Dialogues across the Seas

The emergence of complex global and simultaneously local issues related to the climate crisis has brought to the forefront the themes of the environment, “nature,” and the “sustainability” of human activities. Even marine environments, intimately connected to life, are deeply affected by these changes. “Dialogues across the Seas” aims to raise awareness about the transformation of marine ecosystems through events that promote an interdisciplinary dialogue between the arts and climate disciplines. Artistic disciplines can contribute to raising awareness of these issues by providing narratives, ideas, and visions useful for facing the future. Art can facilitate the transformations of this epochal transition, the paradigm shift that human cultures must face.

“Dialogues across the Seas” is an open project that involves participants from various parts of the world. Born in Cervia in 2018, it has been presented nationally and internationally and has produced some publications in English and Italian that have contributed to the international discussion, anticipating the “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030,” an initiative supported by the United Nations.

The climate crisis, marine life and marine ecosystems, and the health of people and environments are global issues that require attention, knowledge, and broad participation, and at the same time, they are complex situations that must consider and integrate many viewpoints and different cultural perspectives.

To discuss it, onTuesday, June 24 at 9:00 PM, the Councillors of the Municipality of Cervia Federica Bosi (Culture) and Mirko Boschetti (Economic Activities), the President of the Cervia Salt Pan Giuseppe Pomicetti, along with project members Pier Luigi Capucci, Nina Czegledy, Roberta Buiani, and Elena Giulia Rossi, the President of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) Italy Gabriele Romeo, and via teleconference Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier (artist, teacher, curator) from New Zealand and Tracey M. Benson (artist, researcher, founder of Treecreate) from Australia will participate.
The speeches will be published later.

“Dialogues across the Seas” is sponsored by the Complexity Festival in Rome, AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art) Italy, Noema, ArtSci Salon and art*science, as well as the institutional partners Municipality of Cervia, Salt Museum, and Cervia Saltpan.

“Dialogues across the Seas” is part of the events celebrating 25 years of activity of Noema, an online magazine on the relationships among culture, technology, science, and society.

Videos presented

During “Dialogues across the Seas” the following videos will be presented.

Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier, Tree-walk-water, video, 2016 (3’59”)

This project is based in art-science in the context of the environment. The video is a walk through a garden that has Japanese maple and plum trees. The audio consists of humpback whale audio from scientific study, Brownian noise (based on Brownian motion, a chaotic flow) and the audio created when images from quantum science experiments are put through the software AudioPaint. The aim is to make prominent the human connection to the environment, mammalian fish, chaos theory and cosmology, all connected in one integrated system. Armed with the knowledge of the interconnection of all things, it is then possible for humans to better understand the consequences of their acts on the environment.

Dr. Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier has forty-one generations of tūpuna (ancestors) from Tahiti, Hitiaurevareva (colonised as Pitcairn) and Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. They are part of the Moana diaspora. An artist-writer, educator, curator, and cultural events director, their work is deeply rooted in Moana or Polynesian heritage and has been presented in twenty-two countries. Mahutoa co-founded SCANZ with cultural partners Te Matahiapo in 2006. Occurring every two years until 2018, the event focused on cultural bridging, art-science and the environment. Under the guidance of Dr. Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Maata Wharehoka, Kawaihululani and Tihoti, Pasha undertook a journey to the sacred navigator marae of Taputapuātea Ra’iātea near Tahiti in 2023. An etched and bound kōhatu (river stone) was placed on the marae, and Tihoti guided Mahutoa in selecting a kōhatu from the island, to be taken to Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 2020 and 2023, they were the recipient of a Vice Chancellor Scholarship, allowing three and a half years of full-time Ph.D. research. Their first book, Ocean Diffraction: Indigenous Practices, Quantum Theory, Electronic Art and the Anthropocene, is due to be published late in 2025.

Tracey M. Benson, Pir’ri: your roots are my oxygen, video, 2025 (2’34”)

In the Kabi Kabi language, “pir’ri” is the word for “finger” as well as the word for “mangroves” because of the fingerlike vertical roots.
This is the first of a series of experimental video works building on my creative research into understanding mangrove and estuarine habitats of Pumicestone Passage, my closest water body.
The project focuses on experimentation and process. This first work incorporates a range of elements, including my original lyrics (poem) rendered into a song by SUNO AI. There is also imagery from 3D scans taken with my mobile phone incorporated into the video.

Originally trained in the fine arts disciplines of photography and printmaking, Tracey M. Benson works at the nexus of media arts, digital transformation, ecological systems and citizen empowerment. Tracey has decades of experience across education, government and community based programs focused on ecology, climate change and environmental awareness. Her work has primarily focused on emerging technologies and digital transformation with the goal of empowering communities to tell stories with both analogue and digital media. As a systems thinker, she is passionate about more-than-human design and bridging the links between western ways of thinking with experiential and interconnected knowledge. Tracey has an extensive research background including a PhD in Media Arts and Technology from the Australian National University, a research Masters in Applied Science from University of Canberra looking at energy vulnerability and plans to commence a 2nd PhD exploring climate resilient home design for flood futures at University of Queensland’s faculty of Architecture and Engineering. Her research over many years has focused on issues related to belonging, place, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour change.

Mariagrazia Pontorno, Nobilis Golden Moon, video, 2020 (49’)

Nobilis Golden Moon is a movie straddling two pandemics and two full moons. A documentary about the relationship between scientific thought and magical one, told through the Pinna Nobilis, the largest bivalve in the Mediterranean. Pinna Nobilis, also known as the “Sentinel of Mediterranean”, is a large mussel which exceeds the height of a meter, at risk of disappearing for a pandemic disease. The narration sets a parallelism between the emergency of Covid-19 and that one of the Mediterranean and Pinna Nobilis.

Mariagrazia Pontorno’s research is focused on the relationship between science and tradition, such a connection is also the core of Nobilis Golden Moon. She builds life like settings inspired by a vision where the borders between fiction and reality are lyrically blurred. In artist’s recent video works, the intersection between reality and immaterial, art and science, digitally reconstructed fiction and archival images has become more complex, using documentary and diaristic narration as her election language. Her work has been shown in Italian and international museums, including MAXXI in Rome, MACRO in Rome, the Biedermann Museum in Donaueschingen, the Stadtgalerie in Kiel, MLAC in Rome, Museo di Castel S.Elmo in Naples, Art Center di Thessaloniki, Museo RISO in Palermo, as well as in galleries and non-profit venues such as Monitor in Rome, Lithium Project in Naples, Murat 122 in Bari, ISCP in New York, HSF also in New York, Fondazione Noesi Studio Carrieri in Martina Franca, Passaggi Arte Contemporanea in Pisa, and Casa Musumeci Greco in Rome. Mariagrazia Pontorno was born in Catania in 1978.

“Dialogues across the Seas”. Video-presentations in International events

Roberta Buiani, Pier Luigi Capucci, Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier, Nina Czegledy, Elena Giulia Rossi, The ocean that keeps us apart also joins us: charting knowledge and practice in the Anthropocene, video, 2020 (39’30”) Video presented at ISEA 2020, “Why Sentience? Connect. Break the Distance”, Montreal 2020.
Tracey M. Benson, Roberta Buiani, Pier Luigi Capucci, Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier, Nina Czegledy, Elena Giulia Rossi, Dialogues across the seas, video, 2025 (28’03”). Video presented at XXIV Festival International de la Imagen, “Re:Generative”, Manizales (Colombia), 2025.

(from the press release via Noema)