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Marine Cave Benthic Terrazzo seeks to investigate and communicate the perceptual and practical problems that arise in marine ecosystem preservation by inviting the subject of the ocean inside our terrestrial homes and exploring ecosemiotic links and physical interactions between human homes and marine caves. Hypercomf, an artist team from Tinos Island, researching the landscape of the seabed as a stage of anthropocentric culture’s undoing, collaborates on this project with marine biologist Markos Digenis from the island of Crete who is studying the marine cave benthos of Greece.

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Their collaborative project includes a field study of the marine cave ecosystems of Chania, providing the first holistic documentation of these isolated environments. Photoquadrat documentation of the cave wall biodiversity and sediment sample analysis from the cave floor will inform the production of a sustainable design proposal inspired by the traditional “terrazzo” flooring technique, altered to make use of collected marine plastics.

Marine Caves Benthic Terrazzo, Hypercomf (GR), Markos Digenis (GR), Credit: Thanos Dailianis

Marine Caves Benthic Terrazzo, Hypercomf (GR), Markos Digenis (GR), Credit: Markos Digenis

Hypercomf is a multidisciplinary artist identity, founded in Athens, Greece, in 2017. Based between the city of Athens and Tinos island in the Cyclades, Hypercomf has developed an international practice, producing location, site and time specific projects and activations. The team focuses on targeted collaborations with individuals, communities and locations ranging from musicians to scientists and community choirs to urban rooftop pigeon keepers. Markos Digenis , based in Heraklion, Greece and formerly a chemist, now works as a marine biologist completing his postgraduate studies in Environmental Biology at the Department of Biology of University of Crete. He is an autonomous Caver at the Speleological Club of Crete and a Rescue Diver. His research focuses on the gradation of benthic communities of hard substrate inside marine caves as well as on the spatial distribution patterns of indigenous and alien species in the cave environment.

Credits

A project by artist Hypercomf and marine biologist Markos Digenis for STUDIOTOPIA residency program hosted by Onassis Stegi.
This Journey is presented in the framework of STUDIOTOPIA and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.