The Installation
It’s Always Ourselves We Find in the Sea is an immersive sound installation that explores our cultural relationships with water.
All human societies, traditions and mythologies bring us tales about water, the element without which we cannot survive, but which can wreak destruction on our communities and ways of life. With the changing climate and incipient water-related crises – whether that be too much water or not enough – we need more than ever to think about both our planet and our species as an interdependent and inseparable whole. Water connects us all. Read more…
The Soundscape
Using ambisonic, 360-degree audio design, It’s Always Ourselves We Find in the Sea is an immersive composite soundscape of water myths, legends, music and sounds. Martyn Ware, Illustrious and Sound Technology partner KEF have collaborated to create a three-dimensional sound experience, offering the spatial realism of binaural headphones but without physical headsets. Read more…
The Artists
The separate elements of the installation are designed by three artists: Martyn Ware, Oscar Blustin and Anna Söderblom. The team first met in Venice, Italy, in the aftermath of the devastating 2019 flooding. They began exploring the city’s complex dependency on water, how the rhythm of the tides influences every aspect of life in Venice, and how the incipient climate crises will increasingly impact the survivability of sea-level cities around the world. Read more…
The Exhibitions
It’s Always Ourselves We Find in the Sea was shown at London’s Saatchi Gallery in October 2024, as part of Focus Art Fair. The installation premiered at the Magazzino Gallery of Palazzo Contarini Polignac in April-May 2022, just meters from the Accademia Gallery in Dorsoduro, Venice. It has since been shown at Forest of Imagination in 2023, at the Bath Assembly Rooms, and at London gallery 49 Tanner Street.
