Maximilian Seeger 

Interfacing with the ocean investigates how digital technologies can foster meaningful encounters with marine ecosystems. Although oceans are increasingly digitized through sensors, tracking, and imaging, the resulting data often remain abstract and limited to scientific communities. This project transforms such knowledge into experiences that are tangible, sensible, and emotionally engaging. At its core is an aquarium, emptied of living organisms but augmented with transparent screens and hand tracking. When visitors immerse their hands in water, they are drawn into an interactive story that shifts between microscopic and macroscopic perspectives of marine life. Unlike traditional aquariums that isolate and extract, this installation reimagines the aquarium as a symbolic and technological interface to the ocean. In close collaboration with HIFMB researchers, datasets and organisms will be carefully selected to animate the experience, translating scientific insights into immersive encounters. The project aims to connect wider audiences to the dynamics of marine ecosystems, strengthening awareness, empathy, and participation in the urgent task of protecting and restoring the ocean.