“The Synergy Project: A Collaboration of Art and Science” exhibition aims to communicate and explore topics of oceanography through the combined efforts of artists and researchers.
The exhibit showcases 50 works created by both artists and scientists from the University of Rhode Island and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, according to the project’s website.
“Synergy gives a more holistic overview of what is actually happening,” Clarissa Karthauser, a postdoctoral student at WHOI working on the project, said. “It gives [the public] a more intuitive way to interact with science.”
Karthauser partnered with artist Laurie Kaplowitz to create a book containing passages and several artworks titled, “Marine Snow: A Lyric Meditation.” The first four paintings are on display at the URI Bay Campus Studio Blue.
Marine snow is biological material from the ocean’s surface that, after absorbing nutrients via photosynthesis, clumps together and sinks to the deeper levels of the ocean, according to Karthauser. The biomass is called marine snow because divers will often see it as flakes of matter while wearing goggles.
Karthauser researches how much carbon dioxide marine snow absorbs and how that can help track how much carbon dioxide is in the ocean itself.
“We decided to personify marine snow, make it into a woman with a life cycle, and show her face from birth through life, dissolution, regeneration as she sinks to the bottom and sleeps on the ocean floor,” Kaplowitz said in a written statement. “The imagery and the lyric form of the text is a way to open up this important research to a large audience in an artful way.”
Karthauser said she finds it exciting to talk about her research outside of her field, working with Kaplowitz through synergy is one way she was able to do that.
“It reminds me of the bigger picture,” Karthauser said. “About the reasons why we do the research in the first place.”
The Synergy Project was not made with climate change directly in mind, according to Karthauser, but it is an undercurrent in many of the pieces.
“Climate change is a very big thing happening in the oceans right now,” Karthauser said. That’s why it’s reflected in all our research. It’s one of the biggest changes we are experiencing.”
When conveying her research, Karthauser tries to explain the science in ways that are understandable and show how they will affect regular people and the world at large.
“I like that with Synergy you get to look at the fascinating and the beautiful side of the research rather than simply sharing information,” Karthauser said. “There is life happening, things are assembling, there are things feeding, things decaying so I think it’s just a different approach to science, and I think it unites the information and beauty of it.”
The exhibit includes other pieces such as the sculpture, “Sea Urchin: Out of Water,” by artist Sharon Cutts and Coleen Suckling, an associate professor in sustainable aquaculture at URI. Another work displayed was “Forms of Every Breath You Take” by artist Sabreah Malik and Max Jahns, a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-WHOI joint program.
The project is on display at the URI Narragansett Bay Campus Studio Blue until March 31.
