The Ocean as a Creative Experience

The new book by artist, diver and editor-in-chief of an underwater magazine Jürgen Claus is a milestone among the books dedicated to the planet sea. It is the knowledgeable overview, created from facts and experiences, of three creative areas that have never before been described in context. Marine architectures from both the Pacific and Atlantic regions have now moved from vision to reality. Whether it is a sail-shaped architecture in Nouméa or a whale-shaped one in the Arctic region. A special attention is paid by Prof. Claus on a post-disaster architecture. Younger readers are encouraged to design such metabolic buildings themselves.

That the seascape has also become a fluid studio for visual artists may come as a surprise. The works of art, some of which the author has experienced first-hand, have intertwined with an ecological, sustainable way of working. And this is also true to a special degree for the sound artists. They realize their sonic worlds with recordings from the sounding world underwater, a concert hall of hitherto unknown dimensions. Claus's experience as a professor of media art with students flows into the description of multimedia or media-related ocean installations. Here the book becomes a stimulus for realizing one's own experiences.