After debuting at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, Meditation Ocean has moved to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Conceived and directed by Hope Ginsburg, Professor of Kinetic Imaging at VCUarts, and realized with an expansive ecosystem of collaborators, the project originally used a six-screen installation at the Wexner to submerge viewers in the marine habitats of Biscayne National Park. The work created a physical link between the landlocked Midwest and the Florida Keys, inviting audiences to “breathe with” underwater species through a synchronized video and soundscape.
At Birch Aquarium, the project has transitioned into Meditation Ocean: Aquarius Reef Base. This iteration reimagines the world’s current only undersea research habitat as a space for contemplative practice, contextualized within the scientific legacy of Scripps. Visitors enter immersive projections filmed at the original underwater platform, surrounded by interpretive exhibits including a recreation of the aquanauts’ living quarters.
Ginsburg and the Meditation Ocean Constellation use the installation to highlight the psychological state of saturation divers, drawing a parallel to the “overview effect”—the profound shift in perspective reported by astronauts when viewing the Earth as a borderless entity from space.
Meditation Ocean is an “accessible indoor ocean” and a platform for public programming. Ginsburg has followed this exploration of “social practice,” art that engages communities across diverse fields since the start of her Sponge projects in 2006, which used the sea sponge as a model for “porous” learning and interdisciplinary exchange.
By translating the lessons of the sponge into this current oceanic meditation, Ginsburg reframes the sea as a living space for humans and other-than-human life, not just a resource for extraction. But the project ultimately asks how the practice of paying attention “with” other species might strengthen communal resilience as the climate changes.
Cover Image Description: Meditation Ocean: Aquarius Reef Base, installation view at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Photo: Jordann Tomasek
