🔬 Scientist: Gaya
 Marine biologist and IMBRSea graduate, researching the impacts of deep-seabed mining on meiofaunal communities in the Pacific. With 100+ days at sea across the Indian, Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, he combines field experience, peer-reviewed research, and global science communication on deep-ocean biodiversity and mining risks. 🎨 Artist: Delphine
 Creating a series of oil paintings inspired by life in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, alongside custom coloring plates featuring deep-sea creatures. Printed on art paper for children to explore and paint, these works invite young minds to discover deep-sea ecosystems through imagination and scientific insight, fostering connection, awareness, and stewardship for one of Earth’s least understood environments. 🤝 Together, Oceans Unmined brings art and science into the classroom, empowering the next generation to understand and care for the deep ocean.

Detail of an oilpainting of a Hyalonema. Hyalonema species are deep-sea sponges famous for their long, twisted silica spicules that form a flexible “glass rope.” Found at depths of 200–2,000 m, they anchor themselves into soft sediments while their upper body filters microscopic particles from the water. Their intricate glassy skeletons are among the most beautiful natural structures found in the deep ocean. On the long stalk live tiny polyps.

Meet Oceans Unmined 🌊

www.oceansunmined.org

An initiative dedicated to protecting the ocean’s last true wilderness through creativity, community, and education.

#OceansUnmined #SciArt #ArtSeaMatchmaking #OceanEducation #ProtectTheDeep

“The hadal zone - the deepest parts of our ocean - can feel distant and mysterious because of its extreme depth. But it’s deeply connected to our planet and full of unexpected beauty. Through this SciArt project, we aim to bring that hidden world to life by capturing what it feels like to descend into the deep sea in a submersible.” 🎨 Art Lead: Frances Drader (Bean Sprout NZ), a multimedia artist from Aotearoa who has loved giant squids and the deep ocean since childhood, and who currently enjoys traditional printmaking. 🔬 Scientific Lead: Mackenzie Gerringer, Associate Professor at SUNY Geneseo, researching the physiology and ecology of deep-sea animals, including the deepest-living fishes on Earth.

Meet the team behind Hadal Context 🌊✨

Frances and Mackenzie are committed to blending science and art to help people on the surface feel connected to the extraordinary beauty of the ocean’s deepest depths.

Read more about them in the ALT-text ☺️

#SciArt #ArtSeaMatchmaking #DeepSea #HadalZone

First glimpse ⭐

We just received the very first gouache paintings from artist Megan, and they’re already full of wonder and ocean magic 💙

Can’t wait to see this science-meets-art journey unfold!


#SciArt #ArtSeaMatchmaking #DeepSea #CoralReefs #ScienceCommunication #Illustration #WIP

Michelle (entomologist) & Tanja (deep-sea ecologist/biogeochemist) depict various abyssal forms and how these are threatened by deep-seabed mining. Working in 2 different media (i.e., pen & ink on paper vs. oil on canvas) and in 2 different artistic styles (scientific illustration vs. surrealism), they will embrace the beauty of deep-sea sponges. Two media. Two styles. One deep ocean story.

Meet Abyssal Forms 🌊

Two scientists turning research into art.
By day: biologists. By night: artists.

Read about this amazing team in the ALT-text 🤍

Follow @drtanjastratmann.bsky.social on her journey!

#ArtSeaMatchmaking #SciArt#ConservationThroughArt

This is an oilpainting made on a wooden panel. It features a Hyalonema, which is a sponge growing on a long stalk. On my painting the sponge lives on a polymetallic nodule. I made this painting for my initiative called Oceans Unmined, for this I’m collaborating with Sri Lankan marine biologist Gayathra. We’re bridging art & science and are hoping hereby to raise awareness among people about the risks posed by deep sea mining.

Detail of the stalk with tiny polyps living on it

Another detail of the stalk with the polyps, because I just love it so much. I hope you do too!

Hey everybody!

I’m proud to share my painting of a Hyalonema on a polymetallic nodule.

I hope you like it, let me know what you think in the comments 😉

Have a wonderful Sunday! 💙

#deepsea #sponge #artseamatchmaking #sciart #oilonwood

Ariane Schoenwiesner Ariane is an engineer-artist-maker with a B.S. in Computer Engineering from New York University, who combines systems-engineering rigor with creative invention. In her practice she explores the intersection of technical innovation, material behaviour, and user interaction, blurring the line between engineering and experiential art. For Electroreceptive, Ariane will be leading the design, construction, and programming elements. Daniel Moore Daniel is a Lecturer in Marine Biology at the University of Exeter, specialising in the ecology and evolutionary biology of marine vertebrates, with a particular focus on deep-sea sharks and cetaceans. Daniel will be leading the scientific interpretation of Electroreceptive.

Meet Electroreceptive 🦈

Ariane and Daniel are creating an installation that brings shark electroreception to life.
A touch-sensitive panel, swirling ferrofluid, and a hidden magnetic “shark” reveal how these predators navigate total darkness.

#ArtSeaMatchmaking #SciArt #InteractiveArt

This is a coloring page showing a Chondrocladia lampadiglobus, better known as the lollipop sponge. It is a deep-sea carnivorous sponge found between 1,000–3,000 m. Its round, bulb-like structures sit atop slender stalks, giving it a lollipop-like appearance.

This is a coloring page of an Apolemia lanosa. This is a species of deep-sea siphonophore. Siphonophores are fascinating organisms made up of many specialized clones (zooids) that function together as a single colony. A. lanosa is notable for its “woolly” appearance, with numerous densely packed zooids along its stem that give it a textured look. These colonies drift through the midwater column (often between ~600 – 1,800 m depth) and use their long tentacles equipped with stinging cells to capture a variety of gelatinous plankton and small animals.

This is a coloring page of a Grympoteuthis, commonly called the Dumbo octopus. It is a deep-sea octopod found at depths of 1,000–7,000 m. It is known for its ear-like fins, which resemble the ears of Disney’s Dumbo and help it glide gracefully through the water. Unlike most octopuses, it does not use jet propulsion frequently and prefers slow, energy-efficient swimming. It feeds on small invertebrates that live on or just above the seafloor.

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to pop in and share some new #coloringpages with you 😊

I'll be sharing more news and art soon!

Wishing a lovely weekend to all 💙

#deepsea #artseamatchmaking #deepseacreature #sciart #marinebiology #oceaneducation

🎨 Megan 
Megan Paustian is an artist and PhD ecologist who brings science to life through visual storytelling. She dreams of creating nature-inspired children’s books and loves shining a spotlight on the tiny animals that make up most of species diversity. 🔬 Kelsey 
Kelsey Archer Barnhill is a deep-sea scientist based in Norway, specializing in cold-water coral ecology. As Head of Research & Development at Aspecto, she connects academic and industry science to strengthen knowledge exchange and production.

Deep Sea Coral Education for Children 🌊

With Kelsey’s expertise in deep-sea coral reefs and Megan’s talent for illustration, they'll create a non-fiction children’s book that dives into the amazing world of deep-sea corals.

#ArtSeaMatchmaking #DeepSeaCorals #OceanEducation #WomenInScience

✨ A collaboration that will reveal the hidden beauty of black corals ✨ 🎨 Cassidy Cat is a New England–born illustrator whose early years spent roaming the rural woods sparked a lasting love for the natural world. She earned her BS in Zoology and a minor in Studio Art from Oregon State University, followed by specialized training in the Science Illustration graduate program at CSUMB. Cat’s work blends scientific accuracy with visual storytelling to help make science accessible to broader audiences. 🔬 Jeremy Jeremy is a Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution where he studies the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the coral order Antipatharia (black corals). 🤝 Together Black corals rarely get the detailed illustrations they deserve, especially when it comes to the tiny structures that matter for taxonomy. That’s why illustrator Cat and researcher Jeremy Horowitz are collaborating on a series that highlights these features in a new way. Guided by Horowitz’s expertise, Cat’s artwork will capture the spines, polyps, and branching patterns that define this deep-sea coral group, creating visuals that can support both scientific understanding and public appreciation.

🌊Meet this awesome ArtSea Matchmaking duo 🌊

Guided by Jeremy’s expertise, Cat will create visuals that can support both scientific understanding and public
appreciation.

#sciart #artseamatchmaking #scientificillustration #deepsea #coralreef #deepseascience #marinebiodiversity #scicomm

🎨 Dexter is a deep-sea and polar benthic ecologist who’s studied larval dispersal around methane seeps and hydrothermal vents. He now SCUBA dives at methane seeps in Antarctica! Through scientific illustration, he brings fragile underwater habitats to life, raising awareness and inspiring protection for the species that call them home. 🧭 Maeva is a deep-sea biologist exploring molecular evolution and the partnerships between invertebrates and their symbiotic bacteria. She recently descended in a deep-sea submersible to a newly explored Western Pacific seamount and can’t wait to share the stunning communities they encountered.

🌊Meet Dexter Davis and Maeva Perez

Two incredible scientists turning deep-sea discovery into art.

Together, they’re creating a community poster celebrating the invertebrates of Western Pacific seamounts.

#ArtSeaMatchmaking #DeepSeaScience #MarineBiology #SciArt #OceanExploration #DeepSeaLife

🎨 Laura Wöllner Laura is an artist based in Portsmouth, UK, she has a BA in Animation from the University of Portsmouth and she has a growing love for ceramics. Clay as a medium is so incredibly tactile and versatile; and exposing it to upwards of 1000°C in the kiln means you can never be 100% sure exactly how your creations will turn out. She is passionate about conservation, sustainability, and Earth’s weird and wonderful creatures, Laura champions the underdogs of the natural world: organisms far from the “charismatic megafauna,” yet no less beautiful and fascinating. With a special admiration for the deep sea, she believes its strange, complex, and hidden life deserves the spotlight - And that it’s worth protecting. 🐚💙 🔬 Dr. Emanuel Pereira Emanuel is a deep-sea researcher from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s working at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. His PhD thesis focused on the taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography of deep-sea isopod crustaceans. They are among the most bizarre animals and are commonly found in association with cold-water hard corals. He recently joined the renowned expedition “Underwater Oases of the Mar del Plata Canyon: Talud Continental IV” aboard the RV Falkor, further deepening his exploration of one of Earth’s least-known ecosystems. He is driven by a lifelong passion for marine biology and has been interested in crustaceans after knowing their diversity biology and ecology. Emanuel hopes to raise visibility for deep-sea fauna and demonstrating the importance of one of the least known habitats in the world. 🌍🦐

🤝 Together Together, Laura and Emanuel aim to reveal the deep sea not as bleak or lifeless, but as a bustling, vibrant community. Their collaboration centers on a multi-layered, three-dimensional ceramic ceramic sculpture of a coral, populated with a selection of the typical fauna that call these corals home — from permanent residents to fleeting visitors. By restoring form, color, and presence to species we rarely see alive, they hope to bring these hidden creatures closer to viewers and showcase the deep sea’s true beauty, complexity, and vitality. This photo shows their first ceramic artwork: A beautiful clay cup with a brittle star coiling around the cup and the ear. It has not been in the kiln yet, so it still has the natural gray color

The same cup from the last picture, but out of the kiln. The brittle star now has a beautiful reddish brown color

A detail from the same artwork, to show the beautiful texture of the brittle star. This photo also shows the wonderful colors on the coiling arms

🌊 Associate Fauna ✨

An ArtSea Matchmaking team where ceramics, curiosity, and deep-sea discovery come together.

#sciart #artandscience #artseamatchmaking #ceramicart #newceramics #deepsea #coralreef #deepseascience #marinebiodiversity #weirdandwonderful #scicomm #unseenworlds

Meet our first ArtSea Matchmaking duo: 🔬 Alina Wieczorek 
She is a Fisheries Acoustician at Earth Sciences New Zealand in Wellington. Her research focuses on understanding life hidden in the ocean’s hidden layers, from deep scattering layers to microscopic traces of DNA in seawater.
By combining active acoustics with environmental DNA (eDNA), she uncovers how mid-trophic organisms - those linking plankton to fish; and fish to marine predators - shape ecosystems from the Ross Sea in Antarctica to the North Atlantic.
Alina is passionate about creative science outreach, turning invisible data and complex marine processes into stories and visuals people can truly connect with. 🌐 🎧 Eli Stine 
He is an internationally active media artist, software engineer and educator. Eli’s work blends sound, technology, and environment. As Assistant Professor of Computer Music & Digital Arts at Oberlin Conservatory, he creates immersive electronic music, interactive multimedia installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. 🔊

🌊 Double Helix Harmonies

Meet our first ArtSea Matchmaking duo

Alina and Eli are transforming deep-ocean data into immersive, visual experiences - revealing the beauty, mystery, and fragility of the world beneath the waves.

#sciart #artseamatchmaking #dataart #soundart #digitalart #scicomm

The team behind artsea matchmaking. Upper half: Delphine Mestdagh and an artwork of hers showing a deep-sea squid. Lower half: Lara Beckmann, and an environment that she studies: deep-sea coral and sponge gardens.

Meet the team behind #ArtSeaMatchmaking! We are artist @delphine-art.bsky.social on a mission to share the beauty of the deep sea, and biologist @planulara.bsky.social studying deep-sea corals and sponges. We started this initiative to bring artists and scientists together to collaborate and create.

First #ArtSeaMatchmaking project intro! So excited to see the teams getting started! 🥳

This is the logo of my sciart project called Oceans Unmined, the logo shows a polymetallic nodule with a tiny anemone living on top of it. It symbolises the frailty and wonder for the deep sea ecosystem. For this project I'm collaborating with a marine biologist and ichtyologist called Gayathra Bandara. The project is for ArtSea Matchmaking, a DSBSoc-initiative. The purpose of this project is to reach out and raise awareness. Gayathra and I will organise workshops and teach children about deep sea mining, the creatures that are threatened by it and what we can do to help, all while we have fun creating art.

Hi! 🌊

I'm proud to introduce Oceans Unmined, a #sciart project for #ArtSeaMatchmaking 💙
We'll make #coloringpages of #deepseacreatures and we'll organise workshops for children to raise awareness about #deepseabeauty and #DeepSeaMining 🐙

More #marinebiology and #art soon!

#ClarionClippertonZone

ArtSea Matchmaking Kick-Off October 13, two different times to accommodate time zones (9-10:30 CEST or 19-20:30 CEST.

We are kicking off our ArtSea Matchmaking program next Monday, October 13th! Already 21 teams are matched - more pending - and we are very excited to meet you all ➡️ Check your emails for all details and the zoom links. See you soon! #artsea #artseamatchmaking #dsbsoc #sciart @dsbsoc.bsky.social