Mosaic Ocean explores the aesthetics of knowledge-making in oceanographic seawater sampling. The project draws inspiration from the 19th century oceanographer John Murray’s description of scientific work on the HMS Challenger as “a patiently put together mosaic representation of the discoveries made from time to time by sinking instruments and appliances into the deep, and bringing to the surface material for examination and study.” Writer Melody Jue, artist Judit Hersko, and scientist Jules Jaffe focus on studies made at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California. Tracing the work of early luminaries such as Winfred E. Allen, Easter Ellen Cupp, and Beatrice M. Sweeney, the team draws on archives documenting plankton sampling off the pier, examining how questions of scale, objectivity, and situated knowledge played out in work with instruments and design. They examine the mosaic as an aesthetic figure in oceanographic practice, a way of knowing through collective sampling and assembly.
Image: Pichaya Lertvilai, Jaffe Lab for Underwater Imaging, Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, UC San Diego. The image is a composite of organisms that wandered into the field of view of a set of five microscopes, taken from different locations around the world over the 5-year period they have been in operation. Evident here is a variety of nearly transparent organisms whose only defense is to be nearly invisible. Taken together, they span scales from 50 micrometers to nearly a centimeter. The organisms include fearsome and beautiful creatures that engage in behaviors such as harvesting light and using mucus nets to trap and consume other micro-organisms. Many of the images are baby animals, called larvae, that progress toward adulthood via molting. They exhibit a diversity of forms.
