Lynchpin – The Ocean Project – Art Science Collaboration

Most people will never visit Antarctica but music can evoke the continent in myriad ways.   Dr Carolyn Philpott Senior Lecturer in Musicology, Conservatorium of Music; Associate Head – Research, School of Creative Arts; Adjunct Researcher, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania writes in The Conversation.        

Understanding change in marine ecosystems: a grand challenge for science Listen(Link will open in new window) Download The future of our oceans depends on it. Observing and understanding changes in the marine realm is a critical challenge for science — and the future of our oceans, argues Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas. Recorded at the Tasmanian Museum…

  Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio ABC RN Tuesday 7 August 2018 6:35PM (view full episode) A domino effect of climate change processes is leading the planet to a tipping point beyond which it would be impossible to avoid a ‘hot house’ effect. That according to a prominent group of global…

  Tuesday 7 August 2018 6:35PM (view full episode) Planet Hot House Listen(Link will open in new window) Download The planet is steering dangerously close to becoming a ‘hot house’ if humans continue to emit carbon at the current rate. A domino effect of climate change processes is leading the planet to a tipping point beyond…

Understanding Antarctica through the arts ———————————— A weekend of talks discussing visual art, architecture, music and film engaging with Antarctica as part of the 2018 Antarctic Festival.   As part of this program, on Saturday 4th August, 2018: 11:30 – 12:00 Dr Carolyn Philpott, of the Conservatorium, UTAS and Rachel Meyers, PhD candidate, will discuss ex Oceano,…

ADRIFT – Are we Adrift? A live dance and music production exploring humankind’s relationship with oceans. Saturday 11th August, 6pm St James Hall, Elizabeth Street, New Town, Hobart. Tickets: $20 – Adult; $15 – U18; $45 – Family (2 A & 2C) Tickets on the door or available at www.eventbrite.com.au/e/adrift-tickets-47910610927      

Beach Couture: A Haute Mess By Marina Debris Opening 29 June, 2018, Martime Museum of Tasmania Take time to see this potent exhibition with its central issue of the work of Dr Jennifer Lavers, concerned with plastic injection in flesh-footed shearwaters – read more Lynchpin website under Concerns;  Learn more about artists Marina Debris, an Australian “trashion”…

Beach Couture: A Haute Mess by Marina DeBris

It’s climate change….just presented very, very differently. Rather than the usual graphs and pie charts, the Australian National University is presenting climate data in the form of beer coasters and even bracelets. The gadgets have proved so popular that a website has been launched visualising climate change data from 112 locations around Australia to help…

An international arts-science summit and festival on 1st-2nd June 2018, to explore and celebrate the role of women taking action on climate change. Curated by Invisible Dust and as part of the 2018 Suffrage Centenary and headlined by Booker-prize winning author, Margaret Atwood.

An international arts-science summit and festival on 1st-2nd June 2018, to explore and celebrate the role of women taking action on climate change. Curated by Invisible Dust and as part of the 2018 Suffrage Centenary and headlined by Booker-prize winning author, Margaret Atwood. Under Her Eye: Women and Climate Change from Invisible Dust on Vimeo.…

Lisa Roberts invites us to meet some of those involved in the ‘Ecological Surprises and Rapid Collapse of Ecosystems in a Changing World’ Conference.     I work in Antarctica and not many people get to go to Antarctica. So it’s really important to have artists and other people help us to communicate – to bring…

Dear colleagues,   Please see link for details regarding an upcoming Public Forum focussing on marine debris by the Marine, Antarctic and Maritime Research Theme at the University of Tasmania, May 29th 6-7:30pm,  in the Stanley Burbury Theatre.   Please distribute through your networks and register your attendance via the link provided.   Kind Regards,   Annalise.  …

Ushuaia Pre -voyage We have all just spent three days in Ushuaia looking deep within ourselves! This really requires focused thinking at a level that is not always comfortable but is so very necessary to progress towards a better self. From the very beginning, our opening dinner, it was obvious that we, as a group,…

Oekologie Studio presents 16- 20th May, 2018 Neon Parlour You are invited to EON. The launch. 16-20th May, NEON PARLOUR,  Thornbury Please come and celebrate the official launch of the book, EON The Story of the Fossils, launched by the honourable MP Lidia Thorpe.  @ Neon Parlour (731 High St. Thornbury) on Friday 18th May for an evening of feasts…

Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Wednesday 18 April 2018 8:40PM (view full episode) Our oceans act as a buffer against climate change but we’re reaching a tipping point for both marine and human life. Recorded 7 December 2016  Unsomnia Talks University of New South Wales Speaker Professor Matthew England oceanographer Climate Change Research Centre UNSW.

  Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Wednesday 18 April 2018 8:05PM (view full episode) It’s lightweight, versatile, easy to clean, hard-wearing and comes in many colours. Plastics have so many uses and they’re produced in vast quantities. But, at the end of its life,  plastic swirls around the world’s oceans , killing marine…

Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Thursday 19 April 2018 7:53AM (view full episode) The East Australian Current is wide and powerful and plays a crucial role in our east-coast climate and ocean ecosystems. But there’s big gaps in what scientists know about the dynamic ocean current that can jump from hugging the…

View this email in your browser APRIL 2018 NEWS IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM CLIMARTE TEAM  On behalf of the CLIMARTE Co-Founders and Board, we invite our supporters to welcome our newly appointed Chair Dr Peter Christoff, and to warmly thank our outgoing Chair Mr Guy Abrahams for his years of successful leadership. “I am delighted to hand…

  YOU ARE INVITED TO THE EXHIBITION OPENING SEED AND SPAWN Linda Erceg Exhibition runs 6 Apr – 28 Apr Moonah Arts Centre Using recycled plastic fibres (including fishing line, mesh nets, garden trellis, fruit bags and packing strap), Linda Erceg stitches, knots and heat-treats her materials into complex organic structures.Seed and Spawn is an installation of…

Lynchpin welcomes you to the work of Jenny Pollak, visual artist and poet, through her recently launched and expanded new website . Please spend some time exploring the rich variety, depth and integrity of Jenny’s work:  click here Particularly welcome are the new meditative video works that are evolving from a Lynchpin Residency offered Jenny in…

  Lynchpin is pleased to support this conference. IMAGINING A DIFFERENT FUTURE Overcoming Barriers to Climate Justice A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward. Hobart, Tasmania

8-10 February 2018   Click here to visit the website:  and here for the Program

The ACE CRC’s Project R1.1 team is working to quantify how and why the Southern Ocean is changing, including the human contribution to these changes. The Southern Ocean has a powerful influence on Earth’s climate. This massive body of water stores more anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide than any other latitude band on Earth. The…

Visit Eveline’s marvellous new website: The Ocean Inside  a video and printmaking project on the Ocean and Climate Change

Antarctica ArtScience Collaboration between Claire Beynon and Samuel Bowser.   InterfaCE ii from Claire Beynon on Vimeo.    

Twitch is the youth engagement and professional development program of the Tasmanian Writers Centre. They presently have  two residents, Jessica Cockerill and Suzi Claflin, observing research and soaking up the science at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies for the next month. They’re each producing a new piece of writing based on the work being done…

BBC NEWS Full article link By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent 30 October 2017 Concentrations of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere surged to a record high in 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Last year’s increase was 50% higher than the average of the past 10 years. Researchers say a combination of human activities…

  The Deluge Ark(ive) – Nigel Helyer You are invited to an exhibition, performance and artist’s book launch at Moonah Arts Centre.  The Deluge Ark(ive), by Nigel Helyer, is a story that starts thirteen thousand years ago when our ancestors were witness to a catastrophic event. Finally the ice began to melt; the oceans began…

Understanding Antarctica through the Social Sciences and Humanities conference video: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)/University of Tasmania. Congratulations on a wonderful conference and a marvellous overview of speakers presented here for a wider audience.

To all of us who get downcast and discouraged, I encourage you to read this marvellous speech and recommit to the task we’ve taken on to “never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty…

Jack Johnson on the Music Show, Radio National – another musician moved to respond to issues of the environment. Sunday 24 September 2017 11:05AM (view full episode)   Jack Johnson Listen now(Link will open in new window) 
Download audio Hawaiian native Jack Johnson is well known for his smooth vocals and laid back acoustic style but sees…

Peter Lawrence is author of ‘Justice for future generations, climate change and international law’ (Edward Elgar 2014) and Committee member of the IMAGINING A DIFFERENT FUTURE – Overcoming Barriers to Climate Justice, Hobart 2018. Climate Change Songs It’s Gettin’ Hot by Owen Davies Climate Change Songs by Owen Davies, The Fracking Song Climate Change Songs…

Lynchpin is pleased to support this conference. IMAGINING A DIFFERENT FUTURE Overcoming Barriers to Climate Justice A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward. Hobart, Tasmania

8-10 February 2018   Click here to visit the website:    Organising Committee Peter Lawrence (Faculty of Law, University of…

Limnology conference with Living Data at UTS: click here to find inspiring ideas! including: Watch Out Data and Spirit Warning! The Lens of Water Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic And scroll down to find THE DOOR – the fabulous door! Click here to follow Aboriginal artist and teacher Chic Monks and scientists and artists William Gladstone and Simon…

Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio show transcript Sunday 17 September 2017 10:30AM WE NEED INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND FARMING APPROACHES TO MEET THE FUTURE DEMAND FOR FISH It’s estimated the global fish catch has dropped by 25% over the past quarter century. That’s coincided with a massive growth in fish farming. But has aqua-cultural…

EON is a hard- cover art/ science book illustrating evolution on the planet. It explores how we got here. From singular cell to biodiversity. From extinction to survival. It is connection to our ancestors and our place in the world. Is it a blueprint for the future? You can join us in supporting this project…

from The Science Show: Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Saturday 16 September 2017 12:17PM (view full episode) The Arctic is changing at great speed. So fast that regular visitors such as Larry Mayer can see it changing. Summer sea ice is shrinking in size and becoming thinner. Larry has been visiting the…

14-16 September 2017 in Adelaide | Interdisciplinary Conference | H2O: Life & Death Posted on September 11, 2017 by Simon Zyrianov   The EU Centre for Global Affairs invites you to an interdisciplinary conference around the theme of WATER H2O: Life & Death The Conference is organised by the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative…

It’s a real pleasure to bring this story to the Lynchpin Blog. Ocean Vital Signs, Alanna Mitchel, You Tube Alanna Mitchell was fundamentally important in the founding of Lynchpin.  Alanna launched her award winning book, Sea Sick, first in Australia.  It so happened it was possible to encourage her to come to  Hobart where she met with various Marine…

Future Earth – research for future sustainability Published on 14 November 2016 The work presented in this document has been possible thanks to the enormous observational and modelling efforts of the institutions and networks listed. Find the pdf here packed with important information including: The top four emitters in 2015 Breakdown of global emissions by country Historical cumulative…

UTAS ALUMNI WEBINAR SERIES 2017 Presented by Dr Damien Guihen Wednesday, 23 August 2017 12.00pm – 1.00pm AEST The Antarctic Gateway Partnership is a Special Research Initiative of the Australian Research Council and brings together the University of Tasmania, the Australian Antarctic Division, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology in a project to develop the…

  REVOLUTION, the new documentary on the environment and activism to preserve the Earth’s ecology is shared with clips from the film by director, Rob Stewart.   Acidification of oceans, the impact of fracking and tar sands on Canada’s environment, and the exhilarating possibilities for change from youth activists are all discussed, as we look…

Ockham’s Razor RN Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio show transcript Sunday 6 August 2017 7:45AM (view full episode) When Kylie Soanes bounced out of her graduation ceremony with a newly-minted PhD, she thought she knew what she was in for. She expected to have to work really, really hard. What she didn’t…

Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio show transcript Sunday 30 July 2017 10:30AM We’re all at sea this week on Future Tense as free-lance producer Colin Bisset takes a look at the growing global phenomenon that is the cruise line industry. It’s booming and only likely to get bigger as new markets open…

Lynchpin is happy to introduce and to offer support to  Karen Alexander and Justine Barrett, who are two of eighty women with a science background from around the globe who have been chosen to participate in the next Homeward Bound program. This 12 month program teaches leadership, strategy and communication skills and culminates in a three week trip…

From fish to forests, conflicts to coffee…. A new international study led by scientists from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the University’s Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS) has highlighted how humans are being affected by climate-driven changes in the distribution of land, marine and freshwater species around the world. Global ecological…

  While the obvious impact of climate change is the increased temperature, rising sea-level and an impact to the ecology, there is also the issue of increased criminality. One of the many side-effects of climate change that many people don’t make the connection with is the slow and steady rise in criminal activity. This could…

The beaches of one of the world’s most remote islands have been found to be polluted with the highest density of plastic debris reported anywhere on the planet, in a study published in the prestigious US scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Despite being uninhabited and located more than 5,000 kilometres from…

  NASA | A Year in the Life of Earth’s CO2 An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.   How deep is the Earth’s Atmosphere? Earth’s Atmosphere: read here The Earth’s atmosphere is an extremely thin sheet of air extending…

James Batchelor, Pete Harmsen, Annalise Rees To be opened by Dr Tara Martin, CSIRO 5.30 Friday 11 August, 2017 IMAS Gallery 20 Castray Esplanade Battery Point 11 Aug – 8 Sept Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm In early 2016, a media photo/videographer, choreographer and visual artist joined a scientific voyage to Heard and McDonald…

Animals and technology Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Sunday 16 July 2017 10:30AM Digital technology is opening up new relationships between humans and animals – instead of alienating us from nature as in the past. Thanks to sensors, GPS and mini-cameras, scientists can now gather data on animal migration and behaviour…

Ocean Imaginaries The long held romantic view of the ocean as a compelling metaphor for the sacred mysteries of nature has recently been contradicted by a countervailing imagery of the slow violence of ocean pollution. In Ocean Imaginaries artists provide complex responses to global oceans in our era. Exhibited for the first time in an art gallery,…

    Pteropods and Ocean Acidification Pteropods are very small free-floating marine snails that play a very big part in oceanic ecosystems. Although tiny, these creatures are extremely important because they make up an important part of the oceanic food web. Scientists have seen the negative effects of ocean acidification on pteropods and are studying…

  Food for thought – radical thinking from those close to the land – in a changing world.     Butan is the only country in the world that is not only carbob neutral, it is carbon negative. In this TEDX talk, Tshering Tobgay brings us Butan for Life; he talks about the reality of climate…

Almost ten years since Lynchpin linked with work on plastic waste found in the guts of the mutton birds of Lord Howe Island, follow this link   for the work of Dr Jen Lavers and others, here comes a program on ABC Life Matters bringing the story again to an audience who should know and should understand…

“Reworking the Therapeutic Frame to Apply Psychotherapy to Environmental Crisis, and the Environment to Personal Crisis” from the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists Conference, 2013, Auckland, New Zealand     Think about it.      

TUESDAY 25 APR 2017 Listen(Link will open in new window)
 Download The Oxford Dictionary nominated post-truth as the Word of the Year in 2016.  Rather than objective facts,  politicians promote alternative facts, emotion and personal beliefs as the basis for public debate. This spells disaster to a scientist like Brian Schmidt who says we can’t…

Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Saturday 22 April 2017 12:35PM (view full episode) The 2018 budget proposed by President Trump for institutions of scientific research sees crippling and severe cuts. 20% here, 30% there, and in other cases budget cuts of 50% and more. So what to do? Scientists gathered in Boston…

Cape Farewell and The Arts Development Company present FarmART  An exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre’s Allsop Gallery 22nd April – 3rd June Preview Invitation Friday 21st April 6pm – 8pm Exploring food, farming and our relationship with the environment Food is fundamental to life. The way we produce it is the most pressing issue of our…

Cape Farewell founder David Buckland featured in Interalia Magazine   Read more here As I have stated, artists work in the milieu of their time; we face our humanity and its effect on climate change with a cold stare crafting works that are as emotionally alarming as the hard facts of our scientists.

DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO: EXIT In an immersive, 360-degree installation, EXIT visually correlates global human migratory trends with urgent social and economic issues. Data gathered from over one hundred sources is geocoded, processed through a programming language, and presented visually by a rotating globe that translates statistics into maps, texts, and trajectories as it orbits…

ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 is a festival of provocative climate change related arts and ideas. It provides a platform for the discussion of the challenges, opportunities, impacts, and solutions associated with climate change. Here are some of the events coming up in the next ten days: CHANGE MAKERS, PLANET SHAKERS: FORUM & SOUTHERN ECONOMIES EXHIBITION OPENING   From artist and…

Canadian Artist Eveline Kolijn, friend of Lynchpin for some years now, presents new work along familiar themes: The Ocean Inside. We are Water : view promotional material Arts Commons Presents Ledge Gallery, Calgary Arts Commons Presents The Ocean Inside, an installation of printmaking and sculpture that explores nature, water, and our biosphere in The Ledge Gallery by Calgary-based…

from the CSIRO Blog – watch   Oceans, the blue frontier. Teeming with life that is weird, wonderful and often unseen due to distance and depth. Helping to unlock the mysteries of life above and below the waves, Investigator voyages provide an important opportunity to collect information about the distribution and abundance of life – big and…

‪I am the Ocean – arts and sciences to move from ocean literacy to passion for the ocean Recent events in world politics demonstrate that a part of society has lost faith in their institutions. The importance of facts and evidence in citizens’ decision making is weakened by opinions and belief systems. This post-fact or…

  State of the Great Barrier Reef Listen(Link will open in new window) Download It appears that the effects of Cyclone Debbie could further devastate the reef, already in grave danger from coral bleaching.

Deepspace Follow the work of James Batchelor further into Deepspace.  

Backscatter – read the introduction and background from Prof Mike Coffin, IMAS. Richard Arculus Pete Harmsen Annalise Rees Charles Tambiah James Batchelor more information see here   In physics, backscatter (or backscattering) is the reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction from which they came. It is a diffuse reflection due to scattering, as…

Published on Aug 12, 2015 Documentary Universe 2015 – Earth From Space Full HD 1080p – BBC Documentary 2015 Please take time to watch this truly amazing documentary  – find out the links between ancient diatoms in the dust rising from the deserts of Saharan Africa and the flourishing of the Amazon Jungle; learn more about the…

Australian Story With early signs the Great Barrier Reef may be bleaching again, this episode tells the timely story of a scientist’s passion and determination to save some of the world’s great coral reefs from extinction. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is at the forefront of a bold new global plan to combat the devastating effects of…

ABC Four Corners Scientists say vast amounts of our discarded plastic is ending up in the ocean. “There’s so much plastic going in and we have no idea where it is.” Oceanographer Working out where that plastic ends up and what impact it has on our oceans has become a major concern for many marine…

  ABC  7.30 Report, 1 March, 2017 – Mark Horseman  brings this important story: Scientists in Antarctica are hoping that tiny algae that produce sulphur could be the key to fighting global warming, thanks to their ability to create cloud cover.   Watch the report.    

‪‬Hobart audiences have three opportunities to see this great show!  You should go!  See it, be part of it  . . . ! Get your feet tapping – lift your spirit with an alternative voice! Thanks to the Simon Kerr Perspective for a great effort in bringing this story to a wider audience! A short promo…

TSO COMPOSERS’ PROJECT 2017  As part of an ongoing commitment to support and develop Australian composers, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has partnered with the University of Tasmania (UTAS) Conservatorium of Music and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) to provide an exciting training project for Tasmanian composition students in grades 11 &…

Nigel Westlake and Diana Doherty Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio The Music Show, RN, Saturday 18 February 2017 11:40AM Nigel Westlake and Bob Brown 2016 Amongst rollicking pieces by Ligeti, Ravel and Bartok, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra‘s new programme, Colour and Movement, will be premiering an exciting new Australian piece written for the wonderful…

Lynchpin’s conversation piece for 2017 – Jenny Pollak visits Hobart for a Lynchpin Residency for four to six weeks, from the end of February. As Lynchpin Coordinator, Jenny Pollak’s work is of particular closeness to me;  her marvellous installation work The Immortals shown at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney, 4th September – 25th October 2015, was brought to my notice by…

Tasmanian east coast changing fast Saturday 4 February 2017 12:50PM Sea temperatures and currents are changing. Fish are changing their ranges. Algae are blooming. How do we interpret what we are seeing? Has it happened before? Is it part of a natural cycle? Gustaaf Hallegraeff hopes to find out. He has embarked on a program…

Climate Tasmania Presents a series of talks and a series of performances Climate Talks: IMAS Building, Castray Esplanade, Hobart 6.00pm 21 February:  Climate Change – how bad is it, how to fix it and what will it cost? Prof Eelco Rohling, ANU 1-2 pm  23rd February: Dangerous Climate Change: an artistic response, including show preview:  Prof Christine…

As has been noted several times within this Blog – art and science come together to make “the sound” of science. Meet artist Michaela Gleave and composer Amanda Cole who have worked together on a new work called A Galaxy of Suns. The pair have transcribed constellations into a musical score that was sung live by the…

Lynchpin Scholar and ex Oceano PhD candidate, Nick Roden – Research Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1002/2016JC012008   Carbon cycling dynamics in the seasonal sea-ice zone of East Antarctica Nicholas P. Roden1,2,3, Bronte Tilbrook2,3, Thomas W. Trull2,3, Patti Virtue1,3, and Guy D. Williams1,3 1Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 2CSIRO…

Oceanic Bliss: Living seagrass Installation, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney, 9 December 2016 – 19 February 2017 Enter a world of seagrass meadows; look, touch, draw or write; find patterns in data; sense with your body an ancient choreography; explore photosynthesis – shine a light to illuminate a seagrass bed . . . and much…

Longtime friend of Lynchpin, Canadian artist Eveline Kolijn, presents new work.   You are invited to attend the closing reception of a Voyage to Vorres Museum An Exhibition of Allyson Glenn and Eveline Kolijn Curated by Anahita Akhavan Join our closing reception after our artist talks on February 10, 2017, from 8 to 10pm Opening:  January…

OF INTEREST – from the University of Queensland Free Online edX Course: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial: Denial101x Climate change is real, so why the controversy and debate?  Are you interested in climate science and how people think about climate change? Learn to make sense of the science and to respond to climate change denial.…

Many congratulations to Lauren Black on this great opportunity. Lauren will use her scholarship to visit collections in museums in Paris, Italy and the UK, where she will take particular note of medical and botanical collections. Lauren would like her work to build a bridge between art and science that opens our understandings of the…

This musical work is  Linsey Pollak – Live Looping endangered animal calls using midi wind controller, with Lizzie O’Keefe – voice. Watch on YouTube Once upon a time there was a planet called Earth. During many millions of years a rich, complex and beautiful ecosystem developed with an incredible variety of lifeforms. Over time one of the…

ABC Catalyst: Tuesday, 15 November 2016 Human impacts on the way our planet functions have now become so extreme many scientists are claiming the Earth has shifted out of the Holocene state and into a new geological epoch. They’re calling it ‘The Anthropocene’, the new age of humans, because millions of years after we are gone,…

Tides and currents do a great job of sweeping pollen from marine plant to plant, so scientists thought underwater pollinators were unnecessary. But now, researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico have discovered a species of Caribbean seagrass, Thalassia testudinum, that can be pollinated by zooplankton and bottom-dwelling invertebrates. Read more.

eco film festival 17-20 November visit the website: checkout the range of talks and films available – grab the opportunity! Of particular interest to Lynchpin are the following: SATURDAY 19TH NOV 10.30AM – 12.00PM ECO Panel: Ocean and Coral Reef Aurora Lecture Theatre, IMAS, 25 Castray Esplanade, HObart. Followed by – The Wonderful World of Plankton. SATURDAY…

Well, well – isn’t it the case that we are tripped up frequently by the accuracy of a Shakespeare quote or a phrase from the Old Testament which resonate in an extraordinary way when modern science comes up with something new – a capacity to look deeply into an area of the natural world which takes…

What if, instead of talking or reading or writing, there were a better way to, well, digest our information about climate change? That’s the goal of the latest plan put forward by Jonathon Keats, experimental philosopher and artist. Read and see more here.       “For somebody to deeply understand [climate change], and not to act…

World Premiere, Hobart – Theatre Royal Hobart, 29 October-12 November 2016 Dana Michelle Bergstrom, Scientist and Writer Dugald McLaren, Music and Lyrics and Puppetry A musical about Antarctica with the intention of improving the protection of Antarctica.  “The logic being, if a place was in people’s hearts, they would care for it even if they…

Are scientists storytellers? Does science play a role in story telling? Could storytellers be scientists? Drawing on her experience of both science research and the literary world, Jeannie-Marie will explore these questions and offer her insights into the commonalities of observation, imagination and creation. A talk by Jeannie-Marie LeRoi BSc, MSc, Grad Dip SciComm  on Saturday…

Climate change is a complex and intimidating threat. Scientists working in the field are not robots. These scientists are mothers, fathers, grandparents, daughters. They are real people. And they’re concerned. Please visit these excellent sites and take time to read the comments of scientists and researchers that understand climate change. Click here: What follows are the words of…

    From EuroNews: Opera is on the move; the themes of love, war, heroism and death are out and climate change is in. The opera ‘CO2’ at Milan La Scala Milan staged the affects of greenhouse gases on the planet. The themes are similar, but the focus has changed according to composer Giorgio Battistelli:…

TeFF 2016 –Tasmanian ecoFilmFest 17-20 November, Hobart. View this wonderful program of International speakers, films and film makers, events and learning. Be part of the opportunity and encourage others along too!   “We are going to have to change the priorities of our lives if we love this planet”      Dr. Helen Caldicott    

Climate of emotion: despair Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Monday 31 October 2016 11:05AM Scientists let us know all the facts and figures about climate change.  They know just how quickly the icebergs are melting, and almost to the day when the Great Barrier Reef will be dead. If you don’t…

  The whale aria Listen(Link will open in new window) Download Humans aren’t the only musical maestros on the planet. Heard on PocketDocs, Radio National

  works by Prof Liza Lim My exhale is your inhale   How Forests Think – Liza writes Whilst in Brazil, I was able to bring my most recent work, ‘How Forests think’ to completion. Somehow it seemed fitting to be composing the final part of the piece in a place that has the largest and most…

  ARTIST’S STATEMENT: I painted my friend, Dr Frank Bradley, because he is one of an endangered species in Australia – the climate scientist. Frank played an important role nationally and internationally in the measurement of climate change. During the 1980s he led the way at CSIRO in the collection of accurate data on the…

Off Track: Saturday 1 October 2016 10:30AM (view full episode) Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio A third of the world’s oceans are anaemic, almost completely starved of iron. And where the ocean is has limited iron, it also has limited growth – it can be watery, blue-coloured desert. For the tiny photosynthesising…

Long term climate heading into territory ‘unknown’ by humans: Listen now(Link will open in new window) Download audio Tuesday 27 September 2016 6:36AM (view full episode) Scientists have created the longest continuous reconstruction of the Earth’s surface climate stretching back two million years. Their analysis predicts that current greenhouse gas levels could commit the planet to extreme…

GEOLOCATION JOURNEYS www.geolocationjourneys.com   Supporting marine predator research at the  Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies University of Tasmania   LAUNCH REPORT The  launch of this program raised $4500 and received coverage on ABC Radio, Facebook and Twitter. It is an encouraging start to the project and Lynchpin encourages you to use word of mouth to bring…

This is what climate change sounds like, in D minor. Yellow cedars are dying in Alaska and researchers have turned the data showing their demise into music. Using a technique called data sonification, data meticulously collected and pored over for years, is translated from numbers and charts into music.  Please listen! The piece has the potential…

  Geneva, 21 July 2016 (WMO) _ Global temperatures for the first six months of this year shattered yet more records, and mean that 2016 is on track to be the world’s hottest year on record. Read here Arctic sea ice melted early and fast, another indicator of climate change. Carbon dioxide levels, which are…

How satellites see almost everything Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Saturday 13 August 2016 12:49PM (view full episode)   Thousands of satellites are in orbit around the Earth. The Goddard Space Flight Center lists 2,271 satellites in orbit. Russia has 1,324 satellites. The US has 658. Satellites are used for GPS,…

NASA Climate Time Machine This series of visualizations shows how some of Earth’s key climate indicators are changing over time. Global Climate Change: vital signs of the planet

Ludovico Einaudi performs against the backdrop of Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway.   Visit the NASA Climate Time Machine  Sea Ice section Sea Ice Data source: Satellite observations. Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

  Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Ockham’s Razor, RN, Sunday 14 August 2016 7:45AM Charles Darwin said that it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those most responsive to change. Fish are an innovative and agile species. For 400 million years, they have…

  Brian Cox – be curious and open to change, not proud and dogmatic Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Saturday 13 August 2016 12:44PM   Why do some people have opinions which ignore facts and evidence? Brian Cox and Richard Glover looked for answers when they spoke on ABC Local Radio…

Response to rapidly changing climate – deflect, distract, deny and delay Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Saturday 13 August 2016 12:20PM   Bob Beale has been writing on science and the environment since he worked as a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald. Here he reflects on the lack of concern…

Geolocation Journeys – Annalise Rees working with IMAS PhD student, Jaimie Cleeland, is turning ‘retired’ animal geo locators into wearable art! The initiative will officially launch on September 9th at IMAS. You can donate and receive a bespoke, handcrafted wearable art creation, proceeds go back into the purchase of new geo locators supporting marine predator research at IMAS.…

CONTEMPORARY ART AND SCIENCE MEET IN THE REMOTE WILDERNESS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2016 1:00PM PUBLIC LECTURE 6:00PM PERFORMANCE ENQUIRIES info@annaliserees.com www.scienceweek.net.au INTO THE UNKNOWN: PUBLIC LECTURE Visual artist Annalise Rees and choreographer James Batchelor will discuss their participation as part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers who travelled to Heard and McDonald Islands in…

“There are moments of magic all the time in works of art, but I think what happens is that each one of us becomes receptive to them at different times and in different ways.” David Robertson. For those of us who collaborated on ex Oceano – a love song for the Ocean, to hear what David Robertson, principal…

  Escalating stress and pressure, poor work/life balance, depression, sleep disorders, substance abuse problems and eating disorders, have become hallmarks of academia. While increasing attention has been paid to mental health problems afflicting undergraduate students, issues among graduate students and early post-doctoral researchers are not only under-reported, but largely ignored and stigmatised. PhD student Diana…

In Season explores the background science and the real-world impact of our changing seasons. Does it seem like Spring is getting earlier every year? Linda Beaumont has collated the statistics that prove our warmer months are advancing. 
In Season: Sprinter Listen(Link will open in new window)
 Download Saturday 6 August 2016 

Four seasons just aren’t…

Soil microbes burp carbon dioxide after drought-breaking rain Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio   An unpredictable source of carbon emissions in areas of sporadic rainfall, is the carbon dioxide released from soil when rain falls after drought. The emissions come from soil microbes, and as Catherine Osborne explains, these critters are…

Introducing Andrea Breen A piece composed for a dance/cross-arts performance about global warming: seasons & reasons, May 7 2016, Peacock Theatre Hobart. Respondibility1 Image of phosphorescence (caused by warmer waters): Arwen Dyer    

Lynchpin has a particular interest in the Ocean, atmosphere, land balance –  two programs this week explain more. Drive, ABC RN:  World swelters through hottest June on record Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Wednesday 20 July 2016 6:25PM (view full episode) New figures released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric…

This hardback publication includes beautiful images, and informative and thought provoking essays by Kelly Gellatly, Director of The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, and John Wiseman, Deputy Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.

  Since first creating the program (in 2011), Dr Lisa Roberts continues to lead Living Data in an effort to increase public understanding and encourage informed action towards a sustainable future. Today ‘About’ Living Data explains itself as: “an independent programme of interactive authoring that is true to science, clear in language, appealing to senses, evolving and surprising (showing something…

  UTS Vice-Chancellor Attila Brungs is looking for bipartisan commitment for research and a strong drive to offer STEM skills for future generations of students. (STEM = science, technology, engineering and maths) He’s looking for a follow through on the plans from the end of last year and the beginning of 2016  when there was…

Rogan Brown – Paper Sculptures Brown writes: My work plays with the architecture of nature and organic growth. By identifying patterns and motifs that occur in the natural world in different contexts and at different scales, both macroscopic and microscopic, I have developed a formal, aesthetic vocabulary that I use to construct hybrid sculptural forms,…

Follow the journey of four young artists  who have the opportunity to make art in Antarctica – with all the challenges involved. If you’d like to focus on the completed works, enter the film around 40 minutes – but the process is worth following.        

Media Release   PROFESSOR TONY WORBY TO DELIVER PHILLIP LAW LECTURE The Phillip Law Lecture is a free event and will be delivered at CCAMLR, 181 Macquarie Street, Hobart on Friday 9 September at 5:30 pm. After a break of several years the next Phillip Law Lecture has been scheduled as part of the inaugural…

from The Conversation: June 8, 2016 6.18am AEST Read the full article:  It’s time for a new age of Enlightenment: why climate change needs 60,000 artists to tell its story Excerpt: A paper published in WIRES Climate Change draws upon cognitive science, evolutionary psychology and philosophy, among other fields, to explore the emerging idea that global warming exceeds…

SATURDAY 18 JUN 2016 
Flying for your life: An unlikely saviour Listen(Link will open in new window)
 Download On the shorelines of the Yellow Sea, eight million shorebirds are probing the sediment for food, but their bellies are empty. Could their epic migration end here on this barren mudflat? SATURDAY 11 JUN 2016 Flying for…

Artists and activism Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Wednesday 15 June 2016 8:05PM (view full episode)   Highlights of the arts and activism debate that artists have a responsibility to speak on political and social issues presented by the National Gallery of Victoria, 20 April 2016.   Guests: Hugh de Kretser…

Background Briefing, Sunday 29 May 2016 8:05AM (view full episode) Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio     A third of the CSIRO’s climate scientists have been sacked. It’s part of a radical change in direction for Australia’s premier science organisation. But scientists say this will leave us vulnerable to climate change? Paddy…

Steb Fisher throws down the challenge. Fisher was a former Physical Chemist at Oxford, has worked at the Harvard Business School and now lectures in Environmental matters at Monash University.   We have “wounded” the planet in a thousand ways. It will never return to what it was, but we can give it space for its…

watch YouTube exploratory work. Prof William Gladstone, Shona Wilson, Lisa Roberts Sound: Excerpt from ex Oceano –  Matthew Dewey’s Symphony No2, 2013 – Lynchpin project 2012-15. Kur-ring-gai Ph project Ten scientists and ten artists collaborate for a year to develop material for presentation and installation at Eramboo Gallery and Many Art Gallery and Museum. Meet Lisa Roberts with…

Eveline Kolijn  |  METABOLISM    This exhibition presents new work that resulted from two residencies, one in the Vorres Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece in 2015 and a lung cancer research laboratory at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in 2013.
  
the binding theme is that of Metabolism – in our body…

In March 2016 news was published at our Scholarship site about the program projected for 2016-18: Change of direction for Project: 2016-2018  During 2015, Lynchpin was in discussion with Lauren Black, an acclaimed Hobart based artist who is well known for her detailed botanical work, about a possible Lynchpin collaboration with her between 2016-18. Lauren let us know in…

Invitation CLIMARTE POSTER PROJECT Opening – Thursday 5 May 2016 Image: Angela Brennan – The future is not what it use to be

A Plastic Ocean is a new feature-length adventure documentary that brings to light the consequences of our global disposable lifestyle. In A Plastic Ocean an international team of adventurers, researchers, and world-saving heroes embark on an expedition around the globe that delves into the unknown lurking beneath our seemingly pristine and remote waters. The trailer for A Plastic…

  The Science Show Listen now (Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Saturday 6 February 2016 12:05PM (view full episode) Changing environmental conditions associated with climate change are thought to be behind a devastating algal bloom which shut the Tasmanian seafood industry for four months during the second half of 2015. The algae…

Counting One to Four: Nature morte, 2015‬ – screened as part of ArtCOP21 in Paris, Melbourne and New York. Counting One to Four: Nature morte synthesises the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) findings revealing predicted mass species extinctions as global average temperatures increase by one to four degrees above pre-industrial levels.   Proudly supported by:…

Conference : full information The global redistribution of our planets’ species is widely recognised as a fingerprint of climate change, however, the mechanisms that underpin such range shifts are poorly understood. Additionally, the pervasiveness of range shifts, from poles to the equator, and depths of oceans to tops of mountains, provides us with unique opportunity…

Plankton 2015 State of Australia’s oceans Linking science and policy: read an assessment of our oceans using plankton indicators of ecological change AND understand more here: Plankton: unsung ocean heroes who go with the flow Movement 2 of the symphony ex Oceano, is an expression of the world of phytoplankton Lynchpin project 2012-15 – “a love letter…

  ‪Land Ho! The RV Investigator approaches McDonald Islands‬ Major IMAS Investigator voyage to study impact of submarine volcanoes on ocean ecosystems The data from these investigations are used to identify and map hydrothermal systems driven by underwater volcanoes, which they suspect might be driving the Southern Ocean ecosystem from the bottom-up. They’re testing the hypothesis that hydrothermal systems release…

Boron isotope evidence for oceanic carbon dioxide leakage during the last deglaciation Since the beginning of the industrial revolution the oceans have absorbed an estimated 155 billion tonnes of carbon, about 30% of the total human emissions. The present atmospheric CO2 concentrations, approximately 400 parts per million, have not been seen on Earth since the…

Revealed how giant icebergs breathe life into remote oceans Prof Grant Bigg Professor in Earth Systems Science, University of Sheffield Extract: Why icebergs mean oceans store more carbon Here’s how it works: as Antarctic ice sheets slowly slide towards the ocean they bump along the continent’s bedrock, picking up iron and other nutrients which become…

CSIRO – a life in Science – Nick Roden and others talk about the opportunities – it takes creativity to ask the interesting questions and it takes innovation, science and technology to answer them.   CSIROseven – Careers from CSIRO on Vimeo.  

Professor Will Steffen comments to the Australian Institute of International Affairs Paris is the focus of the world this week, not only because of the horrific terrorist attacks, but also because the City of Lights is about to welcome some of the world’s most senior leaders who have vowed to tackle climate change. Will the Paris…

ARTCOP21 COAL and CAPE FAREWELL – the two European partners behind ARTCOP21 – have mobilised artists and the wider cultural sector, to create a festival and cultural symposium during the Cop21 conference – the 21st United Nations Conference on climate change, Paris. From 30th November until 10th December 2015, they have created an exceptional cultural-climate festival in the city of Paris and a global on-line arts…

Australian Institute of International Affairs Promoting understanding of international issues Professor Will Steffen speaks with Catherine Garlick At an AIIA ACT Branch event this week, Professor Will Steffen explained that the narrative around climate change has shifted dramatically in the last 12-24 months, with profound implications for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this…

The future of the enlightenment Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Radio National Tuesday 3 November 2015 8:05PM (view full episode)   In the 18th century enlightenment values transformed the way we thought about the world and our place in it but three hundred years later are those ideals of reason and…

  Listen to Nick Roden, Robert Johnson and composer Matthew Dewey talk about ex Oceano – presented on Off Track by Dr Ann Jones, Radio National, 31 October, 2015. The story of the ocean, its life, its temperature, its depths and its acidification all wrought in notes on a stave –  This music does not replace…

Saturday 24 October 2015 12:25PM (view full episode) Seagrasses grow in coastal environments. They take in large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in root systems where it accumulates over time in a stable environment. The amount of carbon stored is calculated as being up to 100 times that stored in…

Drive: RN Tuesday 6 October 2015 6:40PM Professor David Bowman, Pyro-geographer and Biologist in Environmental Change at the University of Tasmania, joined RN Drive to discuss the early bush fires burning in various states, with Victoria facing the highest number – a 100 fires burning at 6th October with at least 200 properties under threat.…

“Print It Large!” – Alberta Printmakers stage Calgary’s first Steamroller Print Project! In September, as part of Alberta Printmakers annual Print It Yourself Festival, this event was intended to get students, artists and the community to come together in a cooperative and collaborative event to celebrate culture. During the month prior to the Festival, seven…

Lab test predictions: By Jane Ryan ABC News: Updated about 3 hours ago PHOTO: Professor Boyd said his experiment “threw the kitchen sink” at phytoplankton in the lab.  (Supplied: Phillip Boyd) MAP: Antarctica Growth of microscopic phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean could double in size in the next 80 years because of climate change, according to scientists. The microscopic…

  A new work by composer Matthew Dewey:  Symphony of the Inland Sea  Year: 2015 Dedication note: Dedicated to Yvonne Moore and the Mount Isa community. Commission note: Commissioned by Queensland Symphony Orchestra. First performance: by Mount Isa Community Ensembles (MICE) at Mount Isa Celebrates (Mount Isa Civic Centre) on 23 Jul 2015    …

  Climate change: making waves? Climate change—and concerns about rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—are often in the headlines. But when looking back at the history of the earth, it’s clear this isn’t the first time carbon dioxide levels have risen. So why should we worry now? We delve into the past to…

How do we fill the gaps in our knowledge? We create stories, informed by our own feelings and worldviews. Sounds harmless enough – but what if the gap is in our knowledge of an issue as important as climate change? Ketan Joshi explores the dangers of mythmaking and navigating by feel. Energy policy and the…

Science 11 September 2015: Vol. 349 no. 6253 pp. 1221-1224 DOI: 10.1126/science.aab2620 Full article available: Table of Contents:   REPORT The reinvigoration of the Southern Ocean carbon sink Peter Landschützer1,*, Nicolas Gruber1,2, F. Alexander Haumann1,2, Christian Rödenbeck3, Dorothee C. E. Bakker4, Steven van Heuven5,†, Mario Hoppema5, Nicolas Metzl6, Colm Sweeney7,8, Taro Takahashi9, Bronte Tilbrook10, Rik Wanninkhof11…

CLIMARTE – Arts for a Safe Climate CLIMARTE has been officially invited by the Streaming Museum, New York, and the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations, to take part in the New York launch of A View from the Cloud, at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza – “The Gateway to the United Nations”, East 47th…

Part of the University of Tasmania 125 Year Celebrations, 4 September, 2015. Chairperson:  Associate Professor William Howard. Speakers: Sir Guy Green AC, KBE, CVO on Tasmania and the Antarctic Professor Ian Allison AO, AAM: Hobart and Antarctic science: the last 70 years Professor Tony Worby, CEO ACE CRC – including IMAS, CSIRO, AAD – with an overview of the internationally…

Nathan Bindoff is Coordinating Lead Author for the Detection and Attribution chapter of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, based at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies. He speaks here about how the IPCC reports come together.  

Our own Nick Roden – star of symphony, now of screen! Watch Nick’s CSIRO Seven film profile: Follow the profiles of other members of the group Radio National’s Drive program ran the feature: Making STEM Sexy Listen now(Link will open in new window)
 Download audio Monday 17 August 2015 6:25PM (view full episode) THE CSIRO SEVEN ARE…

illuminations an art project celebrating science Illuminations is an art project initiated by artist Andrew Baird. It comprises an ongoing collection of portraits of scientists, each highlighting the work of that individual as a part of the greater project of science. As the importance of supporting rational enquiry increases in the face of the many…

FEELING THE EFFECTS OF THE EAST AUSTRALIAN CURRENT ON TASMANIA jennik The Hobart Centre of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society is running a free public lecture and forum in association with the Australian Marine Sciences Association and the University of Tasmania, at UTas Stanley Burbury Theatre in Hobart on Tuesday 18 August and UTas Newnham Campus in Launceston on…

Walk through Living Data: Experience / Interact   For the inaugural Sydney Science Festival Living Data scientists and artists offer new experiences and conversations for expanding understanding of our changing climate. When?: Thursday, 20 August 2015 from 6:15 PM Where?: Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney – Living Data Atrium, Level 4, Building 4, 745 Harris…

Listen now (Link will open in new window)
 Download audio show transcript   The Science Show, Saturday 18 July 2015 12:32PM Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is heating the plant. But what if we extracted carbon dioxide from the air, or captured it from the smokestacks of power stations? We’d have vast…

In the Southern Hemisphere, programs like Lynchpin and Living Data work to encourage arts/ocean science collaborations that both stand with the important science of climate change but also open up the stories of Southern Ocean and Antarctica marine science to the community in new ways; in Europe at this year’s Venice Biennale, curators are working to bring art to…

  Jorge E. RamosA,D, Gretta T. PeclA, Jayson M. SemmensA, Jan M. StrugnellB, Rafael I. Leo´nA and Natalie A. MoltschaniwskyjC  AInstitute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 49, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia. BDepartment of Genetics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic. 3086, Australia. CSchool of Environmental…

Find a great range of video resources from UTS and IMAS sites. For a start, watch these  to understand more: From UTS: Temperature Rising   Shauna Murray is a marine microbial ecologist. Her research looks at marine toxins that affect seafood and humans with ciguatera or scombroid fish poisoning. Shauna is currently working on developing novel genetic…

Today’s 5-day weather predictions have the accuracy of 3-day predictions twenty years ago thanks to improved weather models. But predicting rainfall remains a challenge as it is often a localised event such as a thunderstorm covering just 10Km or less. Christian Jakob and Ailie Gallant describe the power and the limits of weather models. Listen…

Birds sing at the start and end of the day. It is called a chorus and it is full of communication about territory, family and food sources. Such choruses occur under water too, but they are formed out of clicks and bops and the scrapes of creatures under the sea. Natalie Soars, a PhD Candidate at the…

Prof Lesley Hughes,  a lead author for the UN’s IPCC Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports,  will speak following the premiere screening of Running out of time: a 164km run through Tasmania’s Wilderness,  a short film about the non-stop run by Jen Boocock, Jenny Sprent and Stephen Rae through Southwest Tasmania to raise money for the Climate Council. Prof…

The team who created the Song of Our Warming Planet   are back bringing us: The Sound of Climate Change from the Amazon to the Arctic  

LORRAINE BEAULIEU Arts visuals: www.lorrainebeaulieu.com The sphere of Sisyphus made of 1500 empty water bottles, created by Lorraine Beaulieu on the island of Hydra, in the space above the water cistern. Then it rolled in the streets of the island, accepted the first autumn rain at the port, passed the Saronic Gulf and end up next…

The ex Oceano collaborative team is thrilled to congratulate composer Matthew Dewey on his appointment as Music Director, ABC Classic FM!  The position was created as a result of the changes to the network’s funding and structural changes that were announced last year.  The Music Director’s editorial role covers all of the network’s music output. Wonderful news, Matthew!  

Writing in The Conversation David Karoly, Professor of Atmospheric Science at University of Melbourne writes: . . . Contemporary art, with its intimate connection to the time in which it arises, has the intellectual and creative capacity to be a powerful trans-disciplinary change agent, bringing together otherwise disparate fields of science, policy and politics. Art and…

Artists: Sophie Carnell Katherine Cooper Ron C Moss Toby Muir Wilson and Peter Walsh Scientists Dr Heidi Auman Dr Frederique Olivier Dr Patti Virtue   Enormous congratulations to the Vanishing Point collaborative team for this marvellous exhibition opened before a great throng of people on Friday evening, 1 May.  Take a look at the works exhibited…

STOP PRESS: Huffington Post names ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE in top 10 global climate events for 2015. www.huffingtonpost.com The Age 30 March The Guardian Broadsheet The Age 9 April ABC Radio National Books & Arts Huffington Post 3RRR The Sydney Morning Herald    “Throughout history the arts have played a major role in recording and reflecting the state of…

Full scale of plastic in the world’s oceans revealed for first time: More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a…

Oceans are world’s seventh largest economy worth $24tn, says WWF report Silence-to-me: Michaye Boulter . . .The report, commissioned by WWF, states the asset value of oceans is $24tn and values the annual “goods and services” it provides, such as food, at $2.5tn. This economic clout would make the oceans the seventh largest economy in…

The Age:  25th April Climate change and its effect on the world’s many ecosystems is arguably today’s greatest collective challenge. No longer in the singular domain of the scientist or environmentalist, we are each, to a greater or lesser extent, implicated in the impacts of climatic changes. As we begin to accept responsibility for our…

Listen to a range of excellent speakers in this CLIMARTE conversation Moderator:  Rafael Epstein, ABC journalist 774 Drive radio program Speakers: Guy Abrahams: CEO and Co-Founder, CLIMARTE Dr Damon Young: Philosopher, University of Melbourne Mandy Martin: Artist, Adjunct Professor of Art, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra Dr Peter Christoff: Climate…

The inaugural ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE festival is underway! An excited crowd attended the Ian Potter Museum of Art last week to launch the awaited ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 Festival. CLIMARTE ambassadors Professor Peter Doherty and Maudi Palmer officially opened the festival. Follow the CLIMARTE website over the next days and pick up on what’s happening. Watch Guy Abraham’s  speak about…

Ocean warming is affecting this kelp and many other species who are really adapted to cold waters. Professor Craig Johnson IMAS In a world-first study, scientists have transplanted kelp off the coast of Tasmania to better understand the impact of climate change. The kelp, which grows from northern New South Wales around to Western Australia,…

What is art – and what of the endeavour to try to harness the communicative power of the arts to bring important science to the community in new ways? Presently CLIMARTE’s extensive exhibition brings many artists together in an expressive response to issues of climate change. The upcoming exhibition Vanishing Point will highlight plastic pollution in the…

The Science Show: Saturday 18 April 2015 12:30PM Official figures paint a dire picture for the world’s fish. And Dirk Zeller says the situation is far worse. Developed countries reliably report their commercial catches. But they miss discards and recreational fishing. Developing countries under-report small scale fishing which is often widespread along their coastlines. He…

Catalyst: ABC TV Eastern Antarctica, near Casey Station: Mark Horstman investigates. Twenty metres beneath Antarctic sea ice, divers are simulating a ‘future ocean’ – four underwater ‘labs’ are testing the impact of ocean acidification on seafloor communities.   This is no carefree summer on the coast. Scientists are braving a hidden world entombed in thick ice…

Paul D Miller – aka DJ Spooky: “Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica”   DJ Spooky incorporates live musical instruments, video displays, lighting projections and even dry ice into his “Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica” performance that took place in Savannah on Feb. 26, 2011.

CLIMARTE harnesses the creative power of the Arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change.   ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 11 April – 17 May 2015 Art, culture, and environment are areas of contemporary intersection, generating exciting explorations of aesthetic ideas and creative thinking concerning the environmental conundrums of the 21st Century. ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 is…

MARCH 16, 2015  Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica’s largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery likely explains the glacier’s extreme thinning and raises concern about its…

  In her latest animation, Lisa Roberts has brought together scientific data from Sydney Harbour and Antarctica – phytoplankton (microscopic plants) that produce every second molecule of oxygen we breathe; Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill) that stir up nutrients in the ocean to replenish new life; and models the Circumpolar Current of Antarctica that drives global climate…

Listen hear: ABC RN The Science Show – Saturday 28 February 2015 12:13PM Associate Professor in Sustainability Laura Stocker from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute Perth WA presented a seminar on the impacts of climate change on the coast of Western Australia to honours students studying visual arts at Curtin University. The seminar described sea level…

Lisa Roberts, Leader of the Living Data Program at UTS, spoke on GREEN VELVET, Eastside Radio, Sydney on 23rd February. In conversation with presenter Ruth Hessey, Lisa described how she became drawn into Marine and Antarctic Science, how she sees a synergy in arts and science collaborations as a way of broadening community understanding and more  –  including how ex Oceano may inform some of…

Living data: how art helps us all understand climate change  In a recent article for The Conversation, Dr Lisa Roberts, leader of the Living Data program at UTS, writes: Science and the arts are often polarised as incompatible ways of understanding the world. That’s not necessarily true – and what brings them together is creativity and…

Vanishing Point Showing at the Institute of Marine & Antarctic Science Exhibition Space on the Hobart waterfront from April – June 2015 Vanishing Point is an arts/science collaboration to raise awareness about the issues surrounding plastics pollution in the oceans and it’s ecological, biological and social impact. Initially the brainchild of wildlife artist Katherine Cooper,…

ABC Classic FM gave  ex Oceano – we are from the Ocean – the Ocean sustains us  its  Australian premiere broadcast in the first edition of Graham Abbott’s new Saturday evening program on 24 January.  Richard Buckham, Manager, ABC Classic FM reports: ” . . . it sounded wonderful on air, and it had a great response from…

Listen in on conversations between  composer Matthew Dewey and scientists Rob Johnson and Nick Roden as they open up the world of phytoplankton in order to inspire Matthew’s composition – in particular Movement 2 of the Symphony ex Oceano. Composer-scientist Conversation 1: Robert Johnson What am I trying to say here? -ancient, endurance, endlessness, fast and slow, life and death,…

Dr Lisa Roberts, Leader of the Living Data program at UTS, brings together her wonderful phytoplankton animation with moments from ex Oceano and continues to make the microscopic world real to us in many different ways. Visit the Living Data website to hear conversations and collaborations between artists and scientists.   Understand more about the microscopic world from which we…

“The Canadian biologist Boris Worm puts it this way: If all creatures on land were to die tomorrow, life in the ocean would be fine. If all creatures in the ocean were to die tomorrow, life on land would die as well. We air-breathers are fully dependent on marine life for keeping us alive, not…

JOHN LUTHER ADAMS Become Ocean (World Premiere) BORN: January 23, 1953, in Meridian, Mississippi;  NOW RESIDES: Fairbanks, Alaska WORK COMPOSED: 2012–13   Become Ocean is the latest realization of a remarkable new development in the work of John Luther  Adams. “My music is going inexorably from being about place to becoming place.” The work’s title…

Lynchpin is delighted to promote this paper by Jorge Ramos et al. Jorge was a Lynchpin Scholar in 2012  and was part of the Forests of the Sea project. Jorge E. Ramos1*, Gretta T. Pecl1, Natalie A. Moltschaniwskyj2, Jan M. Strugnell3, Rafael I. Leo´ n1, Jayson M. Semmens1 1 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart,…

Lynchpin featured artist, Eveline Koljin, continues her exploration of breath in her Breath of Life exhibition in Calgary, Canada. Eveline writes: I am exploring to visually express Breath and state of the art research into early lung-cancer detection. My Breath of Life lamps are hung in the Tiny gallery plinths at three separate locations within the Tiny Gallery project…

Ninna Milikin, who made many of the early Lynchpin student profiles, and Malou Zuidema who animated the Forests of the Sea 2012  project,  have come together again in another creative and imaginative cross-cultural venture.  Watch Plan Bee here – and enjoy!  

Tune in to a range of conversations that were part of the Evolving Conversations Forum, Living Data’s contribution to the Ultimo Science Festival – hear the comments and be part of an evolving discussion about ways science and art may interact to bring information in new ways.     Enjoy more forum excerpts here. The Evolving Conversations…

There are different ways of responding to the world and to issues of climate change. Faithfully recording changing landscapes and bringing far places to us through the arts is one. Zaria Forman draws large scale pastels that document Earth’s shifting landscape and the effects of progressive climate change. “Being out in nature is certainly what…

Enjoy the wonders of the microscopic world of diatoms from Klaus Kemp, the last surviving diatomist!   Filmmaker Matthew Killip brings us this glimpse of another world – an intersection between science and art.

Living Data Evolving Conversations Exhibition Ultimo Science Festival Sydney 2014 – Curators: Lisa Roberts and Anita Marosszeky assisted by Jason Benedek and Andrew Purnell. Lisa Roberts writes: From the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the East to the West, over 30 scientists and artists cross the globe in conversations about sustaining life and minimising harmful human…

Evolving Conversations: University of Technology, Sydney,  Main Entrance Foyer, 3 Sept – 20 Nov 2014 And within the Ultimo Science Festival, Sydney 3-12 Sept 2014 From the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the East to the West, over 30 scientists and artists cross the globe in conversations about sustaining life and minimising harmful human impacts. Although science is a…

Antarctica: Sea Ice, Catalyst ABC TV: Thursday, 31 July 201 Expanding sea ice is leading many to believe that global warming is not having an impact on Antarctica. The recent stranding of research vessels in unusually thick sea ice even led some to claim that climate research in this region is a waste of time. But…

BY SCIENCE NEWS STAFF 5:04PM, JULY 10, 2014 Science Ticker: Guest post by Tina Hesman Saey Ocean microbes choreograph their activities, a study in the July 11 Science suggests. Scientists already knew that photosynthetic bacteria coordinate gene activity with the sun, but marine microbiologist Edward DeLong of MIT and the University of Hawaii and colleagues now report that nonphotosynthetic ocean…

Responses to a changing planet Listen now The Science Show, Radio National: Saturday 12 July 2014 12:44PM   Who would have thought a single species could change the climate, and in such a short period of time. Gaia Vince read the constant stream of reports from journalists as news editor of Nature. She decided to get up…

  Plant-eating tropical fish species are causing serious damage to algae and kelp forests in sub-tropical and temperate regions around the world, an international team of experts warn. The findings come from a review published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which suggests that climate change is leading to ‘tropicalisation’ – the…

Are bacteria capable of producing fuel – the building blocks for many industrial processes? A few months ago the Science Show, ABC Radio National, reported on work aimed at producing useful substances from algae. See this link: Scale the trick in getting algal biofuel cost down –  8th March 2014. It seems there may be…

– after a 10-year journey through space  7 June 2014 12:05PM The mission follows up suggestions that the water on Earth was delivered during the early history of our planet by intense bombardment of comets containing water. Were the building blocks of life delivered as well? The water on Earth has a particular ratio of…

Toxic Effects of Ocean Plastic Far Greater Than Previously Thought When dead seabirds washed up in their thousands along the eastern and southern seaboards of Australia last year, biologist Dr Jennifer Lavers became worried . . . A research fellow at the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies in Hobart, Dr Lavers had been studying…

Joyce DiDonato is an American operatic lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel – she is also an artist speaking to artists in this recent speech to the Julliard School of Music. Emphasis hers. The world needs you – now, the world may not exactly realize it, but wow, does…

  Dr Lisa Roberts of the Living Data Program at UTS was recently invited to visit the Beijing City International School where she shared visualisations, animations and sonic responses to the science of climate change  – including the promotion clip for ex Oceano. Teachers lead their students in workshops to respond in ways that relate…

The man who Time Magazine has called the world’s best known economist is in Australia this week. Professor Jeffrey Sachs is a senior United Nations advisor and a force behind the UN’s millennium goals and its new Sustainable Development Goals. He has also advised many governments on economic reform and is a best selling author.…

A significant chunk of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun to disintegrate and, owing to the ice sheet’s peculiar topography (much of it lies below sea level), this process, having begun, has now also become unstoppable. “Today we present observational evidence that a large section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has gone into…

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, just north of San Diego in southern California is one of the biggest marine science institutions in the world. It is where Charles David Keeling first started measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, initially looking at seasonal variability. The Science Show’s Robin Williams interviews Director Margaret Leinen who…

The most important living organisms that play the key functions in the biosphere might not seem exciting when it comes to motion. Plants, fungi, sponges, corals, plankton, and microorganisms make life on Earth possible and do all the hard biochemical job. “Slow” marine animals show their secret life under high magnification. Corals and sponges are…

 Exploring relationships between nanostructures, properties and functions View a larger version Diatom nanotechnology has recently emerged as a new interdisciplinary area, spawning collaborations in biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, physics, chemistry, material science and engineering in the study of this extraordinary living species. Read about NanoBiotechnology: Biomimetics and Nature Inspired Nanotechnology

OxfordTORCH TORCH – Smith School ‘MIND THE ENVIRONMENTAL GAP’ Symposium This Symposium sprang from the Smith School-TORCH Humanities Seminar Series, which began in October 2012. It is based on the belief that environmental thinking – often shaped by a combinations of the physical and social sciences – would be much enriched if there were more emphasis on the…

The World Today: ABC RN  12:10:00 31/03/2014 ‘Disturbing picture’ of climate change impact on oceans in latest IPCC report A coordinating lead author of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it paints a disturbing picture of how the earth’s oceans are being affected by climate change. Professor Ove Heough-Guldberg says…

Sharing sustainability education This site represents a community of Australian tertiary educators that is supported by the Australian Government. The aim is to provide information on sustainability courses in tertiary institutions in Australia and to share innovative sustainability teaching materials. Contact for more information or register to contribute to the community. Oceanic Living Data: Visualising the global ecosystem : through our links with Living Data, Lynchpin is…

“Creativity is a learned trait, rather than an innate skill. It can be actively developed at both the individual and institutional levels . . .” Programs like Lynchpin and Living Data seek to harness the communicative energy of the arts to tell important science in new ways. The following article embraces many of the challenges we…

Lynchpin has links with the Living Data lead by Dr Lisa Roberts at UTS.  The program develops and presents visualisations that: Engage the senses  are True to science Clear in language and Surprising!   Follow the 2014 Living Data initiative 1. and 2. here – as they bring scientists and artists together in recorded conversations that encourage the…

Malou Zuidema – new animation!   Read more about the background to the Argo stop-motion animation which aims to inspire children (and adults) to engage with marine science. It is quirky, fun and informative at the same time. The animation explains what an Argo float is, how it operates and how all this data helps us…

Beyond partisan issues – For the next generation – How can we not do this? Watch Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, argue that the devastating weather events being experienced in many parts of the globe are indications  that climate change is not an issue of the future – it…

HEAR Matthew Dewy, Nick Roden and Rob Johnson in conversation with Sarah Gillam, ABC Statewide, 13 January, 2014 >ABC Symphony in Science Read the full story of The Making of a Symphony.

Hear about the Big History Project in this interview on Saturday Extra, ABC, RN. Can you imagine a simple story that weaves science and history together to give us a sense of why we are here? Big History aims to explain the evolution of our planet, from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to the…

To view the promotion piece for ex Oceano  we are from the ocean  – the ocean sustains us Matthew Dewey Symphony No 2, 2013 go to Current Students. We expect the final mix adjustments to be made within a few weeks and hope the CD and iTunes versions of the work will be available sometime in February.  Watch this…

Two articles have been published promoting ex Oceano – we are from the Ocean – the Ocean sustains us.  These can be found at The Australian Antarctic Magazine  Symphony in Science and related articles Speeding toward an acid ocean and Measuring phytoplankton from space.  The articles  feature the research of Lynchpin scholars, Nick Roden and Robert Johnson.…

ex Oceano  – we are from the ocean  – the ocean sustains us Matthew Dewey Symphony No 2, 2013 Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Prague   Those who have been following this year’s project, will know that ex Oceano  is a collaborative expression between disciplines and understandings. Over the last eighteen months, Ocean researchers expressed their…

A new paper published in The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society fills in the gaps in the UK Met Office HadCRUT4 surface temperature data set, and finds that the global surface warming since 1997 has happened more than twice as fast as the HadCRUT4 estimate. This short video abstract summarizes the study’s approach and results.

ex Oceano becomes a reality! ex Oceano is the second symphony of Australian composer, Matthew Dewey. The symphony was recorded by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in the Rudolfinum – Dvořák Hall, Prague, 24-27 September, 2013. A truly epic journey in creative ability and expressive powers took Matthew Dewey across the globe for this powerful and…

LIVING DATA EXCHANGE: CONVERSATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS Program for the Ultimo Science Festival at The Muse, ABC Foyer, UTS Living Data Atrium 12 – 21 September 2013 REMINDER – BE THERE! and be part of this exciting arts science gathering. And be part of this exciting speed-meet encounter: Art & Science Soirée: Connect, create and collaborate: Artists, creative thinkers…

 No new marine science scholarship will be offered under this program in 2014. Lynchpin will focus instead on the arts side of its arts/ocean science collaborative program, combining the  2013 Making of a Symphony project with visual arts, Antarctic and Southern Ocean footage. Please watch this space for marine science scholarships to be open for application…

Stung – On jellyfish blooms and the future of the oceans: University of Chicago Press Lisa-ann Gershwin is at Marine and Atmospheric Research, CSIRO, Hobart TAS, and is Director, Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services. Ecosystem models don’t consider jellyfish. Lisa-ann Gershwin suggests the world’s oceans have passed a silent but significant tipping point. They are on their way to a different…

from Sceptical Science: getting sceptical about global warming scepticism Quote: …. despite the fact that not all marine calcifiers are directly harmed by acidification and we don’t know exactly how bad this might turn out, enough key species are threatened (coral reefs for example) that business-as-usual fossil fuel use poses a significant threat to our…

ODEMM: Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management   Lynchpin received the following request from a researcher involved with this ODEMM project: I am a research assistant in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I am involved in a small piece of research that I am hoping you might be able to help me with. Some colleagues and I are…

  Vaclav Smil sets out to answer this question in his book Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken From Nature. Bill Gates reviews the book, and bring us some important facts – using good technology to the max! Visit The Gates Notes: Harvesting the Biosphere, book review.  

Dissolve II:  Melissa Smith 20 July – 18 August 2013:  Devonport Regional Gallery on the North West coast of Tasmania.   Melissa Smith writes:  The new works build on the Dissolve series, which advances earlier explorations into the tilt in our natural environmental balance. The catalyst for the production of this series was reading the paper,…

Understanding exactly how a warmer world drives weather wild is crucial to predicting just how bumpy a ride we’re in for.  This excellent program  explains some of the new understandings about ocean/atmosphere and other forces at work generating the series of extreme weather events being experienced around the globe. View Extreme Weather:    

The temperature record from Byrd Station, a scientific outpost in the center of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), demonstrates a marked increase of 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) in average annual temperature since 1958. The rate of increase is three times faster than the average temperature rise around the globe for the same…

New research, led by the Australian Antarctic Division, indicates serious challenges facing Antarctic krill – the primary food source for whales, seals and penguins – due to acidification in the Southern Ocean.  The data has been animated by Dr Lisa Roberts of Living Data. Read the full paper and view Dr Roberts’ animation by scrolling to…

Others around the world experiment with expressing science in new ways: Global Warming Trend and Variations Charted by Cello Daniel Crawford, a cello-playing undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, came up with a new way to describe the trend and variations that both characterize our warming climate — a solo composition, “Song of Our Warming…

For your diary: As part of the Ultimo Science Festival When:   12–21 September, 10am to 5pm Where:  The Muse Gallery, Ultimo TAFE, 651-731 Harris St, Ultimo Photosynthesis – Art from Science at the Muse: read more A dramatic art exhibition inspired by climate science. See through icy veils of mesh as art and data…

  Two years ago the Climate Commission warned that 2011-2020 is the ‘Critical Decade’ for tackling climate change. In particular, this is the Critical Decade for turning around rising emissions of greenhouse gases and putting us on the pathway to stabilising the climate system. One quarter of the way through the Critical Decade, many consequences…

While some predict peak oil will soon be the end of industrial society, others shrug it off as scaremongering. But if we are running out of oil, is intervention needed to mitigate the impact of peak oil – or will market forces and technological innovation be a sufficient response? This discussion is moderated by Antony…

Pan genome of the phytoplankton Emiliania underpins its global distribution Read full article: Nature: Published online 12 June 2013 Coccolithophores have influenced the global climate for over 200 million years1. These marine phytoplankton can account for 20 per cent of total carbon fixation in some systems2. They form blooms that can occupy hundreds of thousands of square kilometres and are…

Do the Math(s) Climate Action Hobart will be hosting a live broadcast of Bill McKibben’s “Do the Math(s)” Canberra event on Wednesday June 5 at the Centenary Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay. 7.15 for 7.30 pm. The Australian tour is the first international leg of Bill McKibben’s hugely successful ‘Do the Math(s)’ tour through the…

Daniel Morden is a professional storyteller. At the Sydney writers’ festival this week Morden gave the opening address. This little story struck a cord – it is about Truth and raises ideas about the role of the arts in telling stories about climate change:  over and over in different ways. Truth went to town. Truth walked…

Forests of the Sea is showing at University of Technology, Sydney! Follow the link to the Living Data program and read what Dr Lisa Roberts, Living Data leader, has to say about bringing a range of climate change expressions to students on campus.

Marine Plastic Pollution EAST COAST ODYSSEY People with a sense of adventure and a passion for preventing our oceans from becoming a ‘plastic soup’ are wanted to join a unique expedition. This nature tourism, scientific research and conservation project, East Coast Odyssey, will be the first expedition of its kind to tackle insidious micro-plastics in…

Atmospheric carbon dioxide level reaches historic high of 400 parts per million Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Imperial College, London If you sampled CO2 in an urban area, we would have passed 400ppm some time ago, but the Mauna Loa observatory is on a volcanic island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. CO2 mixes with…

Meet Choreographer Aimee Smith and hear her talk about the background to her new work Solastalgia | Wintering And read Professor Glenn Albrecht’s response to the work at the same site.    

About 180 miles off the coast of Haida Gawaii, an archipelago on the western shores of British Columbia, Canada, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation decided to dump 110 tons of an iron-based compound into the Pacific waters, says the CBC. The dump was part of a $2 million bid to drive a surge in salmon populations…

  Read Nature Geoscience article: The carbonate chemistry of the surface ocean is rapidly changing with ocean acidification, a result of human activities1. In the upper layers of the Southern Ocean, aragonite—a metastable form of calcium carbonate with rapid dissolution kinetics—may become undersaturated by 2050 (ref. 2). Aragonite undersaturation is likely to affect aragonite-shelled organisms, which…

Message from Ocean Planet: If you haven’t seen it already, Environment Tasmania has created an exciting new film series ‘Stories from the Sea’ based on interviews with 18 men and women from and women from around the state about our unique connection to the oceans, fishing, and how it has all changed in decades past. Every…

“….the Southern Ocean plays a more benign role in the global carbon budget: Its waters now take up about 50% of the atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, thanks in large part to the so-called “biological pump.”  Phytoplankton, tiny photosynthesizing organisms that bloom in the nutrient-rich waters of the Southern Ocean, suck up carbon…

Only once the ice begins to melt each summer does life begin to bloom in the nutrient-rich waters of the Arctic Ocean—or so scientists have thought. But life may not wait for the ice to retreat, after all.   Read: Life  Blooms Under the Arctic Ice  at Science NOW.

ACE is Australia’s largest center of Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate change research. Their research extends to include climate change impacts in Australia and Pacific.  ACE has national and international extent and reach. Hear ACE experts talk about their science.

  Visit: The Climate Commission’s Angry Summer Report The Climate Commission has received questions from the community and the media seeking to understand the influence of climate change on the recent extreme summer weather. Download The Angry Summer images here. Download The Angry Summer key facts here. This report provides a summary of the extreme weather of the 2012/13…

Why should we care about the health of the ocean? This Natural Numbers film – 01-Sardines,  highlights  statistics about part of the oceans catch.    

See the story behind and science and the intricate art process involved in the The Making of Forests of the Sea – the animation.  Read about the full year’s work that brought the animation into being at Lynchpin Scholars 2012.

Published in the Australian Antarctic Magazine, Issue 23, December 2012 New research by teams of Australian and US scientists has revealed a massive reduction in the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water found off the coast of Antarctica. Find links to this and other Southern Ocean stories in 2013’s project where IMAS PhD scientists are in…

For up to date discussion on matters Climate Change, the following may be of interest: The Carbon Brief  and Andy Revkin’s Dot Earth blog and On the use of imagery for climate change engagement: New research from universities in the US, Australia and the UK has tested how different pictures make people feel about whether…

This important report card is now available:  please visit the site. Sub-sections relevant to Lynchpin projects are: East Australian Current: what is happening; what is expected; what we are doing about it: Please link back to Forests of the Sea – the animation at our 2012 scholars page. Ocean acidification Hear Dr Will Howard and Dr Donna…

This iteration of Living Data combines the animation presented at the 2012 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, with music by VOA (Benn DeMole & Catriona Davies). The original music was composed for Oceanic Sydney and performed with dancers Caterina Mocciola & Ashley Macqueen. The title reflects the thought that we can affect change in our environment…

NEWS UPDATE! Lynchpin’s FORESTS OF THE SEA – the stop-motion animation was screened at the launch of Redmap Australia  on 13th December 2012! The stop-motion team: Marine Science PhD Candidates: Jorge Ramos, Mexico and Felipe BricenoChile with Dutch artist: Malou Zuidema. To watch the film go to: 2012 Scholars.

Those who experience space travel come to know something which is literally ‘other wordly’, and are changed by the experience. Take time to share something of their experience by watching The Overview Effect. Read more at 2013  Lynchpin Scholars.  

The Lynchpin Forests of the Sea Stop-motion Animation film will be here on site in the next few days to coincide with the launch of Redmap Australia.  Watch this space!

Breakfast, Radio National, 7th December, 2012 Hear Mark Dreyfuss, Parliamentary secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, speak about the various moves being made in many countries who are moving ahead, recognising the need to act is urgent: a range of actions being taken in at least  26 countries.  “This is the first year in a…

A strong recommendation to see this exhibition.  A marvellous collection of works, by artists working in very different mediums – a furniture maker, painter, jeweller and object artist – are brought together in a special collaboration that has given the participants freedom to explore new ideas. ” this collection of personal stories and critical reflections catalogues the…

BLUE On Tour coming to Hobart! This international film festival and conservation conversation uses the power of film to educate and inspire audiences on ocean issues. Come along to the Stanley Burbury Theatre at the UTAS Sandy Bay Campus to watch some great films and listen to some wonderful speakers. Tickets for the Friday and…

See Dr Jonica Newby take the pulse of Australia’s weather – from ocean and land temperature to sea level rise and more. As Jonica says:  I’m heading on an investigation that’s all about the simple facts. Real tidal gauges, actual temperature records. And this will be a proper weather report, going round Australia to the…

New research by teams of Australian and US scientists has found there has been a massive reduction in the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water found off the coast of Antarctica. Comparing detailed measurements taken during the Australian Antarctic program’s 2012 Southern Ocean marine science voyage to historical data dating back to 1970, scientists estimate there…

Human Dependence on Nature:  How to Help Solve the Environmental Crisis A new publication, by Haydn Washington, author of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. “Energy is life, or at least the prerequisite for life. We depend on Nature for the energy that powers the crops in our fields, the animals in our farms and…

This State of the Climate is the second paper produced by CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. It provides a summary of observations of Australia’s climate and analysis of the factors that influence it. Follow the sections: Overview Temperature Oceans Greenhouse gases Sources of Carbon Dioxide Understanding global warming Future changes References

Extract from: Sara Phillips, ABC Environment, 14 Mar 2012: For the message about climate change to be received and understood it needs to arrive in as many different forms as possible. Science, yes. But also climate change as a technological advance; a business opportunity; an economic reformation. Artists need to be recruited to paint climate…

Banksia Environmental Awards Achieving a Sustainable Australia Recognising and rewarding environmental excellence Promoting best practice principles Contributing to action-learning and education Winner across all non-business catgories for the GPT Group Community Award:   Bookend Trust, TAS

Watch our Lynchpin Scholar Profile. The scholarship supports work concerned with the chemical changes of seawater around the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory, particularly in response to human induced ocean acidification caused by carbon pollution. Nick is an accomplished cinematographer and his spectacular Antarctic footage will be used in the arts/science collaboration planned for…

Ockham’s Razor, Radio National: The Effect of Climate Change in Antarctica David Neilson is a photographer from Emerald in Victoria. David has made six trips to Antarctica between 1990 and 2009 and in this program he talks about the effect of climate change in Antarctica. Hear David’s experience and see some of the photographs that…

A strong recommendation to see this exhibition which opened last night.  A marvellous collection of works, by artists working in very different mediums – furniture maker, painter, jeweller and object artist – are brought together in a special collaboration that has given the participants freedom to explore new ideas. We learn this collection of personal stories and…

About the plankton ecology: view a short video with David Attenborough explaining a group of interacting organisms that form the ecological community that makes Original Quinton™.

Researchers have conducted the first global analysis of the health and productivity of ocean plants using a unique signal detected by NASA’s Aqua satellite. Single-celled phytoplankton fuel nearly all ocean ecosystems, serving 
as the most basic food source for marine animals. Phytoplankton 
account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth and play a 
key role in…

CSIRO scientists are observing changes in ocean temperatures, ocean chemistry and global sea levels. In this vodcast, we meet four marine scientists from CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans Flagship who are conducting research for the Australian Climate Change Science Program on the how increased carbon dioxide in the air affects our oceans. The scientists explain the…

Hear Australian oceanographer Steve Rintoul, a Southern Ocean specialist, working at CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship Hobart and the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research centre, in the first of a series of interviews from the Antarctic re-supply vessel, Aurora Australia recorded by PhD student and Lynchpin Scholar, Nick Roden early 2012: Rintoul describes the influence…

The Southern Ocean is a sponge for carbon dioxide. Hear Australian oceanographer and Southern Ocean specialist Steve Rintoul explain how the ocean absorbs CO2. A scientist at CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research centre, he was interviewed in January, 2012 aboard the Australian Government’s Antarctic re-supply vessel, Aurora Australis by PhD student and…

Watch Lynchpin Scholar Profile:  Robert Johnson This scholarship supports research into the fundamental and primary base of the ecosystem – the Southern Ocean phytoplankton, using rapid and large-scale observation of phytoplankton from space. Invisible to the naked eye, yet visible in vast biomass from outer space, the phytoplankton of the Southern Oceans have global significance…

When words and science fail, could art hold the answer to tackling climate change? Earlier in 2012, the Metro Gallery housed an exhibition involving nine of Australia’s leading artists who took on the role of problem solvers in the show Climate Change, which explored the power of art to cut through political dialogue and scientific debate. See…

sea stories:  Collected work from: Karin Beaumont, Michaye Boulter, Sally Brown, Linda Fredheim Curated by Helen Norrie On this island, stories from and of the sea are shared and pervasive. In 2010, 4 artists were invited to collaborate and develop work for the Alcorso Foundation. Despite diverse practices and different backgrounds, the ensuing conversations, experimentation and…

Polly Higgins is a barrister, international lawyer and award winning author of Eradicating Ecocide. Book number 2, Earth is our Business, was published in May 2012. Her proposal to the United Nations for Ecocide to be made an international law has taken her across the world. Her wish is for all Ecocides to end by 2020.  Find out more about WISH20.

Cormac Cullinan has practised, taught and written about environmental law and policy since 1992. He says that there is a fundamentally misconceived belief that humans are separate from and superior to nature, and that the single and most important thing to consider for our survival is how to re-think our understanding of law and governance…

AUSMEPA makes life easier for school teachers who teach curriculum subjects about the marine environment. AUSMEPA provides FREE educational resources on its website to help teachers plan and undertake a unit of work about key marine environmental issues, including climate change and stormwater pollution. To find out more about AUSMEPA’s FREE website units of workclick…

Living Data invites you to our biggest presentation yet and it’s FREE! Oceanic Sydney:   Sunday 14th October at Customs House, Sydney:  From 8-9 pm. Immerse yourself in scientific data within a curious inversion of terrestrial and marine environments: Watch out for giant krill and Neptune’s necklace. What’s happening in the oceans?

Tom Griffiths is the W K Hancock Professor of History at the Australian National University and has written a history of Antarctica entitled Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica. In January this year he joined the centennial voyage to Mawson’s huts in Antarctica. Tom’s books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics…

Lynchpin hosts Lewa Pert’s film Forests of the Sea, featuring the work of Dutch artist, Malou Zuidema, for the Hobart City Council’s Urban Box Project.  Lewa’s Giant Kelp Honours research at IMAS during 2011 underpins her film of this Community Arts Project as a way of drawing attention to the ecological significance of, and changes to, the…

spectra | symposium of art and science The Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) is hosting the imaging symposium SPECTRA 2012 in Canberra, Australia, 2-6 October 2012. Contemporary visualising and optical technologies and techniques for analysis, data management and imaging have radically changed the nature of art and science practices and the status of images in both fields.…

Art & About Sydney presents the Oceanic Living Data installation/ performance that resulted from collaborations between animator Lisa Roberts (Visiting Fellow, Design and Environmental Science, UTS), performance artists Caterina Mocciola and Ashley Macqueen, Lawrence Wallen (Head of Design, UTS) and Martina Doblin (Senior Research Fellow, Climate Change Cluster, Faculty of Environmental Science, UTS). Performance: Customs…

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. Intuitive imaging of data – see  the example NASA 131year global temperature record.

The large collaborative project begun in 2012 between Matthew Dewey, composer,  and PhD candidates Nick Roden and Rob Johnston, will continue in 2013.  To read about the project please go to Current Scholars and scroll down the page to 2012 Project 2.  This is an extensive creative venture in sound and image and no new scholarships will be awarded…

Please accept our invitation to the next Living Data presentation: For those of you who can’t come we invite you to help us assess the impact of our efforts by looking at this series of images and answering four questions. Please write your answers in the Reply box on the Blog to have your words…

Scientists at Nassa admitted they thought satellite readings were a mistake after images showed 97% surface melt over four days. Follow this article in the Guardian.    

Combining stories, hypotheses, data and iconography Sunday 19 August, 1 – 4pm at The Muse Come to the Form and see live performances. Meet and hear contributing artists and scientists. Scientists include William Gladstone and Martina Doblin (UTS), So Kawaguchi (AAD) and Haydn Washington (University of New South Wales). READ MORE! AND ALSO – VISIT THE Art from Science ANIMATING CHANGE Exhibition Thursday…

Exciting news – positive links!    ART FROM SCIENCE Exhibition: Our positive and varied links and connections in the arts/science field come together in this exciting exhibition.   Lynchpin project mentor, Lisa Roberts of Living Data,  and Lynchpin Patron, Nigel Helyer, the wonderful Dr Sonique, along with artist Christine McMillan and others, feature in this important exhibition during the…

The Cape Farewell Project – the cultural response to climate This year Cape Farewell’s exhibition Carbon 12 is a project which has a collaborative relationship with Électricité de France, a nuclear energy company, which provides the exhibition space.  The CARBON 12 exhibition opened in Paris on 3 May at the Espace Foundation EDF. The exhibition encompasses biodiversity, atmospherics…

    Award winning Australian artist, Wendy Sharpe, traveled to Antarctica as a guest of the Mawson’s Huts Foundation as part of the Centenary celebrations  in January 2012.  Watch the interview with Wendy made for the Foundation by Nick Roden (Lynchpin Scholar 2012):   Wendy speaks about the experience of being in the hut itself…

At the 25th Anniversary Australian Geographic Society Awards in Sydney on 20 June 2012, the Bookend Trust was named Conservationist of the Year – congratulations Bookend!      

Vox on the Rox makes its debut! Conservatorium Recital Hall, Hobart, 27th April – the first in a series of concerts which will explore the marine environments and creatures of the Southern Ocean.  Extensive and extremely complex datasets collected by southern elephant seals diving under Antarctic Ice, or transiting across the Southern Ocean, represent a considerable…

Only once the ice begins to melt each summer does life begin to bloom in the nutrient-rich waters of the Arctic Ocean—or so scientists have thought. But life may not wait for the ice to retreat, after all. Scientists visiting the continental shelf of the Chukchi Sea between Siberia and Alaska last July discovered a…

New! Living Data contributes to the 2012 Antarctic Treaty meeting in Hobart, 11-17 June:  view the installation here and read more about Living Data at Visual Arts.

Karin Beaumont and Vicki West exhibition at 146 ArtSpace 31 May to 28 June 2012 Watch Karin Beaumont and Vicki West talk about their work for this exhibition at Seaweed Sophistication ABC 7.30 Report Tasmania:  1 June 2012

An innovative program of animation has been developed by the Department of Primary Industry of Victoria. Victoria is well known for its variable climate. From year to year, four global climate processes vary their behaviour, potentially resulting in wetter or dryer seasons. Explore ‘The Climatedogs‘ and learn how these four drivers work by herding rain towards…

11 to 20 June 2012 Learn more

Listen to Professor Steve Rintoul on Radio National AM Deep water on the floor of the Southern Ocean is the coldest and most dense in the world, and has a big influence on how the earth adapts to becoming warmer. But new research indicates the amount of deep water is decreasing, which could have big…

Latitude 146 ArtSpace  – Karin Beaumont and Vicki West 31 May to 28 June 2012 Latitude is a collaborative project between marine biologist and artist Karin Beaumont and Aboriginal artist Vicki West, which explores their personal and shared connections to Tasmania‟s coastal environments.