Notes from the sea

Notes from the sea, 2218

Speculative & critical design, participatory design, environmental futures
2018–present

Notes from the sea, 2218 sparks imagination and inspires debate about human influences on the natural world. The project began at IIT Institute of Design and has continued to evolve* since then. We presented this work at PRIMER 2020 and Anticipation 2019, and it was a featured project at BioDesign Challenge in 2018.

Did you miss us? Download the slides from our presentation, a read-along script, and the Print & Play version of the game.

*pun acknowledged, but not intended

Team
Siyuan Ma (research & design)
Sameer Tendolkar (research & design)
Wanying Zhu (research & design)
Renee Albrecht-Mallinger (research & design)

A field journal with sketches lies open to a page with drawings of a turtle and some yellow fish. Below the journal is a set of colored pencils. To the right, a set of colorful cards with photos of sea creatures and bold text are fanned out.

Alternative futures

Our team sought ways to challenge an oversimplified, anthropocentric view of the natural world. In this project, nature is presented as an active and dynamic system. Human beings, instead of being elevated or separate from nature, are one species among many. Organisms respond to environmental influences, including those created by humans, by adapting. Those organisms that are successful will thrive in an altered environment, while others will go extinct.

Siyuan, Wanying, and Renee pin notes from their research to a foamcore board. They connect the notes with string, because they've all been watching a lot of reruns of The Wire lately.

Field notebook

The team imagined several organisms as they might appear after adapting to a variety of environmental changes and developed a "field notebook" as it might be created by a future biologist. The field notebook was presented as an unfinished journal with hand sketches and notes.

A spread from the field journal with sketches of an animal that looks like a cross between a seahorse and a plastic bag. The animal is labeled as being 20 cm long, and has arrows pointing to a dorsal fin, a pectoral fin, and a prehensile tail. There are smaller drawings of a disposable shopping bag and a brine shrimp. There's also writing in script. The page says, 08 Mar, I finally found an Ethereal sea dragon! This little guy was floating around in one of the biggest trash patches in our area. The sea dragon has adapted its form perfectly for the trash patch--its camouflage mimics floating sheet plastic, like a disposable shopping bag. Ethereal sea dragons mostly eat copepods, like brine shrimp.

Card game

A card game allowed viewers to engage in the imaginative and creative aspects of the design project. Players drew cards that prompted them to sketch the way that a new organism might respond to human influences in the ecosystem. This participatory design method helped viewers to develop their own insights and perspectives on the problems presented in the research and field journal.

Thumbnails of the original protoype of the game's playing cards. The first set of cards shows full color images of sea creatures like manatees, hermit crabs, and lion fish. The second set of cards shows nine examples of anthropogenic influence, with verbal descriptions. The third set of cards shows three different types of response: behavioral, physiological, and morphological.

Designing Futures Showcase

At the Designing Futures Showcase, participants browsed the field notebooks and played the card game before engaging in a discussion about the project. More than 60% of the audience contributed sketches using the card game. Several new questions emerged from the discussion that followed, including the moral implications of the project's narrative, the short- and long-term effects of selecting for plasticity, and the impact of anthropogenic influence on the marine ecosystem as a whole.

Raina, a workshop participant, sits at a table with three cards laid out in front of her. She is using a pen to draw an example of a sea creature.

One example of a journal entry created by a workshop participant. It shows a manatee with large teeth that help it respond to the extinction of its primary food source.

One example of a journal entry created by a workshop participant. It shows a lion fish shedding a skin composed of microplastics, which serves as a defensive barrier.