Capacitor: Okeanos, a dance of the sea that floats my heart

It’s been a long, long time since I felt this way. A really long time. I’ve not looked upon dance and been stimulated to remember not only what it means to me, but what the possibility art has on society.

I don’t say that lightly – and in this case Jodi Lomask’s company, Capacitor (so aptly described by Ariel Schwartz in her article for Fast Company, as the “The Cirque Du Soleil Of Environmental Science“) has me floating. What touches me so deeply about this mash-up of dancers, acrobats, musicians and scientists is that they have been what I have been waiting for! While I have spent years working with installation artists (with great joy) my training as a dancer has been yearning for science and movement to coalesce. In this case it has. Jodi, and her team, have created a piece that is a living ocean. Using only a few devices to support the weightless of ocean, the group has found a way to explore what we cannot see – and it is exactly this daring, to bring to us the depth of life below the sea that I find so promising for the arts.

Staring April 12-15, Okeanos, a dance two years in the making, will premier at Fort Mason in San Francisco. BLUEMiND is thrilled to share a small segment of the stage on closing night at the Okeanos premier, April 15th AT 6:30pm.  **Tickets here: http://bit.ly/xDsvI3 

(Performance is at 8:00pm, with after show eco-cafes).

I am going to quote Ariel of Fast Company here, because she nailed it:

“Dr. Sylvia Earle, famed oceanographer and TED Prize winner, is known for her ocean advocacy work. Advocacy takes many forms, but even Earle probably never predicted that her explanations of the intricacies of ocean life would be used as part of a multimedia dance performance, complete with acrobats, giant video screens, and on-stage interpretations of overfishing.

It’s safe to say that Capacitor is unique in the dance world. Founded in 1997 by choreographer Jodi Lomask, the dance company does its best to interpret scientific phenomena without sacrificing artistic integrity. Every show explores a different aspect of the natural world. “The truth is, I begin with a vague feeling of where I want to go. This isn’t a physical destination, but a metaphysical one. In the past I have wanted to go into outer space or the deep Earth, to the top of the trees and, in this case, the bottom of the ocean,” says Lomask, who doesn’t have a formal science background but grew up around scientists (her father was a physicist).

Each dance performance is workshopped beforehand in Capacitor Labs–a think tank-style collaboration that brings together scientists, engineers, and dancers. The Capacitor Lab for Okeanos was held over a six month period at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS).

“In these monthly meetings, the creative team would be given a 20 minute lecture by one or two marine biologists or oceanographers and then present for 20 minutes on their craft and how he or she was approaching this particular project. We also show the dance as we develop it there, receiving feedback from the rest of the creative team and the scientists,” explains Lomask.”

- Ariel Schwartz, Fast Company

When Jodi asked me to do two things, 1. sit on her board 2. produce a BLUEMiND event, I seriously swooned. I am, by all accounts, a huge romantic – but mix dance and oceans and I become really gushy, inspired and then a compulsive megaphone. I’ve become undone by the power of the company’s desire to share the two years of study, ocean swimming, surfing, sitting under water looking at plankton, and then find a way to make this all into movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Critically speaking, this dance could not come at a more important time. We have been inundated with mainly horrific images and news about the ocean. Okeanos offers us a respite from the tragic, and a view into the sublime.

Yet, for those who are not ocean people (and that is the case for many – they are drawn to mountains and trees, lakes or cities) why should a dance replicating the ocean in all of it’s mystery, sass, darkness, and predatory moments, be relevant? Perhaps it is because our ancestors come from the ocean. That alone is pretty cool. Additionally, no matter how you shake it, some of our most critical memories are shaped at the ocean/seaside – and our global need to have a nostalgic relationship to the ocean is undeniable.

In the past two years our community within BLUEMiND (shaped of cognitive neuroscientists, futurists, media artists, marine biologists, and passionate graduate students compelled by the BLUEMiND idea/movement of NeuroConservation) has been exploring our brain’s critical interrelationship with the ocean. This in not just your brain on chocolate (though I can’t get my mind off that ever!) – it is an exploration of the brain’s (and mind’s) need for the ocean not only relaxation (so put down by western culture), but the possible public health, conservation, and treatments for everything from PTSD to addiction. From Stanford, Duke to MIT, this exploration is being taken very seriously, and we are devoted to this very fluid, yet very serious study (and emerging cultural Meme).

So, BLUEMiND is thrilled to share a small segment of the stage on closing night at the Okeanos premier, April 15th and 6:30pm.

The theme is “Our Mind on Ocean, our Brain on Memory” and the following remarkable people will be speaking (and I will be a very happy M.C.). It’s delightful that our panel is coming from up and down California (leaving surgery early, lectures, training to surf, and producing) to support the work of Capacitor. Who’s sharing:

Dr. Wallace J. Nichols – Marine Biologist, Founder of BLUEMiND
Dr. Amir Vokshoor – Brain Surgeon, Founder of Institute of Neuro Innovation (http://inifoundation.org)
Farhana Huq – Surfer/explorer, Founder of Brown Girl Surf
Dr. M.A. Greenstein (Dr. G) – Applied neuroscience innovator, Founder of (The Greenstein Institute) GGI
MC: Sarah Kornfeld – Hybrid Communicator/Producer, founding collaborator of BLUEMiND – WhatSarahSees

Ultimately, we’ll explore the science of memory and the unique experiences that create nostalgia. Can ocean nostalgia be a driving force for better protection, restoration and more empathy? Additionally, the 2nd BLUMiND summit will be held June 5, 2012, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

So, please join Capacitor as they bring you Okeanos – and meet up with BLUEMiND-Okeanos on April 15th (please, taxes? What’s a better way to forget that loss with the rich heart of dance and ocean!) as we go deep into the Blue, of memory and beauty.

Please buy tickets here and come for a very full evening of discussion, dance and conservation.  **Tickets here: http://bit.ly/xDsvI3

 

Get Your Blue Mind On (as seen on Huffington Post)

(Link to Huffington Post http://huff.to/sTemOQ)

By Wallace J. Nichols and Sarah Kornfeld

Our brains have an amazing ability to do something: hide a world of truth from us. We’re able to tune out the blinking lights and honking horns, the stress of work, the underwater mortgage, and those inappropriate clothes and music our kids prefer. Meanwhile, people around the world survive war, abuse, hunger, chronic disease and floods. Our brains excel at rationalization and self-deception helping us handle the grit of living.

Billions of feelings, tactile senses, memories, sounds, smells and a barrage of voices are all around us. Most of the time our brain insulates and protects us from the rest of the abundant information in the universe that isn’t in our direct focus. But that thick padding comes with a cost. It means we really have no idea — most of the time — why and how we do what we do.

This concept might deeply challenge the idea of our lives happening because things are “meant to be”, or that we have a “higher calling” or we can “will things happen”. We certainly have brilliant insights, accurate intuitions and strokes of genius. It’s seems that our subconscious leads us to make decisions that feel like they come from someplace else, yet really happening inside us.

It’s tough because we’ve been working hard for a long time to understand why we do what we do. We have therapy, religion, hallucinagens and many other practices that we use to try to understand who we are. Yet new information about the brain need not rule out all the tools we’ve been using. Instead it could be a “power tool”. The way the brain processes (and hides) information is one of the great scientific insights of our era. And though seemingly heretical when looked at through more traditional lenses, it’s an amazing, mysterious and transcendent ecosystem of new ideas.

These ideas have led the cognitive scientist David Eagleman to coin the term “Possibillian” to describe the confident state of unknowningness. A Possibilian takes into account that we may have a deep connection both to the unknown, what some may call mysticism, as well as the great scientific discoveries of neuroscience and astrophysics. A Possibilian encourages us to stay open to all the far out possibilities unfolding with regard to our mind and the universe.

But, let’s back up. Way, way, way up.

Who are we?

We are people who live on a very small, apparently unique, blue planet. Our planet came about within the context of an unfathomably ancient universe in constant change filled mostly with invisible dark matter. Our planet is apparently surrounded by an infinitely shifting cosmos, gasses and suns in every direction, which we know something about, but really almost nothing. Our lives are a minuscule, temporary flash by comparison to the vastness of the universe. Yet we often feel invincible. We see ourselves as masters of the whole shooting match.

Our small planet is blue because of water. From a million-or even a billion-miles away, Earth appears blue.

Our ancestors came out of the water, evolved from swimming to crawling to walking. They developed remarkably complex brains, as well, necessary to move successfully through nature encountering constant unexpected challenges.

We started small on this blue planet-and we are descendants from, relatives of and subsidiary to the ocean.

This is not a biology or an astronomy lesson, rather it might be an amazing clue to how we can alter how we treat the planet. We literally have “blue minds”.

And we’re literally seated here now, virtually connected, pondering our evolutionary state with our future on the line.

Over the past year an open source community called BLUEMiND has taken up the task of exploring the human mind-ocean connection. Some of the finest thinkers in cognitive neuroscience, ocean exploration, media and art have gathered at the California Academy of Sciences, the Bioneers conference, and with leaders at the Environmental Defense Fund. Now the idea of exploring the intersection of conservation with how our brains process empathy, gratitude, fear and protection is starting to travel the world. It’s the beginning of a new field, and it all points to our brains’ critical need for the ocean: our planet’s largest, most-dominant system.

After a screening of his film “Transcendent Man”, famed futurist and author Ray Kurzweil was asked why he loves the ocean. The most poignant scene in the movie depicts Kurzweil quietly contemplating the sea and himself. He replied that: “It’s a metaphor for the way the brain is organized.”

The grand duchess of the environmental movement, Frances Moore Lappé (author of “Diet for a Small Planet” and the new book “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want”) stated,”The first step is getting people to realize that the current metaphors aren’t working … we have to think about these issues differently.” She continues, “There’s nothing inexorable” about the environmental problems at hand. “It’s a matter of how we perceive them …” (Santa Cruz Weekly, 9/11/11)

It’s said that those who control the frame, control the contest. We must reclaim the framework with which we see the world: we must engage with our minds to help us achieve this goal.

Here’s what we’ve learned about our blue minds:

- Our brains sit in saline and craves a connection to the planet’s ocean on a deeply primal level tied to our evolution.

- Doing “one small thing” for the planet does not mean you will stick to doing good -our brains heal and change with our complex relationships to people and nature experienced outdoors.

- The ocean isn’t just pretty, it stimulates our health-both psychologically and physically. We might be staring at a new approach to public health based on the ocean, one now being taken seriously by doctors and scientists.

So, this huge body of water, our one world ocean, impacts our remarkably powerful brains in ways we’ve always felt but are only beginning to know. Together, we occupy this planet, and together our minds and the sea have an interdependency beyond the fish, whales and sea turtles, ecosystems and biodiversity, or economic benefits. The water and our neurons need each other to live.

How can your blue mind help change the world?

To get healthy, get near, in, on or under the ocean more often. The ocean can literally suck the stress from you.
Demand that polluters don’t destroy the very thing our brains need to evolve.

Learn all you can about your brain, and teach it to the kids. Especially as it intersects with nature.

Or, as we like to say, LIVEBLUE and swim in the possibilities of your blue mind.

 

Faces of Chelonia: Art, Turtles and Two Guys with a Camera

This is an interview that is typically techno: Neil Ever Osborne and I did it email via email, and Wallace J Nichols and I over a beer with little wi-fi. It was great fun to interview my ocean brothers, and bioneers on this amazing adventure they are having called, “Faces of Chelonia”.

Both Neil and J are scientists, but they are artists, media makers and are making a profound impact on turtle health, and the use of art/imagery to explore the planet, and beauty.

** All images by Neil Ever Osborne

——————————————————————————————–

 

SK: Ok, you first Neil. How did you find photography? Did looking at pictures influence you, or did a camera find you?
NEO: I have just a simple answer. Before I was a photographer, I was a biologist. When I realized I could communicate with more diverse and larger audiences through images, it was easy to swap research-measuring tools for the camera!

SK: Once you had a camera what were the topics, or subjects that interested you most?

NEO: I guess you can say I’ve remained intrigued by the scientific and natural world, so my assignments and personal work are almost exclusively centered on an environmental topic or issue. It takes me to some fascinating places!

 

 

 

 

 

 

SK: J, how did you find Turtles, or how did they find you?

WJN: I’ve been a bit of a turtle and math geek since I was a kid. We used to catch snapping turtles and paint numbers on their shells and use simple algebra to estimate the size of the population based on recaptures. Turtles have been a steady obsession ever since. I just like them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SK: J, you’re a biologist, but you also have a degree in economics, oh, and you are also a media maker. How did this mish-mash come together, and why?

WJN: I was always interested in problem solving more than any particular academic discipline. So I’ve just learned about the tools that I think are needed, often by hanging around the people I know are best at those things, be they photographers, designers or neuroscientists.

SK: So, Neil, when did the blending of science and art/art and science come into your consciousness?

NEO: I’m still learning the power of this convergence. But, it is clear to me this is the direction conservation needs to head. Conservation communications should not be a novel term, but in many conversations it still is. As these worlds collide, I think we’ll see more work coming from the emerging genre of conservation photography, and other communication platforms. Our next step is to start quantifying the role each can play with the other.

SK: Same question for you J. When did the blending of science and art/art and science come into your consciousness?
WJN: In high school I liked science, but was singled out by faculty for my writing. I told the head of the English Department that I was going to be a biologist who could write. He wanted it the other way around. It was then that I realized that I liked the blend of art and science, or science and art, as the case may be. The two strands wind around each other so easily.

I’ve sold a couple of images to National Geographic, so I’m now retired as a photographer ; )

SK: Neil, do you think photography can change the world? Or, people’s attitude towards place?

NEO: More and more I find myself saying that photography and imagery might not change the world, but it could be the factor that changes the mind of someone who can.

 

SK: J, what about you. Do you believe in “changing the world” Or images being  a part of that?

WJN: Anything or anyone can potentially change anyone or anything. Especially in this era of speed-of-light communication. Why limit the opportunities?

 

 

 

 

SK: Neil, What is your most recent project, it has to do with turtles….ya?

NEO: In the latest chapter of my Faces of Chelonia project, which depicts sea turtle conservation stories from around the world, J. and I are returning to the Baja California Sur coastline to bring back one of the most positive conservation tales around. We’ll introduce the public to a movement that started more than a decade ago with some very unlikely characters. It will be a novel contribution to the media where we are constantly informed about what is going wrong in the world. If this excites you, you can support our project here:

PLEASE LINK BELOW FOR A WONDERFUL VIDEO AND A PLACE TO DONATE:

Emphas.is: http://bit.ly/qagRa2

SK: Do you feel that photography of nature is left out of the “canon” of museums? Or, does that not really matter?

NEO: These days, I’m spending most of my time trying to find outlets for my work and other photographers’ projects that align with audiences who might be influential in making decisions that affect the conservation issue. So, I’m more interested in the novel deliverables that get images into the face of the right people. More often this is the public who can persuade policy makers, but I’m looking to target specific audiences as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SK: Finally, J, what’s it like for you to work with Neil? Is there a different kind of collaboration or process you experience, as opposed to those in the labs you help run, or the projects you do on land?

WJN: Beyond the theory and rhetoric, Neil and I work well together. He’s easy to travel and camp with and we like the same kind of beer. I think people say, “those guys who love turtles are kind of crazy, fun to work with and polite.” So we build rapport, friendships and get invited back. And that’s much more important to the conservation process than you may think.