A composer, audio engineer, sound artist and School of Music graduate student, Megan Harton was the fifth artist-in-residence in this continuing partnership between Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts. During their residency, they used their background in music technology to explore the concept of “solastalgia”: emotional distress caused by the disruption of familiar landscapes due to environmental change.

The result was September’s week-long installation solastalgia [soon to be what once was], which was held at UVic’s Audain Gallery in the Visual Arts building, and blended art, science and environmental activism. The exhibit invited visitors to reflect on the impact of climate change, memory and place through the integration of scientific data from ONC’s ocean observatories with different artistic mediums, including video, soundscapes, experimental photography and nostalgic retro iconography.

In addition to this exhibit, Harton also organized a well-attended corresponding panel discussion featuring themself plus 2023 ONC Artist-in-Residence Neil Griffin, ONC Indigenous Community Liaison and filmmaker Pieter Romer and ONC Impact & Capacity Development Manager Dwight Owens.

A unique opportunity

“[The residency] was really positive and enriching, and unlike anything I’ve done,” reflects Harton. “I’ve done ecologically themed art before, but getting to collaborate with so many people was new. It was a unique opportunity to work with industry experts in ocean science on a project like this.”

Harton also appreciated ONC’s inherently interdisciplinary nature, including the chance to connect with Indigenous and community liaisons. “They’re the ones who have to share a lot of scientific information with their various communities, so that really helped me think about how to absorb information and reframe it into my artistic practice.”

In addition to their exhibition and talk, Harton also had the opportunity to attend two different conferences and virtually present their work at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in Washington, DC in December 2024. “It’s really been interesting to network and make my work known in all these different avenues.”

Renamed for 2025 as the ArtScience Fellowship, this program was originally initiated by Kim Juniper, ONC’s late Chief Scientist, whose leadership and transdisciplinary approaches continue to inspire many in the ArtScience space. Previous artists with this continuing graduate student partnership include Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2020) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2018).

There is a call now out for graduate student applications for the 2025 ArtScience Fellowship (closing December 23).

Advice for future applicants

Harton’s advice for future applicants includes fully embracing the opportunity to collaborate with ONC’s experts.

“The first bit of time in the position, you’re just absorbing so much information about what they’re doing [at ONC], meeting people and making as many connections as you can,” they reflect. “Having a spirit of collaboration and trying to distill ONC’s knowledge through an artistic lens could open up different possibilities that [future applicants] wouldn’t be able to achieve by themselves.”

Harton also encourages other graduate students to take a flexible approach to their application proposals. “My original proposal did shift around over the course of four months — there were things that sparked my interest that just didn’t end up making it into the installation — but it wasn’t like I was working from a blueprint to achieve my results.”

One example is ocean acidification: while Harton’s original idea was to focus on the concept of solastalgia through retro objects, they didn’t realize acidification’s threat until they began meeting with the ONC team — which inspired them to add a different aspect to their installation.

“When I started to process how acidic the oceans are becoming, I began considering adding an experimental photographic technique called ‘souping film’, where you immerse undeveloped film in liquids with different acidity,” said Harton.

Harton then created different “soups” — including pickle brine, lime juice, vitamin C tablets and apple cider, as well as more ocean-specific ingredients like kelp, seaweed and deep-sea saltwater collected by ONC scientists during one of their offshore research missions — which, when developed, resulted in a series of visual distorted images that were then exhibited as part of the installation.

A true learning experience

Looking back, Harton is clearly pleased with their residency experience. “This was my first big in-person installation: I completed my undergraduate degree and started developing my artistic practice during the pandemic, so most of that was online. Creating something that people could actually visit in a physical space was new for me, as was watching people connect with different things in different ways.”

Ultimately, Harton is grateful for ONC’s encouragement to tackle new opportunities through the residency. “It's really been interesting to do these other things, to network and make my work known through different avenues.”