Here we look into the face of the thorny oyster (Spondylus americanus). Unlike most shallow-water oyster species, the thorny oyster is a solitary creature that lives permanently cemented to the deeper coral reef. Its fleshy mantle is adorned with sepia-toned psychedelic camouflage that can vary widely from one individual to the next. The rim of the mantle is lined with dozens of eyes that stare out into the depths. These eyes are quite simple, only detecting changes in light that might suggest an incoming predator. If a threat is detected, the oyster will quickly snap its two shells together, sealing the animal inside with its two powerful adductor muscles. It is the adductor muscle that people eat when they eat 'oysters on the half shell'. Oysters are filter feeders, spending their time siphoning water through gills that strain out particulate matter. As seen in the film, the oyster periodically expels waste and water with a quick contraction of its adductor muscles. In the second installment (next week) we will explore the upper shell of the oyster and the community of organisms that has colonized it.
Coral Morphologic created this film for Borscht 7.
Coral Morphologic is the brainchild of marine biologist Colin Foord and musician Jared McKay. Best friends since middle school in New Hampshire, the duo began Coral Morphologic in Miami in 2007 as an experimental endeavor to hybridize art and science, with living corals as their primary inspiration.
Colin moved to Miami in 2000 to study marine biology at the University of Miami. Upon graduation, Colin became increasingly involved within the burgeoning local music scene which was overlapping with the art community that was just beginning to crystallize in the Wynwood neighborhood. Here was a place where a relatively small cadre of brilliant weirdoes was actively increasing the value of an entire city through the collective efforts of their individual creativity - just like corals on a reef.
There was mutual recognition that the best way to get ahead professionally as artists was to work together symbiotically, because at that time few outsiders were taking Miami seriously. The prototypical idea for Coral Morphologic was born when Colin realized that the corals he was studying as a scientist were every bit as artistic as anything in a gallery, and that they belonged in Miami’s renaissance.
At that point Colin suggested to Jared that he move to Miami so they could develop these ideas together as a duo. Miami proved to not only be an ideal place for such an idea to take root, but it was also the only city where the metaphorical similarities of corals and Miami’s urban environments were also biologically and chemically synonymous.
The early years of Coral Morphologic were largely defined by the financial necessities of establishing a vertically-integrated coral aquaculture business. Before even having a website, we were launching our online venture on eBay from just a spare room of our home.
While it was frustrating not being able to actualize many of our early artistic ideas due to financial and practical constraints, we instead focused our output on photography and temporary aquarium installations. As soon as the Canon 5D Mark II came onto the market, our friends at Borscht Corp encouraged us to buy one and we immediately became filmmakers.
Now we had all the tools we needed to film the macro-universe of our corals, and then project them upon the city’s walls as a testament to Miami’s past, present, and future bio-geologic history.
In 2010, after recognizing the constraints of being taken seriously with only a home-based Lab (and with the semi-confidence that we could afford to expand our business), Coral Morphologic moved into a 3,000 sq ft warehouse on the Miami River.
An unknown guest visiting our brand new Lab on a ‘Weird Miami Bus Tour’ turned out to be the president of the Knight Foundation who offered on-the-spot to support our dream of doing a series of large-scale building projections (Artificial Reef) of coral during the upcoming Art Basel Miami Beach. After Artificial Reef’s successful completion, we applied for, and were awarded a Knight Arts Challenge grant for Aquacultural Transformation of Miami, a project in which we’ve continued to blanket the city with coral art and projections in order to establish them as new icons for the city.
In recent years Coral Morphologic has collaborated symbiotically with a wide swath of creatives including Borscht Corp., Animal Collective, MIA Skate Shop, fine artists, and musicians as we continue our mission to bring the majesty of corals into pop-cultural consciousness and rebrand the city of Miami.
website: coralmorphologic.com