The Sound of the Ocean Breathing | ANAT Micro Talk :: Synapse 2026
Description
The Sound of the Ocean Breathing | ANAT Micro Talk :: Synapse 2026
How ocean bubbles absorb our CO2, and what happens when artists and engineers listen in.
Join Melita Grant, ANAT Board Chair and Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, in conversation with the artist and researcher from the 2026 ANAT Synapse residency program.
WHO
Host: Melita Grant
2026 ANAT Synapse Residency program participants::
Elissa Goodrich, artist
Prof. Richard Manasseh, researcher
WHEN
Thursday 26 November 2026
Adelaide 12.15pm - 1.00pm
Brisbane 11.45am - 12.30pm
Canberra 12.45pm - 1.30pm
Darwin 11.15am - 12.00pm
Hobart 12.45pm - 1.30pm
Melbourne 12.45pm - 1.30pm
Perth 9.45am - 10.30am
Sydney 12.45pm - 1.30pm
WHERE
Join us online. A link will be provided to registrants prior to the start time.
OVERVIEW
ANAT Synapse Residency 2026 :: over two decades of art + science innovation
The ANAT Synapse residency program brings artists and researchers of science and technology together in partnerships that generate new knowledge, ideas and processes beneficial beyond both fields.
The program involves artists working in collaboration with and hosted by Australian research organisations in a period of creative research and practice.
A distinguishing feature of the residencies is their creative research focus, with artists encouraged and supported in collaborative and process driven experimentation rather than anticipating or producing specific outcomes.
ANAT Synapse residencies lead to profound artistic and professional development for the participants, while also building a sustainable support base for interdisciplinary creative collaboration in Australia.
2026 ANAT Synapse residency
This year, artist Elissa Goodrich partnered with Professor Richard Manasseh’s fluid dynamics team at Swinburne University of Technology, department of Mechanical and Product Design Engineering.
The residency focuses on how fluid dynamics (bubble clouds) and new music and sound art converge, diverge and enhance our understanding of nature’s processes and human manipulations of it. Titled Turbulent Trajectories: Bubbles in ocean waves and seafloor curtains the project examines how, even at humanly undetectable scales, nature’s bubbles manifest both violence and empathy in their formings and endings.
Currently, clouds of bubbles formed by breaking waves, which contribute 30%± of the oceans’ absorption of humanity’s CO2 emissions, are poorly understood. The bubbles’ fascinating sounds and trajectories in warming oceans offer powerful prompts for the artistic investigation and music composition.
Inspired by and using super-computer modelling to track and predict bubble formations relevant to climate change. Fluid dynamics and acoustics of bubble trajectories in ocean waves and in vertical seafloor curtains (which protect marine life from hazards) will especially be investigated.
“Our project explores the paths of bubbles under ocean waves and how they make and deflect underwater sounds. When bubbles are formed, they emit sounds we hear, creating the natural ‘music’ of running water and of breaking ocean waves,” says Elissa.
Find out more about the residency here.
Tickets are free. Register to attend.
Donations can be made via the registration process and are tax deductible - ANAT is a charitable trust.
Speakers
Elissa Goodrich
Composer/sound artist/percussionist Elissa Goodrich’s abiding interest is in collaboration. Her compositions sit between contemporary classical and jazz improvisation. Her works play in festivals across the globe. Elissa’s sound, music and dramaturgy for theatre includes long-time collaborations with Australian-based directors and writers. Since 2015 her practice involves collaborating at intersections of climate science and new music with Australian artists and scientists, and as commissioned composer/sound artist for scientific and arts organisations in Europe. Image: Elissa Goodrich, photograph Lea Kivivali.
Prof. Richard Manasseh
Prof. Richard Manasseh is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in fluid dynamics. He investigates fluid waves and their interactions, including sound, atmospheric and water waves. His research is applied in oceanography, atmospheric physics, and the space, minerals, biomedical, water, food and defence industries. In 2022 he was ranked in the top 2% of researchers globally for lifetime output in mechanical engineering acoustics and in 2024 was elected a Fellow of the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society. Image: Prof Richard Manasseh, photograph courtesy of the researcher.
Host: Melita Grant
Melita is Board Chair of ANAT and Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. She works with social justice and sustainability partners from the Asia-Pacific region, and specialises in integrated water resources management in international development with a focus on inclusion. With an academic background in international relations and environmental management, Melita has expertise in a range of sustainable development issues, and has worked for over 20 years’ in government, university, and civil society sectors. Melita is exploring artistic connections with water management programs in the Pacific as part of her PhD in support of decolonising methodologies. Image: Melita Grant, photograph courtesy of the presenter.
Further information
Accessibility
This Zoom event will include auto-generated live captioning. We encourage you to advise ANAT of any further accessibility requirements when registering for your ticket. ANAT will endeavour to do all we can to make the event accessible for you.
ANAT Micro Talk will be recorded and the live transcription saved. It will be posted on the ANAT website at a later date.
Ticket pricing
This is a free event. Please consider a donation via your ticket registration.
About ANAT
The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is Australia's leading organisation working with artists, scientists and technologists.
ANAT creates opportunities for experimental artists to collaborate with science and technology partners. We do this because we believe artists are essential to how we imagine and shape our future.
ANAT and our project partners acknowledge and pay respects to the First Nations of the land known as Australia. We recognise all Traditional Owners and their continued cultural, spiritual and technological practices. ANAT works on Kaurna yarta and widely across many Countries.
ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the South Australian government through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, CreateSA.
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