Responses by Cristina Tarquini, creative director, Studio Crtq.

Background: What can jellyfish teach us about climate change in the Mediterranean Sea? Acidifying waters, rising temperatures, lack of oxygen and a decrease in natural predators are enabling them to thrive in our seas. Jellyfish blooms are a symptom of the stressors we are inflicting upon our ocean.

This data-driven project is part of Heartbeat of the Earth, a series of online artworks created in collaboration between artist, the Google Arts & Culture Lab and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Eight artists have used key findings from a landmark UN report and data from scientific institutions to bring awareness to various climate change–related topics.

Design core: This project uses a visual style that highlights the beauty and fragility of marine life, an aesthetic that stimulates the imagination of viewers and draws them into this incredible marine story. Diving into different locations in the Mediterranean, the user swims through clouds of jellies and discovers how the environment they live in has changed.

Favorite details: Jellyfish are a natural data visualizer, being quirky messengers from the sea. I love that the experience breaks down their message and helps us understand the imbalance we’ve introduced into the marine environment. We collaborated with Fabien Lombard from Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, to understand the science behind this booming (or blooming) phenomenon, and make it easy and fun for any audience to witness.

Challenges: Definitely finding the science, as it required some real digging into data to uncover. Scientific literature about jellyfish was very hard to find at first, so collaborating with Fabien was key. We also had only four weeks from kick off to delivery, so collating the research, approving it, conceptualizing the experience and developing the site all had to happen very fast. It was worth it though—we really love jellyfish!

New lessons: Jellyfish have become the most exciting animal on the planet for us. They have mastered adaptation to such an extent that they are capable of living forever, they can hide in plain sight, and—believe it or not—they are the most venomous animal. They inspire so many fields like chemistry, genetics and robotics. In fact, a jellyfish has even won a Nobel Prize, and another has been sent to the Moon! But even though jellyfish are tough and can withstand extreme conditions, they’re not invincible and would ultimately perish in the uninhabitable place that we’re transforming the sea into.

Navigation structure: It was important to explore different climate change effects separately, like the drop in oxygen levels and the acidification of the water. These make up the chapters of the experience. In each chapter, two or three jellyfish blooms explain what is happening in key hotspots of the Mediterranean. And, of course, to start and end talking about jellyfish themselves makes the user empathize with such incredible creatures while spotlighting the Mediterranean regions.

Technology: GLSL, React, three.js and WebGL. And tons and tons of scientific papers that came from our collaboration with Fabien.