Tag Archives: Cabo Pulmo National Park

Art/science project (Clipperton) in Mexico

This art/science project (Clipperton Project) is taking place off Mexico’s Pacific coast. From the Feb. 29, 2012 news item on Physorg.com,

Twenty artists and scientists from eight countries set sail Thursday [March 1, 2012] for Clipperton Island, an isolated French atoll off Mexico’s Pacific coast, to investigate effects of climate change and the island’s history.

Named after British pirate John Clipperton, the uninhabited island, also known as the “Island of Passion,” is some 2.3 square miles (six square kilometers) in size, has no drinkable water and is home to poisonous crabs and rats.

Here’s more about the Clipperton Project from a Feb. 25, 2011 news item on Huffington Post,

The Clipperton Project is a multi-disciplinary, four-nation arts and science project which aims to take some of the very best practitioners in the arts and sciences from Mexico, the United Kingdom, the United States and France on an expedition to the forgotten island of Clipperton in October 2011.

The participants will then produce work based on the history of the atoll (specifically Mexico’s damned colony of 1917) and its ecological, geological and human history in order to paint a cross-cultural portrayal of this unique island in the middle of the Pacific, displaying its work at some of the most important forums in these countries between 2011 and 2014.

I gather from the item on the Huffington Post that this expedition has been rescheduled at least once. I’m glad to see they’ve been able to pull it off.

The latest news from the expedition organized by Jonathan Bonfliglio (from http://www.clippertonproject.com/ Note: this looks like the home page so it might not always feature the latest news and images but the Expeditions webpage is sure to feature the most up-to-date information live from the ship.),

The team has arrived in Cabo Pulmo National Park. They will be spending the day there with the local community and will be involved in a series of events in association with Greenpeace México. The events are intended to promote the fascinating story of this threatened marine reserve. Accompanying them on this leg of the journey are TV Azcteca (Mex), France 24 (France) and National Geographic (international).

One of the latest images from the expedition,

Clipperton Island on Day 2 (March 2, 2012) of Clipperton Island art/science project

ETA June 26, 2013: A commenter has noted that [this] is not an image of Clipperton Island. In reviewing the project website’s Gallery of images, I’ve not been able to find this picture and am at a loss to explain this error.

Sometimes you just have to love the internet. One minor question, why aren’t there any Canadians on this expedition? It just seems odd since we are part of North America along with the US and Mexico and we have strong ties historically with the UK and France not to mention that we do a lot of ocean-based research ourselves. In fact, GrrlScientist one of the Guardian science bloggers featured a video from Ocean Networks Canada Observatory on her March 1, 2012 posting, which you can view there or on the Ocean Networks Vimeo channel. Here’s one of the earlier videos from their channel (it’s a bit heavy on the marketing),

Canada’s Ocean Observatory from Ocean Networks Canada on Vimeo.

Personally, I think they could have done with a poet or two helping out with the narration. I hope that in the future they’ll be inspired by the Clipperton Project approach.