Artist in Residence at Dublin Port, Siobhán McDonald is at JRC Ispra from the 17th to the 21st of March, to develop and form connections around her ongoing project – Shapeshifter, which responds to the Starts4Water “Port Perceptions” theme through an evolving project that revives buried port traditions and perspectives. Using cutting-edge data from 1850–2050, it maps pathways for everyday actions to counter rising tides.
The project aims to foster dialogues on Europe’s changing marine landscapes and rising sea levels. The EU ports’ subsea ecosystems, sensitive to changes in temperature, acidification from rising CO2 levels, and the ravages of storms, are a central focus. The sonic landscape of the underwater environment reflects the health and status of the marine habitats. You can find more information about the project and Siobhán’s research below.
Within this framework, Siobhán is looking to connect to colleagues to further develop research aspects which touch upon emerging technologies, such as the use of AI and its interaction with music, as well as any researchers working on water, sea level rises, biodiversity and ports – to situate her work in a broader European and Mediterranean level.
To do this Siobhán will be giving a hybrid presentation Tuesday 18th March at 12 PM to any interested colleagues, to further delve into her work and open up the space for dialogue and collaboration. Whilst she will be presenting we hope for the session to be participatory and kick-off new branches of co-creation. If interested, join us live on the JRC Ispra site in the Collab Space (bld. 17) or on Webex, full link below. The event will last about one hour and we can then carry the discussion having lunch together on site.
If this research appeals or pertains to your work but you are unable to join us on Tuesday, just let us know and we would be happy to connect you to the artist.
WHAT Reviving buried port traditions & actions to counter rising tides – Siobhán McDonald at JRC Ispra
WHERE Collab Space (bld. 17), JRC Ispra site & Webex – join the meeting
WHEN 18/03/2025 , 12 PM – 1PM CET
Find the event on SPO & JRC SciArt website
Partners
ADAPT BETA Festival Waterways Ireland Smart City – Dublin City Council Irish Maritime Development Office
More about Shapeshifter
At its heart, Shapeshifter explores Dublin Port’s history as a wetland and the mythologies it holds. Water serves both as a metaphor and a measurable force—a living, breathing system linking planetary networks and underground waterways. Audiences will experience a major interdisciplinary artwork, blending an immersive, otherworldly film with a visceral live performance to inspire bold shifts in public thinking on port infrastructures, water, and its vital connections to the EU. Ultimately, it envisions alternative futures, reflecting on the balance between human intervention and natural forces—merging the poetics of water with the challenges of “ports in transition.”
Sonic aspect of the project:
IN THE VALLEY OF TEARS is an important new interdisciplinary installation that seeks to reveal the delicate and finely tuned relationship humans share with the sea—one that is encoded into sounds beyond our immediate perception. The project explores water as both a physical force and a mythological presence . In an exploration of water’s memory, it takes a deep dive into how Dublin’s port and coastline—its waters, sediments, and shifting coastlines–connect to a vast oceanic system and act as a gateway across time. To bring this vision to life, the project will feature a major new collaboration with internationally acclaimed Irish composer Mel Mercier who will create an original composition that captures these hidden resonances – bridging the divide between land and water in ways we rarely consider. Using the language of sound to connect audiences with the histories, landscapes, soundscapes and inaudible forces in our waterways will fundamentally enrich their understanding and experience of the artwork. By investigating liminal spaces through sound we will explore marine conversations vibrating with non-human songs below our hearing range – bringing to life the invisible layers of sound that harness the energies of our islands and coastal zones. The composition will present a speculative narrative of the river Liffey and its passage to the sea, an auditory creative cartography, mapped using underwater climate data and recorded sounds of marine species, in a deep listening exploration of the intersection of sound, memory and water. IN THE VALLEY OF TEARS will make use of Ireland’s rich documentary and scientific heritage in a groundbreaking collaboration that will deepen engagement with non-linear storytelling, interdisciplinary expression, and the intangible connections between water, memory and time. It represents an exciting opportunity to promote this research and Irish culture in an artistic reflection on our coastline in a time of climate crisis.
Biography & background Siobhán McDonald
Siobhán McDonald was born in New York. She lives and works in Dublin. Siobhán works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. This process gives form to a range of projects which consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time. Her artworks make use of natural phenomena and technologies to stage poetic and philosophical engagements between people and their natural world. Beginning with a specific site of investigation, Siobhán weaves diverse narratives into visual stories, often inviting nature itself to participate in the creative process. Her research-driven practice employs a distinctive artistic language to express intangible processes, utilising painting, drawing, film, and sound.
For Resonances III, Together with scientists at the JRC and Trinity College Dublin, artist Siobhán McDonald revisited historical processes of botanic image making to create drawings and 3D works of plants that coexist with toxicity. Using air-borne pollutants collected from EU cities, ash and film footage from EU volcanoes, she created drawings, paintings and film works to show how plants and humans are adapting to air pollution, both now and historically.
As part of her work for the STUDIOTOPIA initiative, Siobhán collaborated with JRC soil scientist Arwyn Jones, among others, on a project which explored natural earth processes which humans have accelerated through our existence on the planet, and a mutual interest in the Critical Zone – the thin area between the soil and the rocks where all systems connect – to explore how human activities affect frequencies within this Zone, that then change the planet’s fragile equilibrium. Siobhán was back in residency at JRC Ispra, to exchange with Arwyn, explore the soil library, collect soil samples to make pigments, and discover the Lago Maggiore as the place where Alessandro Volta first discovered Methane in 1776.
