Ocean as a Creative Experience

This 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 a knowledge-rich overview, created from facts and experiences, of three main themes that have never 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. Special attention is paid by Prof. Claus to post-disaster architecture. The book will encourage young readers to design 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. The author’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.

"Astronomers, like all humans, think a great deal about seas and oceans. There are waves in plasmas, in galaxies. The search for extraterrestrial life of our kind begins with the search for water and oceans. We haven’t found many yet, and it will take millennia before Jürgen Claus will be able to build and live in harmony with our oceans, as reviewed in depth in this book. This book is an act of optimism that reviews the work of artists and architects internationally who have begun to design and build habitats or the future postdiluvian civilizations. A must-read as part of adapting to accelerating climate change."Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Roger Malina, University of Dallas, Texas, USA"The artist Jürgen Claus is considered to be one of the pioneers of media art. His greatest achievements include, not only the introduction of the issues of ecology to art, but also an extension of the field of artistic activity to the seas and oceans. His underwater happenings and exhibitions made (art) history."Frank-Thorsten Moll, Director, IKOB, Eupen, Belgium

Jürgen Claus lives and works in Aachen, Germany. He studied theater, art history, and philosophy at LMU University in Munich, Germany. Claus was a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a professor of media art at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne, Germany. His work includes paintings, films, light, solar installations, and underwater art. He is also a prolific writer on art, whose theoretical works have sold over 100,000 copies.