20/11/2017 - THE DEEP - HULL

Ahead of the uni visit to the Turner Prize shortlist I headed up early to spend a few days with my friend who was studying at the University of Hull. On Monday we visited the Deep, which apparently held the worlds largest 'submarium', an aquarium filled with many varieties of species together. As well as this their website also suggested a deep running thread of Conservation through the heart of their business practice, literally stated their slogan; 'For conservation, not profit.' At £10.50 for students, the Deep offered a year's membership, allowing visitors to return as many times as they wished within that year for free. With this they are able to initiate a prolonged relationship with their visitors, and encourage them to return. This allows them more chances to reopen dialogue with their audience and attract them back for new projects and developments. A clever strategy which encourages visitors to actively get on board with their ongoing work, whilst also letting them feel like they have gotten better value for money.

On the walk over to the Deep we pasted the Hull Tidal Barrier, raised into the sky not unlike a sculptural work in itself. Directly opposite the Deep, my friend Dan told me that twice a year the barrier was lowered to protect Hull from the rising tides which would otherwise flood close to 20,000 homes along the river. It got me thinking about mankind's interesting relationship with both the ocean and nature on the whole. Without this massive and ongoing show of human engineering, human development itself would not be able to exist here in stability, yet just one hundred metres away was a gigantic building dedicated to spreading awareness of mankinds massive impact and the instabilities we are causing the ocean. There was something both attractively ironic about the whole setting which definitely prepared my artistic mind to begin to absorb my experience at the Deep.

In the entrance section we were greeted with a metaphor for the life cycle of our planet when presented with a long railing running the stretch of a multi level gallery where every 1.5cm was representative of 1 million years.  (see above photos) This really went some way to contextualise our place as a species on the planet, and began to ask questions of exactly how we could be so dramatically upsetting the balance of a planet which has already been existing and evolving for millennia mostly uninterrupted. The railing spanned across the best part of two floors before finally a small plaque appeared denoting the arrival of early human life, and then ended at the present tense, before opening out onto a larger space dotted with large vibrantly glowing tanks. Again I thought this was another cleverly constructed introduction to the ocean conservation debate, as it not only made visitors aware of the extent of earths development over history, but also that the ocean was infact the brewing pot of all life on earth where everything began. It was a humbling and impressive display and I could tell great thought had been put into developing a program which would have the desired effect on the audience.

 One of the earlier impressive tanks was the 'Lagoon of Light', designed to display the interesting habitat created where tropical forest meets the sea, with a selection of live mangrove trees and coral populated by colourful tropical fish, rays and sharks, two of which had been bred within the aquarium as part of the Deep's contribution to the European Monitoring Program for Zebra Sharks. It was at this point that more obvious conservation material began to appear, cleverly interwoven to remain relevant to the engaging animals displayed. Facts and information were worded in relative terms, and broken down into easily accessed sentences which held direct links to everyday practices to make them more generally relateable, and also make proposed solutions feel domestic and achievable.


So far it appeared the Deep was really striving to frame climate issues in a way which made them accessible to visitors of all backgrounds, ages and circumstances. By doing this they reframe the ecological argument and suddenly solutions seem altogether attainable. The question changes from why should the oceans need sustaining, to wouldn't you want to to sustain them?

 By cleverly pairing aquarium exhibits with examples of how the contained animal's habitats are being directly affected by human industry, the Deep is able to maximise the effectiveness of it's message by forcing people to directly 'face up' to the consequences of our lifestyle choices. A bright engaging tank full of clownfish is quickly followed up by an information section on Ocean Acidification which outlines how increases in acidity affects the clownfish' ability to navigate and identify their home territory, causing them to potentially become lost at sea. Suddenly the further reaching effects of the abstract 'Climate Change' which people are forever hearing about are suddenly made real, and it is affecting even the most iconic of creatures such as little Disney Nemo...

One tank in particular made me feel a little weird about our place as humans to hold these creatures captive in the name of education and conservation, and it was perhaps filled with the least emotionally aware creatures of all. A circular tank was filled with large jellyfish, which were being pumped around in gradual circles, seeming to drift in endless motion. As they got close to the pump, they were blown for just a second quite forefully around and onto their next spiral, endlessly. In the wild ocean jellyfish would roam over thousands and thousands of miles, controlled by the gradual ebb and flow of ocean currents and blooms of phytoplankton. Although these creatures are almost entirely unaware of both themselves and their surroundings, something about the visual appearance of the blobs being bumped around and funnelled this way and that way around a tiny circular tank, when compared to my knowlege of how these wandering creatures should disperse across the entire oceans, just seemed kind of ethically uncomfortable and a bit disrespectful, particularly in such large numbers.

There was one final installation which really struck resonance with me for the effectiveness with which it conveyed its message. There was one aquarium which, despite not being particularly big or impressive or containing a single living thing, was perhaps the most thought provoking of them all. At its surface floated a thin layer of trash, bottles and plastic bags while the deeper levels were choked with gradually swaying discarded fishing nets and plastic wrap. It was particularly sombre because from afar the softly bobbing packaging could almost have been a living regular exhibit, and it was only upon closer inspection that it became clear things were dramatically wrong.
Just as each tank was a mocked-up framing of a particular habitat, this tank provided a unique and haunting snapshot into a future where oceans become overrun with ill-managed plastic waste. In this case unlike every other example, it is not the life contained within which makes this exhibit so impressive, but the complete absence of life instead.

Finally we reached the 'Endless Ocean' tank, the jewel in the crown of the Deep, containing 2.5 million litres of water and 87 tonnes of salt and the true 'submarium' of the site, containing many species of fish, turtle, ray and shark all living together peacefully.

With many spectacular viewing points it provided an amazing opportunity to view these aquatic creatures from all angles and get lots of firsthand photos to use as resources in my practice. One thing that I was noticing in particular was visual emphasis on silhouettes in these underwater worlds, particularly in such large tanks containing considerable quantities of water. Figures would drift into view initially as darkened shapes which were yet somehow intuitively recognisable.

The suggestibility in these visuals was beautiful, and I tried to capture that in my photography. I think perhaps this could be a good gateway to increase the interpretability of my works, and make them more emotive, as has been brought up repeatedly in tutorials. I also loved the effects a larger body of water has on light and tone, and think this could potentially be combined with my artistic practice to create something very exciting. Although I have already done work discussing ocean life, I feel like this trip could well inspire a fresh body of work, particularly taking into account current social media interest in the South Pacific Trash Isle and programs such as Blue Planet 2, I feel like public speculation is currently fixated on these issues which could make it fertile grounds for garnering further awareness.

Finally there was a glass lift which cradled the edge of the Endless Ocean, which provided a sweeping view of the entire tank as it rose, really immersing visitors beneath the surface. The most interesting moment for me however was when the lift broke atop the water and we were given a brief glimpse behind the scenes into the nerve centre of the operation. Behind the organic face of the environments of course was a great deal of logistical work and high level operation. Although it was clear the Deep was absolutely striving to increase public awareness and responsibility for our environment and oceans, I was altogether reminded that this was indeed a human business institution when confronted with it's industrialised face. I had no idea within this building whether I was above or below ground, the lights which from below water had seemed to my human eyes so natural, were clearly now large bulbs and a small grey dinghy bobbed against the side. Any simulation I had previously been affected that these were natural circumstances was shattered, however perhaps this honest snapshot into the working reality of a large scale aquarium was the best thing about the Deep. They recognised that these circumstances were far from ideal, however were honest and minimised these factors where they could, using it also as an opportunity to educate, conserve, propose and push for something which could be better for those environments on the whole, onwards into the future.