Carol Devine Ocean Optimism Superpower Story, eXXpedition

Carol Devine is featured in the women in plast pollution science and adventure eXXpedition Ambassadors Superpower spotlight series bringing microplastics, climate change, sailing, polar regions and journeying outside your boundaries stories together.

“Meet Carol, a humanitarian, researcher and writer, who joined Leg 2 of eXXpedition’s Round Britain voyage. Carol works for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on migration, climate and health issues. During our discussion she recounts her experiences onboard and reflects on the power of storytelling and the importance of it within the medical and humanitarian space.”

Excerpt:

CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND HOW YOU WOULD DESCRIBE YOUR SUPERPOWER?

I am a social scientist and writer currently working on climate, health and their interconnections, encompassing oceans, forests, food systems, medicines, humanitarian issues, conflict, migration, culture and more. These cascading crises disproportionately affect communities and Indigenous groups who have long stewarded the land and today 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. 

I also do conceptual art. I believe in the importance of storytelling, speaking with affected communities, working with scientists, artists and policymakers. It’s all very well having the science, but how do we translate it? How do we ensure people are able to understand the science and how it is applicable to them? For me, art is a storytelling tool that allows people to make sense of the science. And that’s why I believe it’s my superpower because I can help connect ideas and people!

“It’s all very well having the science, but how do we translate it?”

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

I’m currently writing a piece inspired by my experience with MSF at COP27. Having all the pavilions sit alongside each other and listen to their concerns and the actions they are taking felt like a very powerful form of diplomacy to me. It got me thinking about the voice of the ocean. Who speaks for the ocean? What does its advocacy look like? 

This visit also gave me the opportunity to see Sharm El Sheik’s surprisingly resilient and beautiful coral and ocean life up close. I’m going to create a visual piece to share my experience in the Red Sea, and some of the advocacy questions also inspired by the Ocean Pavilion and the climate conference itself.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH EXXPEDITION?

I had recently returned from Antarctica from a Women in Science expedition. A journalist from Deutsche Welle (DW) in Germany contacted me about my previous environmental work in Svalbard and a related exhibition on it, and about a civilian Antarctic cleanup I’d led in 1995/96 for a story. He mentioned the work of eXXpedition so I did some research, was immediately enamoured and put my application forward!

eXXpedition’s impactful approach of not only collecting plastic and water samples, but partnering with research institutions and organisations, doing local clean ups, meeting with stakeholders gave me a heightened sense of connection. Engaging with multiple key factors meant that we weren’t just there pontificating and doing research, but collaborating and bringing different pieces of the puzzle together!

Aquamess feature in Photographic Museum of Humanity: suffocating swirls of plastic

Curated contemporary photography on “relevant issues of our times.”:

Climate change and marine pollution have been named a double-threat by the United Nations. And, looking at their consequences, there is no doubt that the environment and global health are closely connected. “We are becoming plastic”, humanitarian activist, Carol Devine says. “We are poisoning ourselves by poisoning the oceans because we are a part of the food chain. Seeing how nano-plastic is killing seabirds and fishes enables us to understand how toxic these particles are for our health”, she explains.

Flashforward flashback: Victims and perpetrators, covering climate change

Magenta Foundation’s Flashforward Flashback interview with photographers covering climate change and environmental degradation. Photography in the anthropocene: what images, of whom, what stories, whose stories with what goal? Flash Forward Flash Back: humility and transparency in climate change imagery. "Victims & Perpetrators: Covering Climate Change" panel includes Aquamess’s Carol Devine, alongside thoughtful, skillful photographers Gregg Segal, Nichole Sobecki, Benjamin Petit Aaron Vincent Elkaim. moderator Laurence Butet-Roch, Magenta Foundation

Aquamess at Polar Film Festival

Aquamess the short documentary and story of a cleanup expedition at the top of the world, was selected and screened as part of the 6th Annual Polar Film Festival at The Explorer's Club January 26, 2018 in New York City. It screened alongside a fantastic group of films that celebrated polar exploration and this year, particularly Inuit, Innu and Sami culture, knowledge, resilience and stories. 

CANADA SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM

Aquamess is featured in a new multi-media exhibit on Oceans and Ocean health in the soon-relaunched Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, November 16, 2017.  Garbage I collected in Svalbard as part of Clean Up Svalbard is now part of the museum's collection and is on display along with voice recordings I made about the cleanup initiative. The goal is to help people see themselves in the exhibit and ask, how do I dispose of plastics and garbage, and where does it go. How can I be part of the solution of the major health and marine ecosystems problem of marine trash? The exhibit is called Hidden Worlds. Indeed, microplastics are hidden and super harmful. Special thanks to Dr David Pantalony and Michel Labrecque at the SciTech museum.

Aquamess Brainpicker love

Maria Popova's Brainpickings tweets Carol Devine's Aquamess Portraits of Arctic Trash: clean it

Polar Art: Aquamess in Ernest Journal

Aquamess featured in Ernest Journal March 27, 2017 Issue 6 is a bi-annual printed journal for the curious and adventurous. It is a guide for those who appreciate true craftsmanship, who are fascinated by curious histories and who care more for timeless style than trends. It is a periodical of substance created for folk who love to build res, camp under a canopy of stars and run full pelt into the sea. It is for people who’d like to learn how to brew beer in their shed and name all the constellations of the northern hemisphere. It is for people who whittle.

Deutsche Welle Global Ideas features Aqua Mess, a portrait of a place and its garbage

by Enrique Gili

Though we have come to expect pollution in the seas and oceans that border densely populated areas, what about the world's more remote waters? Artist Carol Devine went to find out. Read more

 

 

Svalbard Trash at Canada Science and Technology Museum Nov 2017

Aquamess will be part of an exhibit at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa Canada in November 2017 in a section devoted to the oceans, marine science, and ocean health. The pieces of garbage I collected in Svalbard, Norway that you see in this virtual exhibit are now part of the museum's collection. I'm grateful curator Dr David Pantalony urged me to bring back samples of the trash we found on the Svalbard Clean up we did on several beaches during our civilian expedition. Date TBA. Watch this space! 

image: Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa

Assessing the amount, quality, and risk of microplastic contaminants in aquatic ecosystems

In Phys.org magazine 5 Jan 2017 

We're hearing more from studies about microplastics in our waters and research techniques. This brief article assesses current sampling and techniques. Clearly it's imperative to keep studying and in the meantime we, industry, government need to continue to clean up our act and think more about use and disposal of items that harm us and the ecosystem.

The review describes the currently used analytical methods with their advantages and drawbacks. For example, the reader learns that the visual inspection of the samples (derived from sediment, water surface or bulk) still takes a prominent role although the chance of false (both positive and negative) results is very large. And the lower size limit for optical detection is recommended to be about 500 micrometers, whereas the most interesting—because probably the most harmful—microplastic particles and fibers are in the range down to one micrometer or even nanometers. On the other hand, spectroscopic techniques have been successfully implemented which can unambiguously characterize the quality of the plastic particle down to one micrometer, provided certain analytical requirements are met. The authors propose that these spectroscopic techniques, combined with the emerging thermoanalytical techniques, will provide reliable data in the future, but they need to be continually developed and optimized.

As their most important point, the authors call for a harmonization of methods..."

and concludes

"The authors also discuss the uptake of microplastics and its effects in living species, and they highlight the necessity of enhanced research efforts towards the distribution of plastic additives such as plasticizers, fillers, or flame retardants in the tissue, which are potential health hazards. Thus, the article adds important aspects to the ongoing discussion on microplastic pollution in marine and freshwater biotopes and presents valid solutions for future management."
 

Art the Science

Art the Science a blog dedicated to featuring global sciart features Aquamess interview with Carol Devine Feb 2017, excerpts

Science Inspires Art Food: exhibit New York Hall of Science Sept 2016

SCIENCE INSPIRES ART

FOOD

18th Art-Science, Juried Exhibition
Organized by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)
at the New York Hall of Science
September 17, 2016 - February 26, 2017

Artists Reception: Sept.18 from 2-4pm

The international Open Call for this 18th annual art-science exhibition produced by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI), “Science Inspires Art: FOOD,” sought 2D images of original art executed in any media that reflect on the topic of FOOD from all angles: from the historical record to the elite haute-cuisine of today's "molecular gastronomy”; as a physical material for making or inspiring art, or as a vehicle for stimulating important community discussion.

The negative effects of climate change (rising sea levels and global temperatures, droughts, flooding, and extreme weather events) are challenging the sustainability and wisdom of our current agriculture and meat production systems. FOOD has become the central focus of an urgent global debate on how to feed our planet's projected 9-billion people by 2050 (World Health Organization) without increasing our greenhouse gas footprint.

Since FOOD is on the frontlines of our future sustainability, this exhibition reveals an intriguing variety of visual perspectives representing the face of this new complexity. We imagine you may recognize some of their artistic reactions to the science of food security and safety, nutrition, food health disorders or obsessions, edible front yards, eating insects or speculative new hybrids, however, others are thought provokingly out-of-this world. Cynthia Pannucci, ASCI

Signal to Noise:

Aquamess featured in "Straight Up Science" in Signal to Noise magazine, "a nonprofit science magazine. Produced by scientists, written for everyone." An excerpt. Thanks Amanda and team.

Our synthetic footprints on the top of the world: Parley for the Oceans interview

"Near the 80th parallel north, you’re more likely to find polar bear paw prints than human bootprints in the snow. You're also likely to find a human footprint of another kind: plastic. In the span of just half a century, our collective synthetic addiction has rendered pristine wilderness obsolete. Plastic pollution from all over the world is carried by ocean currents and deposited everywhere — from the bottom of the sea to even the most isolated Arctic landscapes, areas already pushed to their limits by human-driven climate change.

Last year, artist and activist Carol Devine traveled to Svalbard, Norway, on an expedition to address marine debris accumulations near the North Pole. She went to take action against plastic pollution, and turned the journey itself into a floating art exhibition, Discard/art Svalbard, hoping to create a catalyst for inspiration and change. By documenting the expedition findings in portraits of garbage, she delivers a powerful wake-up call for humanity: we are all more connected than we realize. It’s time to clean up our act.

We asked Carol about her journey and latest exhibition, Aqua mess, which documents items found at the top of the world."

Parley for the Oceans

It's all becoming crystal clear: garbage in the Arctic

Last fall the first studies showed microplastics near Svalbard in Arctic waters.

Now we learn that a lot of the garbage in the Arctic has been carried from UK seas. It surprises me these findings are only arriving now but the collective consciousness of knowledge of and fighting of the trash is happening, thankfully. This Guardian article by Damian Carrington is well worth a read:

Plastic waste dumped in UK seas 'carried to Arctic within two years'

Us cleaning in Svalbard 2015, image C Devine

Aqua Mess featured in Art & Science Collaborations, Inc ASCI June 2016 eBulletin

ASCI

Founded in 1988, the mission of Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) is to inform our membership of opportunities in the international field of art-science practice, raise public awareness about the artists and scientists using science and technology to explore new forms of creative expression, and to increase communication and collaboration between these fields