Blue Dreams, Immersive Video Projection on an 11′ x 35′ custom curved screen, National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C.

Ocean Memory Project

“The ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time.”
– H. P. Lovecraft

Conceived in 2016, The Ocean Memory Project is a transdisciplinary group of researchers across the arts, sciences and humanities exploring the intersection of ocean and memory. Participants have investigated how the ocean and its inhabitants are an interconnected system with agency and memory, where environmental changes are encoded within living things and within the dynamic processes of the ocean structure itself.

Through an initial grant from the National Academy of Sciences / Keck Futures Initiative, Rutstein was invited in 2017 to join the first Ocean Memory workshop. From 2018-2023, after being awarded a $500,000 Challenge Grant from the National Academy of Sciences / Keck Futures Initiative, The Ocean Memory Project continued to explore the largely unknown world of the deep sea and memory. Transdisciplinary workshops spurred innovative science and art projects helping us understand and communicate how changes in our global environment are recorded by the deep ocean and its inhabitants. The OMP continues today through private funding streams.

Rutstein has participated in the following workshops, projects and grants, and was an organizer and facilitator of the workshops with an (*)

September 2017 Friday Harbor Laboratories (University of Washington), San Juan Island, Washington
March 2018 Djerassi Residency for Artists in Woodland, California
February 2019* Boone Center for Environmental Studies, University of Southern California, Catalina Island, CA*
October 2019 Ocean Memory Expedition at Sea on UW’s RV/Rachel Carson in the Salish Sea in British Columbia
June 2020* Seed Seminar on Cognition & Genomics (virtual seminar originally planned at Virden Center at University of Delaware)*
Aug 2020-Sept 2021 Seed Grant Recipient for “Blue Dreams” video art piece
Aug 2020 Co-authored article in Scientific American
March 2021 Guest speaker on Ocean Memory Web Seminar Series
April 2021 Sounding Workshop and concert, hosted by Stanford University (virtual)
Nov 2021–June 2022 Journeys through Water Exhibition and Guest Speaker at University of Washington
Feb 2022 Seed Seminar on Senses and Sensing (virtual)
June 2022* Seed Grant Recipient, “Senses Submerged” Workshop in Puerto Morelos, Mexico
April 2023* Seed Seminar on Memory Loss, UGA Marine Institute, Sapelo Island, Georgia
June 2023 Seed Grant Recipient, The Immersion Project
June 2023 Seed Grant Recipient, Losing the Architectural Memory of Sea Ice
Oct 2023* The Remembering Workshop, Friday Harbor Laboratories, (University of Washington), San Juan Island, Washington
Nov 2023 Ocean Memory Cresting Conference (virtual)
Nov 2024 Seed Grant Workshop, Losing the Architectural Memory of Sea Ice, Friday Harbor Laboratories, San Juan Island, Washington
September 2025* Land/Sea Interface Workshop, Friday Harbor Laboratories, (University of Washington), San Juan Island, Washington

for more information: oceanmemoryproject.org