WE ARE OCEAN Blaupause Kiel

The ocean covers 70 percent of our blue planet and plays a central role in our lives: It regulates the climate, provides us with the air we breathe, and the water we need for all life on Earth. The ocean provides transport routes for goods, supplies us with food, raw materials, and renewable energy. It is home to a fascinating and diverse flora and fauna, and offers us recreation. Yet we exploit the sea, destroy its ecosystems, or misuse it as a garbage dump.

 But how can we work together to shape the ocean we need for the future: healthy, full of life, with protected areas, but also sustainably managed? As an important German coastal city and international marine research center, Kiel is an essential stop for the Germany-wide project series WE ARE OCEAN Blaupausen. Many people here know the sea intimately. But water is also within us, in our bodies, bottles, and thoughts. To make this connection artistically and scientifically tangible, WE ARE OCEANBlaupause Schleswig-Holstein aims to collaborate both with the renowned GEOMAR research center and Kiel University, as well as with Finnish artist Riikka Tauriainen and the sp ce / Muthesius art venue.

 For WE ARE OCEANBlaupause Schleswig-Holstein, Riikka Tauriainen reveals her creative process to students at the Goethe Community School in Kiel. Small experiments, big impact – this is the proven principle of her successful workshops, most recently at the Bern Institute for Practices and Theories of the Arts, where she also lectures. The workshop for her interactive exhibition was also received enthusiastically at the influential St. Gallen Art Museum. Together with Zurich marine biologist Meike Vogt, the artist and participants examine various forms of plankton under a non-invasive microscope (which does not kill the plankton for examination purposes). Beforehand, participants draw or model their own representation of the plankton, guided by the artist. The exciting spectrum of similarities and differences between the two resulting visual worlds forms the basis for both scientific and artistic discussions, learning processes, and ultimately a short final presentation. WE ARE OCEANBlaupausen aims to use this beautiful and encouraging moment of presentation to make the complex connections between basic marine biological knowledge, sociopolitical responsibility, and artistic imagination accessible to various multipliers. In this way, they achieve several things: the students experience lasting positive self-efficacy, and the viewers learn about their important responsibility for future generations. In this case, the project by Riikka Tauriainen and Meike Vogt aims to awaken empathy for these marine ecosystems and make the connection between humans and plankton tangible.