Krill Sex Twice

Thanks to a serendipitous meeting with a musician, ‘Krill Sex Twice’ was made in time to send to Mawson station, Antarctica to be part of a program of animations for the ‘Living Data Immersible‘ (working title), a mini-installation for people to immerse themselves in art and data. Music: “Twice” (Little Dragon arr. J. Stuart) performed by the Jessica Stuart Few

Thanks to the musician Jessica Stuart who by chance stayed with me in Newtown these past few days. Thanks to Stephen Taberner for sending her my way.

Jessica writes:
“What a eautiful synchronicity to come to stay with Lisa Roberts, and end up being able to be part of her beautiful animation project about krill.

After sharing her work with me, Lisa asked if I had any music that would match the energy of the piece, and I immediately thought of “Twice”. The choice was obvious because I had instructed the mix engineer on the sound I wanted for this song, using terms like ‘deep sea shipwreck diving adventure’ and ‘sink the instruments 200 feet under water’. Very proud to have been able to contribute to this beautiful melding of art & science.”

Today I send the animation to Krill biologist Rob King and he responds with this Email message:

“Beautiful work Lisa, this adds another layer of beauty to this piece. Somehow it really connects you and takes you to the sea floor where this is taking place. It felt much more like I was an independent observer who was unseen by the krill, than from viewing the animation on its own, a wonderful collaboration. Thank you.”

I explain to Rob,

“The method I used opens up a whole new way of engaging people with krill. Inspired by another project that Jessica (musician) described, I printed out frames from the animation and invited her and my partner Ken to draw on these as I told stories about krill and their relationships with phytoplankton, whales and other creatures. I found that drawing into the original animation frames allows for more context around the story, and allows people to make their own marks within it that may capture something of the feeling of being in the water and part of the dance.

Here is Jessica’s inspirational official video for “Twice” (Little Dragon arr. J. Stuart) performed by the Jessica Stuart Few:

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Posted on Tuesday, December 10th, 2019