Marsh Senses
Marsh Senses: An Interactive Installation
Marsh Senses, an interactive installation of large quilted cushions that aims to recreate the multi-sensory experience of walking through a salt marsh. The “field” of quilted cushions contains visual representations of different aspects of the marsh ecosystem—coastal blue carbon storage capacity, geological textures, Salt Marsh Sparrow and mussel populations, root density and native grasses. Viewers are invited to sit on, walk over, and rearrange these abstract visual representations of a healthy salt marsh soil system.
To further heighten the multi-sensory viewer experience, the quilted cushions are stuffed with recycled memory foam and paper. The installation crunches and gives way underfoot, mimicking the unexpected audible and tactile sensation of walking over saturated soil, with mussel shells and grasses crunching with every step.
Marsh Senses has been installed in galleries and at marsh restoration sites, accompanied by sound recordings or readable sculptures. Each iteration of the piece strives to reach a new audience, make viewers more aware of the impact of their actions on the marsh ecosystem, and allow opportunities to experience below-ground complexities in new ways.
