ODE (An Acknowledgement of Sea Country) is a speculative cameraless animation created from handmade, biodegradable macroalgae celluloid. Developed through a research collaboration with scientists from CSIRO and the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre in Western Australia, the work reimagines cinema as a sustainable, ocean-responsive process.

Over the course of twelve months, seaweed washed ashore Whadjuk Noongar Boodja was respectfully gathered and transformed into agar-based bioplastic film. Each frame was composed using both contact printing and botanicollage, layering native macroalgae into the substrate so that tides, pigments, and decay could inscribe themselves into the image over time. The film’s soundscape was generated through bio-sonification, recording the electrical activity of living seaweed via a plant-wave interface, allowing ocean flora to shape the sonic field from within.

Running for 365 seconds – one for each day of the year – ODE unfolds as a durational gesture toward deep, cyclical time. Part cinematic elegy, part ecological offering, it invites the viewer to encounter the more-than-human intelligence of the ocean. Experimenting with what cinema could be in a time of ecological crisis, ODE (An Acknowledgement of Sea Country) merges biodegradable film substrates, ocean science, and the sonic agency of seaweed into a cameraless form that gestures toward a post-petrochemical, more-than-human moving image.