Santa Cruz Artists and Activists
Unveil Plastic Water

A weekend of interactive art and community involvement to save our oceans from plastic poisoning

Friday and Saturday, October 5 & 6, 2018
The 418 Project, 418 Front Street, Santa Cruz

Join local artists, activists, the California Coastal Commission and the Coastal Watershed Council in a collaboration of interactive art and aerial dance to explore how plastic waste is poisoning our oceans.

The October 5 event is part of the First Friday Art Tour from 6-8pm; October 6 is a community fair from 1-5 pm.

The events will combine interactive art, aerial dance and hands-on practical education in a two day, free, family-friendly exploration of ways to save our oceans and Monterey Bay marine life from continued plastic poisoning from plastic debris. Both events will be held at The 418 Project, 418 Front Street, in downtown Santa Cruz.

Beginning Friday, The 418 Project will become an underwater ocean habitat of sculptures from repurposed/reclaimed plastic. Aerial dancers will be dressed as sea creatures navigating the “new normal” of our increasingly plastic oceans– by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum, there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans. Young and old alike will be able to manipulate, ride on, write about or imagine the real hazards of modern aquatic life. Free refreshments and music by Zayante Creek All-Stars Band will be offered.

Saturday’s October 6 focus expands from the experiential to the educational, with each participating group demonstrating how to end plastic ocean pollution! Easy, fun – from Children’s Museum of Discovery creative exhibit to local artist Ann Bennett Young transforming an old T-shirt (bring one) before your eyes into a plastic-free shopping bag by. Other groups participating include: Clean Oceans International, Leave No Trace, Grey Bears, the Valley Women’s Club of San Lorenzo Valley, Wild Roots, among others.

The unique underwater habitat is the inspiration of aerial dancer, Lisa Christensen, who has created an ocean experience for the community highlighting global and local concerns about the changes happening to our oceans due to significant increases in plastic debris.

“Our oceans are under major assault on so many fronts. Luckily, Santa Cruz and our participating partners are already stepping up and making major efforts to help each of us become more ocean savvy. “Plastic Water”, for me, is a way for our community to not just see what is happening to marine life but to experience it, “Christensen said.

“Seeing a photo of a turtle struggling to get away from a plastic bag is terrible. Plastic Water’ brings it closer to home. You will have a chance to be that sea turtle or albatross – and know what its like to feel their struggle to survive. And then learn what simple actions we each can take to save our oceans and marine life,” she said.

To make the Plastic Water sculptures, Lisa and her volunteers repurposed thousands of plastic bags, hundreds of plastic bottles, plastic fishing line, plastic pipe and plastic “saran wrap” for pallets, from Grey Bears and coastal beaches. Each of her sculptures tells a different story of current threats to our oceans, and visitors can experience the following:

• Swirling around in the “Pacific Gyre” of plastic bottles which is 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet high (Fact: the real Pacific Gyre is currently more than 87,000 tons of plastic);
• Sinking from a melting glacier– which is 8 feet high with an aerial apparatus 16 feet high–and then swimming like a polar bear;
• Floating inside the Bayble – a giant, 6 foot bubble made of shrink wrap and bay twigs;
• Blowing on the Diatom mobile to a make air currents and see the Brownian motion of unicellular sea creatures (Fact: diatoms are plant plankton which is key to rich marine life in our oceans and Monterey Bay);
• Feeling the tepid surge of Extreme Storm Patterns as viewed from outer space–this sculpture is 5 feet in diameter with a hammock 15 feet high (Fact: climate change has increased number and strength of these weather events – excessive high temperatures, severe floods, and droughts);
• Swim with Lisa Agliano and her couture plastics as part of the Human Mobile sculpture by CarryGarcia

This event will also celebrate and acknowledge the local efforts of Assembly Member Mark Stone (AD 29th). His efforts to “turn the tide” on plastics pollution have played a significant role in the development and creation of “Plastic Water”. Stone supports and advocates for legislation to ban cigarette butts in California. Butts remain the number one collected item on our beaches, in our country, and around the world.

For more information visit, The 418 Project.