound samples. We head onwards on the canal - the surrounding landscapes are beautiful. Spruce, pine and birch trees seem familiar from back home. Mountain ranges resemble Norway in their former volcanic shapes and worn surfaces.
September winds
Friday, July 24th, 2009I had never sailed North Sea before. I do remember a ferry trip from UK to France, where a man was so sick he was green, which amused his girlfriend tremendously. So I was surprised of two things; that most of the coastline North of Germany and Holland is quite shallow, with many riffs and even way out to the sea, depths of 8-10 meters, and very far out to reach 20 meters. I had thought that the Baltic Sea was very shallow, but this gave new perspective. Unfortunately the shallowness also meant that waves would be rocking the boat to set a rather projectile tone to the sailing experience of Michael and Nigel. I don’t know where it comes from, but I had no nausea at all and could sleep in my cabin, even though the bigger waves would lift me slightly from the mattrass, and sounds around me were like being in a big washing machine, full of hard objects.
Already the first day was informative with regard to working on board: no reading, typing in this type of weather. More learning to balance and cook tea without hitting your forehead more than twice a day would be the appropriate, embodied research to take place on board. At the same time we would be learning a lot of how to sail this cat using the Raymarine C80 plotter, and connected wind meter and echo sounder. We went to 2-hour watches from the very first day. Except for understanding the lights on ships, most things were relatively OK to handle.
In Borkum we witnessed a celebration of the island’s mini railway on our way to an Internet bar, to get decent weather forecasts and communicado. After a night well slept, we decided that instead of going against the wind towards the Channel, we would sail straight out to England. Off we sailed, with quite many big ships crossing our route yet not from very near.
Catamaran speed was rather slow at start, maybe due to incoming tide. We got the boat moving up to 9.4 knots. On average, we sailed around 7 knots, 6 knots if unlucky.
M.A.R.I.N. starts sail
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009After 10 months of preparation, July 22nd, M.A.R.I.N. project starts by preparing its first journey at sea. We will take the catamaran vessel to the Irish Sea. On board are Nigel Helyer (AU), Michael Lake (AU) as artists in residence with Tapio Mäkelä (FI) as a resident artist, and Lars Dall (DK) as a captain of the boat. Other artists in residence will join us in Belfast for ISEA2009 and continuing to work with the AND Festival in Cumbria and Liverpool.
Starting location is Brunsbuttel, a harbor at the mouth of Kiel Canal. Depending on the wind predictions, we are going either West via English Channel, or North-West up coast of Scotland. First day is filled with equipping the boat with solar panels, batteries, computing and sound gear, water, and food. We watch huge ships go by. Part of the solar panels, wind turbine, and 3G router arrive from Slovenia via Marko Peljhan, who is preparing an expedition to Baffin Bay with Matthew Biederman in Arctic Perspective Initiative. Both will join the residency for ISEA2009 in mid August. Shipment from Germany is delayed, and we wait until all gear has arrived and leave on the 23rd at 2.30 PM. Our course is West, as the weather on open sea seems unpredictable with gales.
Dialogue on Art and Climate Change, Beijing
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) hosted an event titled Dialogue on Arts, Culture & Climate Change in Beijing, October 9-12 2008.
The Marine working session looked at marine ecosystems, art and science collaborations and new designs for sustainable technology for the seas. Tapio Mäkelä presented the M.A.R.I.N. network and art & science residency concepts, Toshiroh Ikegami shared examples of marine and land based biospheres, Andreas Siagian talked about art and science and workshop practices by HONF (House of Natural Fiber), and Oleg Koefoed discussed plans for a boat project, to be based from Denmark and to address climate change.
The ASEF event gathered 43 Asian and European artists, designers, architects, cultural practitioners, environmentalists and scientists, who participated in a three-day workshop, organised in partnership with the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, the China Academy of Social Sciences and the Danish Cultural Institute. A second project phase will follow which will lead to an event held in Copenhagen in December 2009 alongside the Climate Change Summit. A report of the event can be found from here as a PDF.
Marine and littoral biospheres
An eco-designer based in Osaka, Japan, Toshiroh Ikegami works with sustainability of seaside cities. He aims to create designs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while demonstrating the vast possibilities design has to offer for the revitalisation of cities.
His Sea Farm project focuses on experimental equipment installation concentrating on the recovery of living organisms in the Osaka Bay. Sea Farm will create a suitable surrounding for marine life forms that would no longer be able to cope with the water in the Osaka bay. Further, development ot phytoplankton and algalg reproduction aids in the absorption of carbon dioxide by photosynthesis. The project has been proposed for Tokyo Bay area.
The Seaside Farm project is an experimental greenhouse at Seafront, utilizing solar energy, desalination of seawater for plant irrigation, and an architecture optimal for carbon binding - and growing plants. Hopefully we will be able to set up a collaboration with Toshirah in the coming years.