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A little-known but crucial agent of carbon removal from the atmosphere – the siphonophore that lives in what is known as the sea’s twilight zone – will be highlighted in a video projection from a Danish art collective during UN Climate Week.

The siphonophore is a strangely beautiful creature. Like the coral reef, it is made up of discrete parts known as zooids that perform specific functions. “Some are digesters, some are swimmers, some are proliferative,” said Heidi Sosik, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “But it all comes together. It’s an interesting metaphor for humanity to ponder.”

Next week, September 21-24, a siphonophore will perform a sinuous, pulsating dance every night from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm, in a projection of light more than 500 feet above the entire northern façade of the UN Secretariat building. The video “Vertical Migration”, in which delegates will discuss how to tackle human-induced climate change, aims to draw attention to the animal’s deep-sea decarbonization system.

“This is a meeting where world leaders meet and decide the future of the planet,” Rasmus Nielsen, one of the three founders of the politically minded Danish art collective Superflex, who produced the video, said in a Zoom interview. “Looks like they forgot to invite someone. It’s like a birthday party and you forget to invite your uncle.” What has been overlooked, Nielsen said, are all other species whose fate is dependent on human activities.

Superflex chose to highlight the siphonophore as a representative of the mesopelagic zone of the sea, known as the twilight zone, which receives little or no sunlight. The inhabitants of the twilight zone are eaten by flashy creatures such as tuna and swordfish. But just as important as consumers are their own activities, which remove the carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. “They emerge at night when they can hide from their predators and eat carbon-rich organisms, and when the sun rises they sink to hide in this deep twilight zone,” Sosik said.

Two to six billion tons of carbon each year it withdraws into the twilight zone, where it is stored indefinitely. That’s several times the amount of carbon emitted by all the cars in the world. “The carbon pump we’re talking about is extremely important,” said Peter de Menocal, director of the oceanographic institution. “If this were eliminated, atmospheric carbon dioxide would increase by more than 50 percent. These organisms make the earth habitable.”

“This is a very humble call to action, showing a humble organism that demonstrates the importance of cooperation.”

The artists at Superflex encountered the siphonophore in the Coral Sea off the northeast coast of Australia in 2019 and led an expedition sponsored by TBA21-Academy, a 10-year-old non-profit dedicated to deepening awareness and ocean conservation in Europe through art. . “One evening, a marine biologist took us on a blackwater dive,” Nielsen said. “You go in the middle of the night and witness this huge migration that happens every night as these creatures come to the surface. They don’t have arms or two eyes, and they’re not afraid of you. They come to you right away. You’ve never seen anything like it.”

When Superflex was asked to create a piece for Climate Week by ART 2030, a Danish non-profit organization to include artists around the world to highlight the UN agenda for sustainable development, they thought of the siphonophore. “We felt a strong sense of friendship with these creatures, which is weird because they’re not like a golden retriever,” Nielsen said. “We’re stuck with pandas and elephants in a Disney movie. We decided, let’s invite this, an unusual guest. It’s like all the sci-fi movies you see happening every night in the world.”

Drawing a siphonophore is a challenge. “Sometimes they come and stick to your glasses,” Nielsen said. “Sometimes they’re five feet long and break when you get close. They’re like tissue.” Nielsen and colleague Jakob Fenger would spend an hour in blackwater diving tied to a drop line to capture a few seconds of footage (Bjornstjerne Christiansen, the third Superflex manager, was unable to make the trip that year.)

Based on their video along with videos made by other divers, they designed animated simulations to create a 20-minute track that would run in a continuous loop. “We did something that combines reality and animation to make you feel like you’re close to the creatures,” Nielsen said. “You see a change of perspective in the movie. At the beginning we look at the siphonophore and then it turns and you almost see the world from the animal’s point of view. The siphonophore has no eyes. How can you see the world from the perspective of the siphonophore? Through your imagination.”

In parallel with “Vertical Transition”, Superflex has created another “Inter-Species Assembly” to be installed. In Central Park near Naumburg Bandshell. It is a 46-metre circle bounded by seven large slabs of pink marble with a contract letter engraved on them. “By entering the stone circle, you are accepting a contract to be idle for at least five minutes,” Fenger said. “To understand other creatures on the planet, you have to be quiet and listen.” Superflex chose pink marble as a nod to the coral algae that coral polyps eat and color a reef. “Marble will stay there much longer than we do,” Christiansen said.

Although the existence of siphonophores has been known for a long time, research into their behavior is in the early stages. “Part of the reason it’s so difficult to study is because we traditionally learn about deep-sea creatures by throwing nets,” Sosik said. “Something like a siphonophore cannot survive when caught in a net.” His project in Woods Hole has developed and activated a slow-moving robot called Mesobot that prowls the depths of the ocean. Because the mesobot generates very little turbulence, the siphonophore doesn’t think it’s a threat and run away. The research team also uses shadowgraph images that analyze the bending of light rays colliding with gelatinous organisms. “We can drop the cameras and shoot 15 frames per second for hours,” he said. “They’re incredibly beautiful when they’re in their habitat.”

The enormous amount of organic matter in the twilight zone has attracted the attention of commercial fishermen who can harvest it for the production of fishmeal and krill oil and fish oil used in aquaculture. “Humans have a history of overexploiting protein resources in the seas,” Sosik said. International cooperation is necessary if it is to be preserved, as most of the twilight zone lies outside its territorial waters.

By shining the “Vertical Migration” in the Secretariat building, Superflex brings to light a huge and vital phenomenon that remains in the dark. “Sometimes research that is peer-reviewed and ends up in an academic paper has very limited impact on a wider audience or reality,” said Markus Reymann, TBA21-Academy director, who partnered with ART 2030 on the project. “This is the first time we’re doing anything on this scale. The flamboyant, splashy, gigantic monumental thing is an exception, an opportunity to convey something iconic.”

While the technology used to produce “Vertical Migration” is new, the aim is to achieve what artists have traditionally sought – to illuminate a life feature that is typically overlooked. “The oldest trick in the art book is people falling for something they’re not aware of,” Nielsen said. “We hope people will stay for two minutes and start empathizing with the siphonophore. It’s like a fascinating alien you can enjoy from afar.”

And if conservation-conscious creators find their own way, that delight will raise a public awareness that will motivate the building’s delegates to take steps to stop climate change and protect the world.