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The Transition

Collaborative Project with Catherine (Catrina) Nowakowski
Media: resin, fishing line, ink, structure
Dimension: 18 x 9 x 35”
Year: 2021

_{“Inverted Triangle” is a 36 X 14” sized site-specific sculpture made out of resin. It was a research-based collaborative project between arts and sciences, and I worked with Catherine (Catrina) Nowakowski, majoring in Biological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. This project showed how much the marine food web depends on the small animals located at the bottom of the food web and how climate change affects marine life. Our goal was to show the public the importance of planktons in sustaining the system and the interconnectedness between humans and nature.}

_{My team focused on four marine animals and three central concepts around the marine food web system: ENERGY / SIZE / TEMPERATURE. The animals included codfish, sand lace, copepods (zooplankton), and phytoplankton. In the Biomass Pyramid, the bigger the animal is, the smaller the energy is transferred. We used an inverted triangle shape to show the inverse relationship between the size of the animals and the energy transmitted. And we assigned three visual languages to the five columns that we made based on the scientific data from 2004 to 2016.}

_{We’ve noticed that ocean temperatures increased over the last decade, and the size of the plankton became smaller, making them less efficient at transferring energy. It led to a decrease in the number of large animals. So, in our model, we made the upper part of the food web disappear and become transparent as the temperature goes up.}