SEA BITE is a project by Mariëlle Videler, developed during a work period on the coast of the North Sea. Wondering what the salt sea air does to you, she created the Dimethyl Sulfide Tent — a small, spiritual space devoted to a phenomenon first described by James Lovelock in his Gaia theory. The installation is designed and made from her own drawings, screen-printed on the inside into a composition in deep blue.

Algae in the oceans produce a gas called dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which rises into the atmosphere. There it oxidizes, becoming the source of tiny droplets that drift through the air and gather into clouds. For the algae, the benefit of this process is that the clouds help keep the Earth cooler. Without them, the Earth would be 10 to 20 degrees hotter than it is today — unbearably uncomfortable, not only for us, but for the algae in the ocean as well.

Performance lecture by prof. dr. Jos van den Broek.