What is the Shape of Water?

Event Recording

The waters of the Chesapeake Bay teem with microscopic organisms—swimming single-celled plankton known as dinoflagellates. But how can we peer into the depths to see them?

Join artist Lisa Moren and marine biologist Tsvetan Bachvaroff to learn about their collaborative projects “Under the Bay,” an augmented reality app that allows users a glimpse into the lives of the plankton in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor; and “What is the Shape of Water,” a cross-species meditation where the audience was invited to make a chant-like rumbling sound which excited the bioluminescent plankton into creating a blue glow that mimics the shape of the sound waves in the water.

Bios:
Lisa Moren is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with emerging media, bio-matter, public space and works-on-paper. She created one of the first virtual reality projects in 1991 at the Banff Centre for Art. Lisa Moren has exhibited her work at the Chelsea Art Museum, the Cranbrook Art Museum and international venues South Africa, Austria, Germany, and Australia. She received the National Endowment for the Arts award, is a Fulbright Scholar to Czech Republic; a multi-year recipient of the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fellowship in Film and Media at Johns Hopkins University and an artist-in-resident at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology [IMET]. Lisa Moren has been a Professor of Visual Art at UMBC since 1998.

Tsvetan Bachvaroff is a Research Associate Professor at the Bachvaroff Laboratory at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) which is part of the The University System of Maryland. He received his B.A. degree from Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland College Park. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Center of Marine Biotechnology and subsequently with the Smithsonian Institution. Bachvaroff also has a Certificate in Emergency Medical Services and serving as a Paramedic with the Baltimore City Fire Department for the past four years.