Sea Jellies: Next Generation is an interactive video installation by local artist Dr. Deborah Forbes. This immersive digital experience will absorb the viewer, transporting them to a realm of wonder and intrigue. As you enter the gallery you encounter an underwater kingdom of peace, digitally submerged. Through video footage captured at the Vancouver aquarium, Sea Jellies: Next Generation intends to provoke feelings of connectedness to the natural world, providing a sensation you are swimming among them.

Sea Jellies, or more commonly called Jellyfish are free swimming marine animals found all over the world. They have adapted to living on earth for over 500 million years, currently at a point of overpopulation due to their extraordinary ability to adapt to warming oceans. Dr. Forbes writes, “I am becoming increasingly troubled that humans are so self-absorbed that even though they have caused the oceans to warm, we are troubled by another species that constantly changes/modifies/adapts?”. The artist intends for viewers feel part of the underwater world by being “inside” it. Through this experience, Dr. Forbes hopes the audience will garner awareness of the impacts humanity is having on our environment, and how warming oceans will impact global health.

Sea Jellies: Next Generation incorporates video, metal sculptures and a sound scape created by internationally renowned musicians the Sakamoto Whitley Duo. Dr. Forbes explains, “My intention is to create an exquisitely beautiful, shifting world of waves intermixed with sculptural and live human figures, suffused with the sound response”. Through sound, projection, and shadows generated by the viewer, Sea Jellies: Next Generation becomes “a moving lived experience”. This immersive experience may leave you wondering; the sea Jellies have adapted for millennia; will we be able to do the same?

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