Whisper, Drifter, Trickster

Architect Luis Hernan, evolutionary biologist Katja Peijnenburg and designer Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa discuss their collaboration on an installation exploring climate change and the effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms.

This haunting, ethereal installation used light to try to translate what might be signals sent to us by nature.

The work reproduced the daily cycles of the vertical migration of planktonic snails. These organisms have transparent shells that dissolve with oceanic acidification, which is happening because carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean.

Whisper Drifter Trickster reminded us that what happens in the deep ocean is inextricably linked to our daily lives. It asked us to imagine these strange organisms as oracles trying to tell us something urgent in a language we don’t quite understand.

The project brought together Dr Luis Hernan, lecturer in digital architecture at Sheffield, Dr Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa (Royal College of Art) and Dr Katja Peijnenburg, an oceanographer from the Naturalis biodiversity center in the Netherlands.