Skye Moret collaborates on Climate Justice for a Living Ocean

Skye Moret, a scientist, designer, and faculty member in the MFA in Collaborative Design and MA in Design Systems programs is currently working on the Ocean Archive, a visionary project that will bring together stakeholders operating at the intersection of scientific inquiry, artistic intelligence, and environmental advocacy.

The Ocean Archive is a digital platform, archive, and repository for collaborative research that gathers together TBA21 Academy expeditions, artistic outputs and production data with a archives and records produced by scientists, communities, and policy-makers. Users will be exposed to the diversity of vantage points, perspectives and knowledge systems on the ocean and its form as it is being shaped by historical and current ways of living and administering the seas. The Ocean Archive will be a pedagogical-, research- and storytelling tool for a wide audience, translating current knowledge about the ocean into a common ground aimed at inspiring urgently needed policies. The Ocean Archive launches September 28, 2019 as an online platform committed to the following objectives:

• Host and produce material by a multiplicity of voices to share human and non-human stories of the ocean across various media;
• Render visible and discoverable a range of disciplinary perspectives and connect individuals, groups, and institutions committed to a living ocean;
• Create novel webs of knowledge by facilitating ocean explorations through archive material and supporting synergies among the arts, sciences, and policy.

The global movement for climate justice is growing stronger and more vibrant as environmental activists call attention to the crises of biodiversity extermination and climate change. Climate Justice for a Living Ocean is prompted by the release of the forthcoming Special Report on the Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, to be issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The event at the Ocean Space in Venice, Italy, convenes a network of artists, activists, scientists, policy experts, and frontline community leaders to critically examine the implications of the report. It will review the report’s dire statistics to emphasize the urgency of coordinated climate action. But, the event will also focus on current initiatives, ongoing and future actions, and localized responses to ask: how would the state of the ocean change if existing conservation efforts were amplified and expanded? How can bolder politics and policies ensure meaningful commitments to ocean health? What cultural practices, literacies, and imaginaries can be shared and fostered across oceans to avert climate catastrophe?

Sponsored by TBA21 Academy, which leads artists, scientists, and policy-makers on expeditions of collaborative discovery onboard a research vessel. The Academy is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean through the lens of art and to engendering creative solutions to its most pressing issues. Ongoing and past initiatives include the development of the Alligator Head Marine Lab in collaboration with the University of the West Indies, which resulted in the establishment of the largest privately backed fish sanctuary in Jamaica and a site-specific exhibition on the Isla de Coco with works by leading contemporary artists including Marina Abramovic, Ed Ruscha, Olafur Eliasson, Doug Aitken and many more. TBA21 Academy is also the first art institution to be granted an Observer status in the UN International Seabed Authority. More information can be found here.