Cosmo Schüppel - Projekt Ideas
Regarding the research for my thesis "Listening with Seagrass", I am interested in the following topics.
- Seagrass is one of the rare plant groups that has adapted to marine ecosystems. In the course of evolution, it moved from land back to the sea—carrying with it fundamental attributes of terrestrial plants: photosynthesis in chloroplasts, cellulose-based cell walls, vascular tissue, roots and rhizomes, hormonally regulated growth, alternation of generations, seed formation, sexual reproduction through flowering and pollination, clonal vegetative propagation, and the evolutionary legacy of stomata, despite its full submersion in water.
- The study "Seagrass Posidonia is impaired by human-generated noise" (Solé M. et al.) suggests that low frequency sounds damage the internal cell structure of Posidonia Species, degrade symbiotic fungi and impact their functional traits.
- "Low-frequency acoustic properties of Posidonia oceanica seagrass leaf blades." (Johnson J. R. et al.) measures the acoustic response (1k - 5k Hz) of Posidonia leaf meadows. The study finds, that the presence of leaf blades slows down low-frequency sound waves relative to water alone - suggesting that the meadows "trap" the sound.
- When diving for Seagrass (Posidonia) on Aegina Island (Saronic Gulf, Greece) I listened to the low frequency rumble of the ferry boats passing by. How do they impact the grass meadows?
- The Saronic Gulf was flooded only between 18.000 and 11.000 BP (Early Holocene), while humans already inhabited the Area. In that period after the last glacial maximum (in the last ice age the polar icecaps covered around 25% of the globe) the seawater rose by 125 m (studies fluctuate between 100 and 150 m). In that rising of the water level the island of the Saronic Gulf were formed.
- "Geometrical approach of Asps River" (Mariolakos I. and Theocharis D.) proposes an examination of Early Greek and Proto-Greek Myths to trace back the forming of the Islands of the Saronic Gulf. The study suggests that the humans that inhabited the Gulf, while it was flooded recorded the forming of the islands in oral history.
- In that process of deglaciation the grass meadows were flooded and the ecosystems changed into marine environments. In that time Seagrass (Posidonia Oceania) began to become a keystone species. Now it plays a crucial role in the ecosystem: As hiding, breeding space for smaller animals; as carbon binder; as stabiliser of the island, by fixating the beaches and by producing oxygen.
- Seagrass plays a crucial role in the global health of the planet’s climate. Like many species suffering under climate collapse, the loss of seagrass contributes to a vicious cycle that accelerates the ongoing heating of the Earth. This heating, leads back to the melting of the icecaps, letting the sea level rise again.
- After rising around 1.0 - 1.5 cm/yr since 15.000 BP, the sealevel stabilised in the mid-late Holocene (6.000 - 500 BC) rising only 0.05 - 0.09 cm/yr. Even more gradual was the change in Antiquity until the Industrial Revolution (0.01 - 0.05 cm/yr from 500 BC to 1900 AD) rising only 15 cm in 1.500 years. Then the sudden acceleration of modernity let it rise 15 cm in one century (0.12 - 0.17 cm/yr). This rising is proposed to becoming even meow extrem from 2000 - 2050 AD, where the oceans are expected to rise 0.6 - 1.0 cm/yr - a rate that is resembling the catastrophic period after the melting of the last ice age. (Statistics collected with the help of Google AI Mode)
Concept: Will we be able to see the ocean rise as humans once did in the Stone Age? Which islands will we witness forming, and which myths will emerge to hold these transformations in collective memory? What role can seagrass play at a moment when it is increasingly threatened by heat, pollution, and human-generated sound? Listening with Seagrass seeks to investigate the relationship between low-frequency anthropogenic noise and Posidonia oceanica at the site of Aegina in Greece. Through practices of listening, attentive observation, and the creation of a shared interdisciplinary ground between science, mythology, and artistic research, the project speculates on future climate scenarios while reflecting on prehistoric transformations—connecting deep time, ecological fragility, and technologically mediated perception.