"How to Make an Ocean" - a documentation from the Werkleitz Festival "Move to..." exhibition
"The installation creates a space that allows a profoundly human experience without the need to fear the consequences: crying. It reaches out to all who mourn regardless of the reason - to make a connection, create awareness, and have a space to grieve: where no tear is shed in vain. Life and joy can grow out of sorrow - be it energetically, spiritually, or emotionally, it always leads to growth and transformations."
- Lars Rummel, curator
From the winter of 2019 until recently, Kasia has been collecting her tears - first when she cried after losing three loved ones in the autumn of 2019. Then, with the start of COVID-19, she "trained herself" to cry in order to relieve her anxiety, and began to explore the chemical composition of human tears to see how they could sustain a healthy, tiny marine ecosystem. Using her own tears to host sea life became a form of catharsis, and a constructive way to deal with personal - and then environmental - loss.
Alongside this, Kasia started investigating how her mental health, and the anxiety it produced, was affected by the narrative of her "online life" - the news and information feeds curated by algorithms. She began to wonder whether she could use this to cry, and so feed her mini-oceans. The result is an experience set in four parts, below.
THE EXPERIENCE
How to Make an Ocean unfolds as a collection, a bot, a set of tools, and a performance - each grew out of the same body of tears, and each can be read on its own below.
THE TEAM
Tech Support: ERIK OVERMEIRE
Product Design: GOSIA SIWIEC
Video: IVAN MAREVICH
Additional Support: DAVOR DELIJA
SUPPORT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
OTHER
FROM THE INSTALLATION
Part 1
The Mini Ocean Collection
"Can I look after my physical and mental health in order to be of use to other life forms? Or can environmental health be an indicator of our own health?"
There are 30 to 50 tiny bottles – each contains my tears and a North Sea algae. Each has a date, a reason for crying and the name of the hosted algae.
There is a log of Kasia's diet from the period of the research, accompanied by a log of the presence of chemical elements (N, P, K) important for the healthy growth of algae - elements that can be regulated by diet. The artist wanted to know how she could use her bodily waste to care for the environment we have destroyed.
Part 2
The Moirologist Bot Experience
Humans cry when grieving, experiencing pain or anger, but most often when feeling powerless.
Can AI, which operates within our online / digital lives and curates a lot of the content we consume, help us to embrace loss? Can it provide and hold a space to recognise pain, anxiety and sadness, while helping us to mourn? "Moirologist Bot" is an AI-driven video installation inspired by the emergence of "environmental anxiety" as a medically recognised mental condition - an adverse reaction to the state of the world: the sixth extinction, climate collapse, pandemic, personal loss and all the radical changes affecting our status quo.
In the past, a "Moirologist" was a professional mourner - a person invited to wakes and funerals to cry, and, with that, encourage other mourners to cry too. "Moirologist Bot" is a digital revival of this bygone job.
This mental state is often aggravated by a constant stream of news headlines - made on purpose to be alarming, sensation-seeking and fear-inducing - often creating in consumers a sense of resignation and powerlessness. At the same time, tears are very beneficial for the human psyche and body - by crying we let toxins out (such as cortisol) accumulated while experiencing negative emotions. This leads to a sense of relief, and often clarity, after a good cry. But sometimes, even if we want to, it is impossible to shed those beneficial tears.
The viewer is on their own, watching the video in a space especially created for it. The "Moirologist Bot" room also contains the Tears Tools - tearspoons, a funnel, and the tiny sample bottle for tear donation towards making mini marine ecosystems.
HOW THE BOT DECIDES TO CRY
Part 2 credits - Sound: Robin Rimbaud + Kasia Molga + AI · Tech Support: Erik Overmeire · Video editing: Kasia Molga + Ivan Marevich · Additional Support: Davor Delija
Part 3
Tools for Tears' Assessment
Each Tearspoon has a different design, reflecting a different reason for crying.
Designed as part of How to Make an Ocean, Tools for Tears' Assessment are tools for collecting, assessing, preparing and storing tears so that they can become mini marine ecosystems. The most striking object is the Tearspoon - made from silver (a precious element known for its antibacterial quality), designed so that it can be pressed gently against the face beneath the eye to collect a tiny flowing tear. Some Tearspoons have embedded funnels for easily transporting the teardrop into the bottle; others have tiny beaks and are paired with separate funnels. Each Tearspoon has a different design reflecting a different reason for crying (and therefore responding to the varying properties of tears, such as viscosity, weight and salinity), and a few different facial shapes.
There are also Tears Diaries - made from chemical strips for testing marine water - which, in the absence of access to professional testing during the pandemic, helped assess the nutritional value of tears and their suitability for hosting marine life. Strips are grouped together and labelled with a date, a reason for crying, and sometimes the name of the person who donated the tears.
There are also tiny bottles where tears with algae are stored, placed in specially made frames.
THE TOOLKIT
Tearspoon
Silver, pressed gently beneath the eye to collect a flowing tear.
Tears Diary
Chemical test strips assessing a tear's suitability for hosting marine life.
Tear Bottle
A tiny frame-mounted vessel where tears and algae are stored.
All objects are made in limited editions and can be purchased.
Enquire about a limited edition →Part 4
Workshop-Performance
The artist takes the audience through her research on the possibility of cultivating marine ecosystems in human tears.
"How to Make an Ocean - the Performance Workshop" is a guided group experience - a "meditation" performed by the artist with the help of the Moirologist Bot.
The artist takes the audience through her research on the possibility of cultivating marine ecosystems in human tears, playing with prompts, lighting, visuals and time to first create an ambience so that participants feel safe enough to allow themselves to cry.
Each member of the audience is provided with a tears' lab set; should they cry, they can collect their tears. The second part of the performance is a choreographed demonstration of how to harvest tears using the Tears Tools and turn them into mini-oceans.
Participants have a choice to take their mini-oceans with them, or donate them to the How to Make an Ocean collection of tears, which then becomes a permanent part of this artwork.
Part 4 credits - Music: Robin Rimbaud + Kasia Molga + AI · Tech Support: Erik Overmeire · Product Design: Gosia Siwiec · Video editing: Kasia Molga + Ivan Marevich · Additional Support: Davor Delija · Made possible thanks to New Now Festival 2021.