Team
Dr Craig Stevens is a physical oceanographer with a focus on environmental fluid mechanics in extreme environments. He holds a joint position at the University of Auckland and NIWA and is a Programme Leader in the Coasts and Oceans Centre. He uses novel observational techniques to make discoveries about how the ocean works – primarily around how turbulence, stratification and waves interact and how entities react/behave/exist in such fluid environments. He has held a number of Marsden Fund projects, is the Chair of the Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association and has a strong interest in promoting environmental physics to the public.
Gabby O’Connor has worked in the art/education space with a connection to Antarctic environmental science for the last decade. This has resulted in her having a national and international profile and includes being invited to produce the facade for IceFest 2014. She is a researcher in the NZARI-supported event (K131) and is looking to develop approaches to world-leading art-science investigation. The work is in collaboration with Craig Stevens (NIWA/UoA) to develop unique embedded art ideas in parallel with science investigation and use this as leverage to enhance educational outcomes in primary school age students. This is driven by a need to create work that translates how cultures engage with natural systems. This approach extends beyond polar scenarios to include work on the collaborative process (with Dr Shaun Hendy UoA). As well as being a practising artist with a gallery track-record, she runs workshops for children that equally translate to adults.
Challenge
Depiction of ocean processes around Antarctica by using a trace of the patterns that reflect ocean currents, air-flow, weather patterns and helping us realise how our actions contribute to these shapes.
Pilot
Drawing Water, rope construction workshops, Term Three 2016, Corban Estate Arts Centre and schools in Wellington and Christchurch
This water project will take the form of a giant rope drawing in the grass and will be developed in during in school workshops where individual nuclei components from 6km of blue rope, cable ties and electrical tap will be created. The resulting components will be assembled in a giant installation using tent pegs and weed matting on the grass space.
Image: Gabby O’Connor, Rope Noodles, 2015, video still