Ocean science meets art in new visiting artist program

Bay Area sculptor and installation artist Mark Baugh-Sasaki will be working with Stanford ocean scientists over the coming months as the inaugural Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Visiting Artist.

Baugh-Sasaki, a San Francisco native and Stanford alumnus, has focused many of his sculptures and large-scale installations on the relationships between people and the natural world. During his residency he will work with Stanford researchers who are examining a 4-meter-long core of Southern Ocean sediment formed over more than 1,000 years. The team is investigating the core’s fossilized snapshot of Southern Ocean ecosystems when industrial whaling nearly eradicated blue whales – the largest animals in Earth’s history – over a 70-year span during the 20th century. 

“I am grateful to be given the opportunity to return to Stanford to work with scientists and materials that provide a window into the history of the environment of the Southern Ocean, and in the larger context of our world,” Baugh-Sasaki said. “Much of my practice is rooted in research and I’m excited to collaborate with Stanford researchers to explore the intersections of personal, anthropological, geological, and ecological layers of place.”

Shifting hearts and minds

Baugh-Sasaki’s residency is sponsored by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Stanford’s Office of the Vice President for the Arts (VPA) to pilot an ongoing program for visiting artists. Recognizing that addressing sustainability challenges will require multidisciplinary efforts, VPA and school leaders are exploring how art can work with science to advance solutions. 

“Creating a sustainable future requires not only new tools and techniques, but novel approaches to shifting hearts and minds to both understand the crisis we face and grapple with the resulting climate anxiety it provokes,” said Deborah Cullinan, Stanford’s vice president of the arts. “Human problems can’t be solved by science and technology alone. Artists have a crucial role in making this transformative change.” 

Baugh-Sasaki has long focused on the intersection of the natural and human-made. “His practice encompasses changing systems, altered landscapes, hybridity, and cultural histories of place. The resulting work invites viewers to engage with these concepts on a visceral level,” said Ellen Oh, Stanford’s director of interdisciplinary arts. “Mark’s approach, coupled with his experience working in public art and knowledge of the Stanford community, make him particularly well suited for this residency.”

Informing ocean restoration 

Baugh-Sasaki is keenly interested in the project’s opportunities to challenge preconceived notions of people’s place and role in the landscape. “Our environment is a repository of human experience and events – we can’t separate ourselves from it,” he said. “By understanding what shapes our perception of contemporary landscapes we will better understand ourselves, our connection to each other, and how we impact our world.”

During his residency, Baugh-Sasaki will meet with ocean scholars including Mehr Kumar, BS/BA ’20, a life sciences researcher at Hopkins Marine Station; Elizabeth Hadly, a professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences and of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; and professor Rob Dunbar and associate professor Jeremy Goldbogen in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Oceans Department. 

One of the project’s goals is to inform ocean restoration by reconstructing its history. The residency will culminate in a finished work to be unveiled at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, which funded Dunbar, Goldbogen, and Hadly’s analysis of Southern Ocean sediment cores through its Environmental Venture Projects program. 

“We could not be more pleased to join with the Office of the Vice President for the Arts to support this innovative and multidisciplinary approach to better understanding human impact on the environment,” said Dean Arun Majumdar. “The visiting artist program will expand our vision of how we conduct research and teach about sustainability, and the finished work will not only inspire and educate our own university community but also foster similar endeavors far beyond our campus.”

The new program joins a growing number of opportunities for art and the humanities to augment science on campus and beyond. 

“We have seen an increasing number of artists grappling with issues of climate change through their practice as well as the establishment of organizations focused on art and sustainability,” Oh said. “This leads us to believe that the time is right to invest in new structures and platforms that can further demonstrate the power and impact that art-science research and practice can have in the world.”

Goldbogen is also an associate professor (by courtesy) of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Hadly is the Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professor in Environmental Biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Dunbar is also the W.M. Keck Professor, a professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Majumdar is the Chester Naramore Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor, and a senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy. He is also a professor of mechanical engineering and, by courtesy, of materials science and engineering in the School of Engineering, and a professor in the Photon Science Directorate. He is a senior fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution.