Ocean observatory: a proposition for a marine dwelling
Creators: name: FINN, Simon
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 360602
subject: Fine arts

description: This doctoral research is directed towards successful creation of a community and ecologically driven sculptural structure in the sea. As such, the focus is a propositional design for the development and construction of a large-scale marine artwork designed for a specific, significant, and accessible site that will entice tourism, health and well-being, and marine life to flourish through its custom designed modular infrastructure. 

Conceived as the world’s first ocean observatory the project is designed as a place for forging community connections to the ocean as well as promoting the proliferation of the existing large diversity of marine life. As an observatory, it is planned as a place for aquatic observation and interaction, and importantly, as a tool to provide information on the current state of the ocean ecosystems. It was always my intention in this doctoral project to make a positive impact on the current situation within the oceanic world. I embarked on research that serves as a point of cultural exchange between art, community, and the sea. 

Inspired by my own experiences as a freediver, the ocean observatory is an experiential artwork for the urban public to reconnect with their ‘inner fish’ (Shubin, 2008), and the evolutionary connections between human physiology and sea life inchoate to our biological interconnectedness the ocean. The research process led to fieldwork in Italy and Australia where I explored the body’s adaptability and evolutionary connections to the sea. In Italy, I gained valuable physical evidential experience during tuition from freediving champion, Marco Mardollo at the deepest pool in the world (40 Meters Y-40).  This tuition was supported in Australia, from world champion freediver Ant Judge from whom I learnt to enhance my bodily capacity to endure prolonged periods under the ocean surface. This experiential underwater knowledge formed the basis for my new aquatic awareness and spurred the desire to seek an authentic approach to art making within the sea. My experiences and explorations both on and below the ocean’s surface revealed exciting insights into possible strategies to create connections between the human and the ocean through art.

These newly found connections to the ocean provided a way of addressing the public through the design of a new large-scale intertidal artwork. This propositional artwork was developed through an intuitive set of investigative designs inspired by the possibility of connecting the urban public through an experiential artwork. It was developed as a heuristic approach to communicating the physical transformative process that I experienced during the fieldwork and was an iterative methodology that offered an extensive range of possibilities and solutions for the proposed observatory. Along with the artworks I produced during the research project, designs for the observatory itself included experimental architectural drawings, 3D visualisations, prototype models, photography, video, and animations. This accumulated body of artworks led to the propositional design for an oceanic structure situated in the ocean at a depth of five metres, remaining half submerged at low tide. This intertidal structure would act like a giant ‘rock pool’ with areas reserved for aquatic species and humans to coexist. The design also allows for public engagement through snorkelling and swimming leading to direct interaction with a plethora of marine species. 

During the iterative design stages I was often confronted with the challenges of finding the most effective practice-led strategies for constructing a marine artwork with educational and conservative potential. I developed a biophilic architectural design process to resolve these problems that included offering the public a potentially transformative ecological experiences through an accessible artwork. While the design required a functional installation suitable for frequent human use, crucially, it also needed to incorporate areas for marine life that enabled aquatic ecosystems to flourish. In short, it was important that the ocean observatory combined the capacity for people to enjoy a relaxing, social, and environmentally conscious activity while being open to increased ecological awareness.

The designated site for the eventual construction of the ‘ocean observatory’ is at Portarlington, Victoria: an appropriate location where art, marine science and education-based tourism could unite. This is a site in Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay, where artificial reefs have already been established on a small scale, proving the necessity for further conservation. In close proximity to the proposed artwork at Portarlington, there is a series of small concrete pods designed for encouraging fish stocks, which is an aligned with the ocean observatories conception as a continuation of ecologically driven infrastructure. By positioning the research project as a large scale ‘public rock pool’ the aim is to facilitate direct positive human engagement with the Victorian waters at Portarlington, whilst offering a significant contribution to the continuation of a healthy local ecology.

The proposed ocean observatory would go beyond simply offering a place for a relaxing swim or sightseeing, as it is designed to expand on typical eco-tourism and foster community values in the pursuit of a meaningful educational dialogue on the importance of marine sustainability. The proposition for an ocean observatory could lead to its eventual construction in future and become the blueprint for many other coastal locations around the world. The eventual practical implementation of the ocean observatory would have positive consequences for the health and wellbeing of our communities and most significantly, for the preservation of ocean ecologies.