Tag Archives: bioluminscent sea turtle

An art initiative that enlists artists, curators, and scientists to work on environmental issues and discovered bioluminescent turtles*

Thanks to Mark Dwor of the Canadian Academy for Independent Scholars for sending me a link to this piece about bioluminescent sea turtles by Hili Perlson in a Sept. 29, 2015 posting on artnet news,

A marine biologist studying coral reefs off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific made an amazing discovery this week when he noticed a “bright red-and-green spaceship” approaching his way in the pitch dark waters. The glowing underwater body turned out to be a hawksbill sea turtle, a critically endangered species.

The scientist, David Gruber, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, was on site as part of a TBA21 Academy expedition, an art initiative that enlists artists, curators, and scientists to work on projects related to environmental issues. In 2002, art collector Francesca von Habsburg founded Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21), which has long been dedicated to ambitious projects that defy categorizations.

Here’s what the ‘spaceship turtle’ looked like,

SpaceshipTurtleI encourage you to read Perlson’s piece in its entirety or to check out her blog posting for the embedded National Geographic video profiling the discovery.

For anyone interested in TBA 21, there’s this site homepage which seems focussed on the art/science projects and this site webpage which seems to be focussed on the organization’s art museum in Vienna, Austria.

*”and discovered bioluminescent turtles” added to headline Oct. 9, 2015 at 0950 hours PST.