
Ocean Connections Background
Artistic project to model water movementsin the Oslofjord to monitor and imagine how biodiversity develops.
Numerical modelling
based on Langrangian Descriptors by
Dr. Guillermo Garcia Sanchez, Spain and data from Consultant, environmental engineer Evangelos Voukouvalas, JRC Ispra Italy
supported by JRC SciArt Project
NaturArchy
and FeLT
Left image made with Lagrangian descriptors, by A. M. Mancho, J. Curbelo, S. Wiggins, V.J. Garcia-Garrido, C. Mendoza: Beautiful Geometries Underlying Ocean Nonlinear Processes.
Right image digital drawing by Kristin Bergaust. Oslofjord contour: The Ugly Duckling.
Ocean Connections at Imal, Brussels 2024. Two-channel projection

Ocean Connections is an art-science project by artist Kristin Bergaust in collaboration with scientists Guillermo Garcia Sanchez and Evangelos Voukouvalas. The flow of the ocean influences many processes in marine ecosystems across the globe. In Ocean Connections, these processes are investigated in an experimental scientific and artistic collaborative mode, combining mathematical modelling, scientific data and artistic storytelling through animation and visuals.
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Ocean Connections at Ocean Days, Sparks, Brussels 2025. Two-channel LED screen installation

The video installation Ocean Connections takes the Oslofjord as its subject. In reality, we cannot tell where the fjord ends. It spills out into the Skagerak, the strait between Norway and Denmark, which is tied to the North Sea, a section of the Atlantic Ocean. All seas are connected. Working on Ocean Connections, talking to scientists, I found that some of my questions about the development of biodiversity and ecological balance, do not have answers. Life forms and environmental conditions cohabit in a complex, intertwined and unpredictable ecosystem, which also encompasses our lives. Humans are watery bodies; we are part of the water cycle, of the ocean and its flows. Its primordial waters, in which life was born, fill our cells. Whatever we do to the oceans, we do to ourselves.
Ocean Connections presented as textile prints, Oslofjord Triennial 2024 Lågøya, Oslofjord


The first iteration of Ocean Connections
shown as a projection at European Maritime Days in Brest Expo, France May 2023


Ocean Connections is an art-science project collaboration between the artist Kristin Bergaust and scientists Guillermo Garcia Sanchez and Evangelos Vakavoupoulos . The project was commissioned and developed through residencies at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, and by individual research and artistic work.
With friendly support from DG Mare, Europan Commission.