The Rococo Cocco Reef
The Rococo Cocco Reef is a breakthrough project for me it will become a carbon sink on a grand scale, sequestering greenhouse emissions and depicts one of nature's most efficient carbon sinks on a microscopic scale. A perfect marriage between form, function, and materiality." -Mara G. Haseltine
NEW YORK (PRWEB) May 28, 2019
A Future Fashion DUMBO event at Automatic Studios
6 pm on Saturday, June 1
52 Bridge St. DUMBO Brooklyn NYC
Live Streamed on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/MaraTheGreat
Haseltine will give a talk about her microscopic inspiration for the design of The Rococo Cocco Reef, which she hopes to make a global prototype for sustainable reef restoration and marine building practices. Haseltine will discuss her microscopic marine muses for this massive sculpture and their collective role in regulating our shared biosphere. Also, she will reveal her top picks for innovative eco-friendly reef restoration and how she plans, to use them in conjunction with each other. Collectively, they could replace traditional toxic marine building and restoration materials, which utilize plastic, epoxy, and cheap concrete. * Gaelin Rosenwaks will join Haseltine in this presentation. Rosenwaks is the Founder of Global Ocean Exploration is a marine biologist and will screen her documentary short, ‘Coral: A Glimmer of Hope" set in Palau. Her documentary explores the mysteries of coral species that may contain a secret of adaptation for survival. After the talk and screening, there will be "Q and A" followed by a reception.
Project Description: The Rococo Cocco Reef is multi-dimensional, a living artwork, educational tool, eco-touristic dive site, habitat for fish and coral to thrive, a reef break and carbon sink that attenuates waves protecting shorelines endangered by rising sea levels due to climate change. The Rococo Cocco Reef will be created utilizing substrates composed of minerals found in coral reefs that coral larvae are naturally attracted to using primarily different forms of calcium carbonate, therefore making it the perfect marriage between design and function. The Rococo Cocco Reef depicts outsized renditions of microscopic coccolithophore skeletons, which are single-celled planktons that reproduce in massive blooms creating oxygen and sequestering carbon dioxide in calcium carbonate plates or skeleton called coccoliths. When the coccolithophore die, their skeletons sink to the bottom of the seafloor and become a carbon sink, thus effectively taking harmful emissions out of the atmosphere. The Rococo Cocco Reef depicts on the coccolith skeletons after they have sunk to the bottom of the ocean and their delicate coccoliths structures have begun disassembling. Since Coccolith discs are composed of calcium carbonate like the primary material that Calcium carbonate will be the main component of the Rococo Cocco Reef. Therefore, this breakthrough sculpture will itself become a carbon sink on a grand scale, mimicking the microscopic structures it portrays, which are also carbon sinks, which sequester greenhouse emissions.
- This design offers an environmental alternative to using traditional concrete which not only degrades over time but through its manufacturing process is the second largest contributor to holes in the ozone layer worldwide.
About the Artist: Mara G. Haseltine, is an internationally recognized environmental artist, ocean activist, explorer, and educator who frequently collaborates with scientists and technologists. She is known for her outsized renditions of the microscopic world Haseltine has been a member of the Global Coral Reef Alliance since 2006, which has partnered with the Small Island States at the United Nations on climate change solutions. To see more of this artist's work, and a full CV go to http://www.calamara.com
About the Venue: FUTURE FASHION DUMBO - May 4 - June 15 is an alternative shopping experience for sustainable fashion. Future Fashion DUMBO at Automatic Studios in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The six-week pop-up features eco-friendly fashion designers and is hosting an evening program of environmental events. Haseltine was invited to be a guest artist, and she chose to launch The Rococo Coco Reef in conjunction with the Future Fashion DUMBO show because of the groups’ devotion to elegant sustainable design.
Heather McKenzie Chaplet curated Future Fashion DUMBO. Chaplet is the lead designer for "Xoomba," based in Brooklyn, NY and Brakina Faso, whose motto for the program is design "For People Who Love Life on Earth." The show is a carefully selected group of designers chosen not only for their aesthetics, but also because of their choice of organic materials, their fabrication process, what the working conditions were like, the life span of the pieces, and how the product will behave at the end of its life cycle. For example, organic material biodegrades while synthetic material wreaks havoc on the environment, sometimes for centuries.
Related Events: In addition, Haseltine will be exhibiting work for Oceans Week 2019 at The Explorer's Club June Headquarters in NYC June 3rd-11th with her sculpture Radiolarian Skeleton and also exhibit on the Japan-based international NGO Peace Boat with a print from her The Rococo Cocco Reef in conjunction with the United Nations for World Oceans Day June 8 on the West side of Manhattan.
Note Starting June 1 the Kickstarter will go live at:
IndieGoGo URL: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-rococo-cocco-reef
