Immersive Exhibition

Seaphony - Life on Planet Ocean

The sea celebrated its premiere in Berlin: in spring 2022, OCEANS21 revitalised the Alte Münze in Berlin Mitte with expansive immersive installations and interactive mixed reality formats. Ambisonic soundart, audiovisual installations, virtual reality artworks, binaural audio sculptures and interdisciplinary arts & science talks flooded the historic Alte Münze and transformed the former money factory into an expansive oceanic underwater cosmos.

Seaphony. Life on Planet Ocean - an invitation to engage with the sea and its inhabitants with all the senses, to embark on a journey through this still largely unexplored cosmos and rediscover its fascination as well as experience its dangers from a wide variety of perspectives. The exhibition captured the magic of the ocean with the means of art and moulded it into sensual experiences. Also in the hope of fuelling motivation to protect the largest habitat on earth.
As a part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development it was supported by Prof Dr Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven as patron.

Exhibition documentary

Seaphony. Life on Planet Ocean

"Seaphony is a moving experience and an urgent appeal to push for the protection of the oceans"
arte journal
„Oceans are the largest and most sound-rich habitat on the planet.“
Chris Watson, sound recordist, artist & composer
„..the installation is one of the very few ways that people can really engage with full three-dimensional sound.“
Tony Myatt, sound artist, engineer & academic
"I try and disturb the sense of space as much as possible. You don’t really know when the room ends and where it starts. The dimensions create this ocean vastness."
Theresa Baumgartner, visual artist
"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when clearly it is Ocean."
Arthur C. Clarke, Author
"It's about new forms of empathy for the oceans and, in turn, new collaborations between arts and science."
Antje Boetius, marine biologist, director of AWI Institute
"Art and marine conservation in dialogue - the exhibition impressively shows the fascination, but also the threat posed to the oceans by climate change, globalisation and consumption."
Nadja Ziebarth, Friends of the Earth Germany,

Successful World premiere

The Sea in Berlin

Premiere in May 2022 in Berlin

In spring 2022, the exhibition attracted more than 10.000 visitors to the halls of the Alte Münze in Berlin Mitte from 6 May to 8 June. It started with the 500 sqm Seaphony installation, an acoustic underwater journey around the world lasting about 50 minutes. The journey was illustrated on a wall-sized map, the 22-channel sound system for the 360-degree spatial sound (ambisonic) as well as the light installation were specially designed for this space. Further stations were the 18-minute intensive virtual reality experience The Bone, staged in a boat, and OCEAN.WORLD.MODULES, 12 binaurally produced audio tracks by wittmann/zeitblom with a total length of about 45 minutes, to be experienced via headphones on seating sculptures by Berlin artist Isabel Ott.

A separate room was dedicated to the touring exhibition "Ocean" by the BUND Bund für und Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland.
Special offers for schools, discussion rounds with representatives of BUND and artist talks moderated by Britta Steffenhagen accompanied the exhibition.

Artists and team

The minds behind the exhibition

Ina Krüger and Diana Schniedermeier - the minds behind OCEANS21 have been working at the interface of art, technology and science for years. Their exhibition Seaphony - Life on Planet Ocean focuses on current projects on the theme of the ocean, which they have implemented together with artists from different fields:

Composer, sound artist, engineer and field recordist Chris Watson (Seaphony)
Sound artist, sound engineer and Prof. of music and sound recording Tony Myatt (Seaphony)
Visual artist Theresa Baumgartner (Seaphony)
Artist Michelle-Marie Letelier (The Bone)
The author and composer duo wittmann/zeitblom (OCEAN.WORLD.MODULES)
Berlin artist Isabel Ott (Funky Seats)
Illustrator Jaroslav Kaschtalinski (One Ocean Map)

Support & partners

We would like to thank our supporters and partners who have contributed to the realisation of the exhibition:

Interactive Media Foundation, radioeins, BUND Naturschutz e.V., Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Alte Münze, GEO, Ask Helmut, Tranzept

More projects

  • Notes from the Sea Floor - Installation

    New at Gasometer Oberhausen: dive into a special sound space on an underwater journey from the mouth of the Rhine to the icy depths of the Antarctic.
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  • Seaphony - Sound & Light Installation

    How does the sea sound underwater? A symphonic journey through the sound world of the seas as a spatial sound and light art experience.
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  • Ocean.World.Modules - Audio Sculptures

    Dive into an ocean of sound and stories. Fragmented, interwoven, provocative story particels inspire to reflect the ocean as a political, poetic and philosophical space. A binaural leap into the measured infinity.
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  • The Bone - A virtual Reality Art Installation

    How are the living conditions of a wild salmon reflected in contrast to those of its farmed relatives? What does it reveal about our relationship towards nature? An immersive experience.
    find out more

  • The Story Behind The Bone - documentary

    How did the idea for The Bone come about? The cinematic portrait of the project approaches the origin, intention and background of the VR artwork.
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OCEANS21 gGmbH
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10719 Berlin / Germany


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