By: Valerie Kniazeva
Edited by: Kelly-Dee Anderson
Environmental pressures and concerns have been a worry since the Industrial Revolution, working its way through to the 19th and 20th centuries when discussions about pollution, human health, and waste were sparked. Many have and continue to disregard our unsustainable and consumerist practices, driven and blinded by materialistic gains, status, and finances. Yet, conversation was still sparked; through silent observers who painted the oceans, to more vocal activists who help drive change forward, people are starting to realize humanity’s damaging footprint. Once a niche experiment created by curious artists, underwater museums emerged and began to populate our wounded oceans, challenging traditional museum education by creating a unique, interactive, and play-based learning environment hidden in the depths of our waters. Coinciding with the rise of global warming concerns, eco-artists have reimagined the way that we think about ecocritical art theories, creating striking artwork that re-establishes healthy connections between humans and the oceans, heals coral reefs, and produces unforgettable works beneath the waves.
Ecocritical art history becomes an urgent and emergent critical study, examining the delicate relationship between human and non-human worlds by blending ethics, cultural interpretation, and environmental responsibility and justice. Artists in the 19th century started to explore and recognize changes in our natural world, such as Elodie la Villette, a French painter who painted the shores of Normandy with striking realism and depth. However, what deepens her works are the change of the coastline and the advancing of the sea, which are seen over time. Starting as a silent observer, la Villette sparked recognition amongst scientists and allowed emergent marine scientists to further explore these evident changes. Anthropologist Tim Ingold reminds us that “human beings do not exist on the ‘other side’ of materiality, but swim in an ocean of materials”, a bridge that underwater museums dissolve as they engage viewers not to simply walk quietly through galleries, but to dive, swim, and engage with fellow ecosystems in real life.
Underwater museums bring together art, science, and culture, creating immersive and surreal underwater parks which allow viewers to safely engage with marine life. Using specific, natural, and marine-safe materials, such as pH leveling metals and cement along with textured and porous surface designs, these sculptures work towards the physical regeneration of coral reefs and cleaner water. With a biological function in mind, the aim of these sculptures and museums is to create genuine environmental impact by embedding these sculptures into damaged areas to help heal ecosystems through minimal continued human intervention. Yet, many works either solo or, as parts of these museums, take science a step further to become true living laboratories rather than passive exhibition spaces. Australia’s Ocean Siren, a four-meter illuminated sculpture modelled after Wulgurukaba youth Takoda Johnson, uses LED lights powered by a live connection to the Australian Institute of Marine Science to become a living colour-changing beacon to people of the Australian coast. Using thermal cameras, the sculpture changes colours and reflects the current ocean temperature of the Great Barrier Reef, a constant reminder that our waters are suffering. Along with Ocean Siren, artist Jason deCaires Taylor uses active monitoring tools such as in his sculpture The Listener, a work composed of human ear casts, created in collaboration with local students in Mexico. The Listener becomes more than a symbolic representation, but a physical listening system housing a hydrophone designed by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, recording reef and ocean acoustics. These recordings offer insight into underwater soundscapes, in turn helping researchers track biodiversity, detect disturbances, and understand how marine life communicates. With proven success, research has shown that these artificial reefs can increase marine biomass, restore damaged habitats, and provide invaluable data. Museums, such as the Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA), have expressed how coral coverage and fish populations have dramatically increased over the past decade, demonstrating how carefully designed sculptures can become ecological engines of change.
Jason deCaires Taylor started his first underwater exhibition in 2006 with the creation of the world’s first large scale underwater sculpture, submerged off the coast of Grenada in the West Indies. He later joined MUSA, in 2009, located off the coast of Cancún and Isla Mujeres, Mexico. The museum blossomed as a response to severe coral reef degradation from hurricanes, pollution, and unsustainable tourism in Mexico, and has now grown into one of the largest and most influential underwater museums in the world, where artists like deCaires Taylor and scientists work collaboratively to create new diving destinations for safe and sustainable tourism. Across his works which are located around the globe, deCaires Taylor blends culture and storytelling into his works, showing stories of struggle, migration, community, environmental change, and humans’ relationship with the sea. These museums diverge from traditional museum education and practices, which focus on curation and interpretive experiences, by creating an enriching physical experience where viewers not only observe but interact with live ecosystems; where curation is shaped by water currents and marine life.
Underwater museums and similar projects are being developed around the world, with sites already located in Australia, South America, and the Mediterranean. However, artists and environmental councils are finding ways to further redefine these projects, allowing for alternative archeological sites to be preserved and explored instead. Greece recently opened its first underwater archaeological museum off the island of Alonissos in 2021, similar to China’s Chongqing’s Baiheliang Underwater Museum which preserves ancient stone carvings submerged by dam construction. These global examples underscore the growing appreciation for underwater art as a means for museum education and sustainable tourism. The Parks Canada group at Lake Superior explores ways to work with Canada’s less tropical environment and advance accessibility through developing underwater interpretive programs, using drones and remote cameras to enable visitors to engage with submerged heritage and marine ecosystems of the Great Lakes without entering the water.
As the world continues to change, we as humans continue to adapt and change with our world as well, creating new challenges, but also finding more creative and unique solutions. Underwater museums challenge us to reflect on the current climate crisis and our unsustainable and harmful practices, asking us to find ways to live more peacefully with our fellow non-human worlds. They create not only striking works and tourist attractions, but also embody a new vision for how art, science, and education can work together to heal our planet.
Image Citation: Timelessly. (2023, October 16). File:Musan Underwater Sculpture Museum; Cyprus Agata Załęcka 3.jpg [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Musan_Underwater_Sculpture_Museum;_Cyprus_Agata_Za%C5%82%C4%99cka_3.jpg&oldid=814060805.
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