OCEANUS | Conversation with our Ocean
Elizabeth Ogilvie & Robert Page
Official Selection
𖤘 Short: Documentary, Experimental, Research
“Coastal ‘blue carbon’ habitats such as marshes and seagrasses sequester and store large amounts of carbon per hectare, often far more than terrestrial forests, while also protecting shorelines and supporting biodiversity, so their conservation and restoration are practical, high-impact tools for climate and coastal resilience.”
Oceanus presents the ocean as an active partner in tackling the climate emergency. The film surveys underwater, coastal and near-shore habitats as vital, living infrastructure – riverbanks, beaches, salt-marshes, kelp and seagrass beds – and is part of the artists’ Into the Oceanic project, an immersive art-science enquiry developed with ocean scientists and shown at events including COP26 (with collaborators such as Professor Bill Austin of Blue Carbon Scotland).
The artists describe a slow, sensory approach: “Prior to filming we spend time simply observing, absorbing through our senses. Only when we are ready do we start focusing our conversation through the camera lens. This intimate conversation with our ocean is unhurried, resulting in almost abstract, dream-like footage.”
At the core of Ogilvie & Page’s work is the knowledge that coastal and marine systems hold practical solutions; they are points of return. Marine photosynthesizers produce roughly half the oxygen on Earth, and coastal “blue carbon” habitats sequester large amounts of carbon per hectare, often far outpacing terrestrial forests. Protecting and restoring these habitats also delivers co-benefits – shoreline protection and biodiversity gains – which makes them important, practical tools in climate mitigation and adaptation.
This science has the potential for huge positive change in our world, but without the public having knowledge of its capacity there is little motivation to act. Art by its very nature can encourage this agency and inclusion and is invaluable at communicating often complex cultural and philosophical concepts.
Ogilvie is an environmental artist and academic whose practice fuses art and science, using water and ice as both medium and subject, best known for immersive installations and large-scale projection projects, designed to expand perception of how environments function.
Page is a filmmaker and environmental advocate who blends documentary and fine art to tell stories of people, place and ecological change. Working with Ogilvie, he documents ocean life from sky to seafloor.
Production: Elizabeth Ogilvie & Robert Page
Courtesy of the artists