{"id":156303,"date":"2023-08-25T14:32:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T18:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=156303"},"modified":"2023-08-25T17:19:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T21:19:17","slug":"bates-professor-michel-droge-paints-the-ocean-depths-and-discovers-an-octopus-nursery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/08\/25\/bates-professor-michel-droge-paints-the-ocean-depths-and-discovers-an-octopus-nursery\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates professor Michel Droge paints the ocean depths, and discovers an octopus nursery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michel Droge, a visiting assistant professor in art and visual culture, spent a summer month off the western shore of Costa Rica as an artist-in-residence alongside a group of international scientists probing the depths of the Dorado Outcrop. The voyage was not just a high-seas adventure, but a journey showcasing the unexpected links between art and science, as Droge recorded the expedition through watercolor, oil paint, and drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists were exploring unseen areas of the ocean floor and studying the outcrop and its hydrothermal vents, home to ecosystems that are potentially vulnerable to deep sea mining<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carlos
From left, Costa Rican artist Carlos Hiller and Michel Droge, a visiting assistant professor in art and visual culture, work together in the main lab of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s ship, the Falkor (too)<\/em>. Droge and Hiller often painted or sketched alongside the scientists, creating art in the middle of lab research. (Photo courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that it’s important that we make work like this because people don’t get to see the deep sea everyday,\u201d said Droge. \u201cAnd when we can’t see something, it\u2019s kind of \u2018out of sight, out of mind.\u2019 I think if we can expose people as much as possible to this rich, amazing environment, and the extremely important ecosystems that exist there, and if people can visualize it and connect with it, then they’re more apt to care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, Droge\u2019s creative partnership with Beth Orcutt, a senior research scientist at Maine-based Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, inspired multiple paintings that explore the wonder and potential of the deep sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that project culminated with the 2022 exhibit All the Light Below<\/em><\/a>, Droge began to set their sights on a new source of inspiration and connection. \u201cI really thought an immersive experience might be good, but I didn’t think that was on the radar.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it soon was, when Orcutt reached out and asked if Droge wanted to join an expedition to the outcrop, located just off the west coast of Costa Rica, as a resident artist, joining Costa Rican artist Carlos Hiller, to document the discoveries with art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Michel
Every evening when the expedition’s submersible, ROV SuBastian, returned to the surface, Droge helped the scientists unload samples that had been collected, including sediment, coral, and live marine organisms. (Photo courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2013, an expedition to the same outcrop had discovered a group of female octopuses laying their eggs along the outcrop. Yet no developing embryos were found, leading scientists to believe that conditions at the Dorado Outcrop might not support a true octopus nursery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That mystery was on the minds of researchers for June\u2019s return expedition, dubbed the \u201cOctopus Odyssey<\/a>,\u201d and organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute and led by Orcutt and Jorge Cortes of the University of Costa Rica. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the expedition, the scientists solved the mystery by finding an active octopus nursery<\/a>, which disproved the idea that the area is inhospitable for developing octopus young. They found that hot spring-like water flowing from low-temperature hydrothermal vents in the outcrop created the perfect conditions for a nursery, and they witnessed the hatch of a potential new species of Muusoctopus<\/em>, a genus of small- to medium-sized octopus that lack ink sacs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"These
A sketch by Droge shows baby octopuses swarming in the dark ocean water. (Photo courtesy of Michel Droge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aboard the institute\u2019s research vessel, Falkor (too)<\/em>, Droge soaked up the buzz of scientific discovery and the collaborative work with the scientists. Every day the team would sink SuBastian<\/em>, their remote-controlled submersible vehicle, to explore and collect samples. Droge and Hiller would help the crew unload the samples at night, getting hands-on experience studying their subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was something that everyone was involved in,\u201d Droge said of the work handling the samples of sediment, coral, and live marine organisms. \u201c[We] would get in line and help get the buckets of cold seawater and samples off the submersible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Droge and Hiller used samples of the sediment to mix into their paint. In a lot of ways, an art studio and a laboratory aren\u2019t so different, said Droge. To this day, researchers create artwork, whether by hand or by computer, to illustrate their findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Michel
Droge created sketches with watercolor paint, charcoal, and graphite, to refer to later for larger pieces. For Droge, the sketchbooks helped illustrate the day. (Photo courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The relationship between scientist and artist used to be much closer, they explained. \u201cNow it’s more separated. But I feel like that connection makes sense, and I’m curious about how we can bring that sort of 19th-century naturalist into this contemporary world, but still bring art and science together in a way that’s meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Droge is well-known for creating art with a queer lens, an awareness that assumptions related to gender, sexuality, and identity shapes our understanding of life \u2014 above and below the surface of the ocean. Indeed, the creatures of the deep sea exhibit gender and sexuality in a \u201cmuch much more expansive way than human beings,\u201d Droge explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many deep sea creatures are hermaphrodites, and they’ll shift from male-female mating to mating with themselves in order for the species to survive, because they’re very rare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dives were broadcast on TV screens all over the ship \u2014 including the mess hall \u2014 and livestreamed on the institute\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>. Droge spent the weeks watching, talking with the team, and creating art, even inside the labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the species that fascinated Droge was the tripod fish, which uses its much-elongated tail and pelvic fins to balance on the ocean floor, looking like something \u201cmade up, like a dream, or like a Dr. Seuss drawing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"These
One of the creatures that fascinated Droge the most was the Dr. Seuss-like tripod fish, shown here in a watercolor sketch by Droge. (Photo courtesy of Michel Droge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThere were so many crazy things that I’d never seen,\u201d said Droge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many creatures made their way into the paintings, including comb jellies, which undulate through the darkness like what Droge called bioluminescent disco lights, and Venus\u2019 flower basket, a kind of glass sponge that has a symbiotic relationship with glass sponge shrimp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shrimp swim into the latticed sponge and take up residence, growing too big to exit and get trapped. Usually a male-female pair, they then spawn, and the babies swim away, to start the cycle in another sponge. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"These
Various deep-sea plants create a tight-knit ecosystem in a painting by Droge. (Photo courtesy of Michel Droge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In their month on the ship, Droge completed 11 paintings that are on exhibition at the University of Costa Rica. Now they\u2019re working on a second body of work, using sketchbooks and audio and video footage gathered during the expedition, which will travel with the Schmidt Ocean Institute to museums and galleries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been \u201can amazing adventure the past couple of years,\u201d said Droge, and \u201cto get to go on the boat trip was like a dream I didn’t even know how to dream, but so amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fish on stilts, an octopus nursery, and “bioluminescent disco balls” are just a few of the deep-sea wonders Michel Droge, a visiting assistant professor in art and visual culture, saw while spending a month at sea as an artist-in-residence on a scientific expedition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":156300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-faculty-staff","category-maine-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156303"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156503,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156303\/revisions\/156503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}