bladderwrack
to be with the shore is all we ask
ACCESS NOTES
This net art project is text and video-based, with no audio. Each video features an Image Description (ID) in a black square. On this page, there is a written title, bladderwrack, overlaid on a video of waves splashing over seaweed
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
We invite you to interact with bladderwrack, an indigenous species of Lenapehoking seaweed living in the intertidal zone of the coastal New York and New Jersey ecosystems. As you scroll, find our log from the hottest week ever recorded. Please find a quiet place. Take a moment and join us with the shore and share your experiences.
bladderwrack
AN INDIGENOUS MARINE ALGAE OF LENAPEHOKING (NYC)
Fam.: Fucaceae – Phaeophyta
Nom.: Fucus vesiculosus, L.
Dat.: 24-29.7.2023
Loc.: Lenapehoking, New York City, Brooklyn in the East River estuary and at Marsha P. Johnson State Park shore
Annot.: on intertidal zone rocks between tide-marks and washed-up on muddy-sandy-pebble shore
ABOUT
bladderwrack (to be with the shore is all we ask), a fluid outpost of the intertidal zone of Lenapehoking (New York & New Jersey), is an embodied, research-based, participatory platform created and planned with the indigenous seaweed bladderwrack. It is hosted in the NYU Bobst Library in Manhattan and at tobewiththeshoreisallweask.care/bladderwrack. This platform digitally archives real and imaginative experiences, focusing on the enduring bladderwrack, an indigenous seaweed living within the intertidal zone between the low and high tide mark along Lenapehoking’s shoreline.
Since colonization, the urban coastal ecosystem has experienced neglect, alteration, landfill, and land grabs. The project underscores the intertidal ecosystem’s flexibility in confronting contemporary challenges while seeking a future where the vital shore holds decision-making significance and is valued as an integral component of an urban island rather than subjected to harm and disregard.
We invite YOU to become a beta tester in this effort to bring the coastal ecosystem into your home through this interactive intertidal interface. Follow the text-video log, a record of time and space at the intertidal zone with bladderwrack, played out in July 2023, the hottest month on record.
The quasi-personal text-video Log Book unfurls artist andrea haenggi’s participation with bladderwrack and bladderwrack’s voice at the Marsha P. Johnson State Park shoreline in Brooklyn, NY. Additionally, the log book includes urban ecological information, image descriptions, and questions, allowing beta testers to tell their shoreline stories.
Against the dire backdrop of rising ocean temperatures and the heat-induced expansion of seawater leading to elevated sea levels, this interaction underscores the pressing need to listen to the dynamic shoreline, where in low tide it is land. In high tide, it becomes sea.
This work is part of andrea haenggi’s 10-year ongoing project called “to be with the shore is all we ask”, which started in 2021 in response to the city’s waterfront plan of the transformation of the shoreline. Rather than working with the nature “that is here,” the city and government’s plan is human-centered. Still, it prioritizes destruction, hardening the shoreline, further destroying shoreline ecosystems, and grabbing more land from the sea.
The project is an urgent call to (re-)connect with the ebb and flow of our shoreline and the more-than-human beings that live there (and could live there) to find pathways for multispecies communities that can thrive and be flexible.
Contribute to the shore’s revitalization with your offerings. To be with the shore is all we ask!
The work is created by andrea haenggi + bladderwrack and in collaboration with artist/web developer Dan Phiffer, creative and accessibility consultant mora williams, and dramaturge Tanya Marquardt, and through the NYU/Tisch This Is Not A Drill Community Research Fellowship.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research work is created on the unceded lands in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY), the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape People, and the Canarsie and Munsee Nations. The artist underlines that, “We stand for the protection of these territories and offer this work as a gesture of care to all of our relations, past, present, and future.
If you are not currently aware of the rightful keepers of the land you are located in, you can learn more at www.native-land.ca. Beyond simply acknowledging the colonial histories of the land on which you are located, we encourage you to take concrete steps towards decolonization by learning more about how you can support Indigenous communities in the fight for sovereignty.
MODERATION
Posts to bladderwrack are moderated by a small group of volunteers before they appear publicly. This is to ensure no hate speech, spam, or breaches of anonymity are added to the site.
TERM OF USE
Your Right to Post Content
bladderwrack (‘the Service’) allows you to post content. You retain any and all of your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through bladderwrack and you are responsible for protecting those rights.
By posting content through the Service, you grant the Service the unlimited and worldwide right and license, without any monetary compensation, to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such content on and through the Service, and its derivatives in any and all media and format, whether such Service and/or derivatives are distributed directly by us or through third parties under license by us. You agree that this license includes the right for the Service to make your content available to other users of the Service and its derivatives, who may also use, share, repost and/or display your content subject to these terms.
You represent and warrant that: (i) the content you post is yours (you own it) or you have the right to use it and grant us the rights and license as provided in these terms, and (ii) the posting of your content on or through the Service and the exercise by the Service or any third-party licensee of any of the rights granted by you under these Terms does not and will not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You hereby release the Service and our third-party licensees from any claims of any kind or nature arising from the use of your content as permitted hereunder, including those based upon defamation, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, copyright, contract right or any other right of any person.
Removal of Your Content
If you want your content removed from the Service at any time for any reason, please contact us at bladderwrack@tobewiththeshoreisallweask.care and we will remove your content from the Service in a reasonable and timely manner.
CONTACT
Get in touch at bladderwrack@tobewiththeshoreisallweask.care
Monday July 24
Prediction: 2:35 PM High-Tide and 8:50 PM Low-Tide
7:00 PM: Sundown. Receding waves of low tide kept you visible.
Took a deep breath to acknowledge it’s okay that I still don’t hear your name. Is that what you want anyway? In taxonomy, you are assigned the name Fucus vesiculosus. The public refers to you as rockweed, sea oak, black tang, poppers and bladderwrack.
Counted 12 steps, walked over sand and pebbles. Arrived at a line of rocks that had been placed there to break the current.
ID: An enclosed space with piles of mid-sized rocks fill the frame like a cave mouth. Single hands length olive-green bladderwrack’s are clinging and hanging shaggy by means of a disc-shaped holdfast on the side of the rocks.
Ah, you, bladderwrack shouted loudly. Closing my eyes, I could have found you and may be fall over the rocks… made me want sushi or a big bowl of ramen. You called so clearly because of your salty seaweed-like odor.
ID: In the upper left corner, critters the barnacles encrust a rock. Through the hole, 2 people stand at a distance with trees and bushes in hazy light.
Slow down.
Catch my bladderwrack moves.
7:16 PM: A tiny breeze stroked my cheeks, a call to turn around. Faced the East River estuary – sound river – saltwater tidal estuary – navigable tidal strait – watershed.
Wow bladderwrack, the sunset ray of light soaking up your community! Each of you anchoring yourselves to the rocks and overlapping each other.
Sat on the rock, and you changed me. With each breath with you, my butt’s flesh spread more over the rock’s shape, sensing coolness.
ID: Backdropped by the East River estuary with the Manhattan skyline, close-up of yellow and olive-green bladderwrack seaweeds on rocks, swaying subtly in the wind. They are in different stages of growth.
Slow down. Catch bladderwrack’s movement with the wind.
New York City has 520-mile coastline, which spans across various water bodies including estuaries, rivers, bays, inlets, and the ocean.
A boat passed the navigable tidal strait linking Upper New York Bay with Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean.
You flashed into my eyes, and I felt like you were telling me you were a protector. Golden, green, everything. You spread along the lines of rocks everywhere.
Thick beds of bladderwrack, absorb waves, provide shelter, and serve as nursery grounds for various aquatic animals.
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Thursday 27 morning
Prediction: 4:40 AM High-Tide and 10:46 AM Low-Tide
6:53 AM: Sunrise. Tide falling. Excessive heat warning.
Wore a black long-sleeved one-piece swimsuit, black faux leather leggings, and aqua water shoes to match bladderwrack’s distinctive look.
In the roaring water, I thought I heard you calling me to come between rocky stones just as you all dealt with the water that entered.
ID: Close-up of heart-shaped, forked bladderwrack seaweed structure’s distal ends in golden honey-brown with reflection. Waves advance and retreat, covering and uncovering bladderwrack
Sat on the same rock as last night, with one big change. Now my pelvic organs rested within a fluid-filled space. Surprised by the warm water.
Slow Down. Catch my bladderwrack body swell in conversation.
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11:04 AM: Temperature rising. Tide close to the low-water mark. Salty-seaweed air was greeting my burning face.
The substrate you cling onto with your holdfast showed off very dry, forcing me to acknowledge that the rocks are on their own continued existence. They brought the rocks here, so they came from there to here. Where is it there?
Stepped over and down the line of rocks. You gently and clearly asked me to be slow with my feet. I became conscious about my body weight and felt each footprint, a step of disturbance.
Slow down. Pause. Catch me, bladderwrack, in conversation with the rocks on the hill.
Found a place to squat, close to the low-tide mark, to do a tilt film shot with all the excitement: remembering what it was like to be on the alpine mountains as a child.
ID: Sun-lit of a single triangle rock within avalanche bladderwrack seaweeds hanging off a rocky shore slope. The top of the rock is yellowish, followed by a sharp tide mark with bladderwrack and green algae hanging.
No wonder we found each other. You love rocks, and I love rocks! I felt a bladderwrack in front of me: I cling on erosion textile material.
ID: Backdropped by a flowing river, a distant row of high-rise buildings with a tree, and a hazy blue sky.
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11:15 AM: Was too hot for me. Hurried back to the base of the land. Stepped into dry muddy-like ground and felt it was an invitation to join you. Hesitated.
ID: One blackish and stiff washed ashore bladderwrack seaweed in a bed of deposits; pebbles with algae, a dead white baby blue crab, and a coin.
Lay down on my belly, a faint sewage smell mixed with compost from the sea, and tiny insects touched me. Began to wander in and around your physical appearance.
During heavy rainstorms, combined sewers get too much water. So, stormwater and untreated sewage mix and flow into the City’s waterways. These are known as combined sewer overflows (CSOs).
ID: The holdfast is curved, and spherical bubbles are along the flat bladderwrack blades. Backdropped from right to left: big rocks, the bottom of a building, and greenery.
Slow down with me, bladderwrack, to stillness.
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afternoon
Prediction: 10:46 AM Low-Tide and 5:16 PM High-Tide
3:40 PM: Soaring Heat. The temperature climbed into the nineties. Rising tide.
The line of rocks was covered with water. Bladderwrack seaweed was invisible to the people’s eyes, submerged in water.
Sat on the same rock as in the morning – I felt you asking me – and all of the versions of myself; inner, pedestrian, dancing, being – to be open towards other selves, a way forward together, towards fluidity.
ID: Hazy. The undulating water of the East River estuary twinkles with sunlight. Backdropped in the far distance, the skyline with clouds.
The word “estuary” is derived from the Latin word “aestus”, meaning tide. The estuary’s water is brackish, containing a mixture of saltwater and freshwater.
From the bladder to the kidneys, my organs were immersed in water, a cooling sensation, a call for much-needed relief from the sun’s burning energy for us both.
Slow down. Wait, wait. I’m here submerged in another water cycle.
4:00 PM: A giant wave splash asked me to return to the land. Walked over the line of rocks and stepped down into a pool of sweet-salty water where the dry, muddy-like ground was five hours ago.
Looked down into the murky water. My reflection was attuned with you; an olive-green brown bladderwrack with an elongated thallus and branching fronds with bladders found in pairs.
ID: An individual yellowish-green bladderwrack underwater is close to the grounds of pebbles and drifts back and forth in shallow water. Sun rays penetrate through the water’s surface.
Lowered myself into a stone-shaped posture and gently placed my left hand in the water. Entered and crawled on all fours at a deliberate pace. Thought I heard a voice. Your voice? Follow me.
Slow down. Follow, follow me, bladderwrack, as I float.
ID: bladderwrack slowly flipping over and then, with slight afloat uprightness, touches with their fronds tips the water surface, creating a mirror image of themselves.
Colonization in Lenapehoking (NYC) was a process that occurred both at sea and on land. It started with the practice of selling water lots and, over time, increased into massive land-filling on the water’s edge.
Saturday July 29
Prediction: 6:11 AM High-Tide and 12:27 PM Low-Tide
7:00 AM: Sunrise. Weekend. The cobalt-blue estuary was calm and quiet. The soundscape of the FDR Drive highway shouted less across the East River.
Sat on the same rock from two days ago. Dropped the iPhone, vertically into the water.
ID: Close up of warm golden dark crimson bladderwrack seaweed underwater, swaying, spiraling, waving in murky water, and tiny particles swarm them.
Closed my eyes, brought me to my childhood. Jumped from 10 meters into a lack. My lungs were like floating bladders. Water pushed me up.
ID: Below the frame, a community of bladderwrack seaweeds buoyant, waving in motion with the water, above them the seawater surface. bladderwrack’s flexibility is with the current but is anchored with the rock and simultaneously floats with the help of their air bladders that run up their central midrib.
Slow down. Catch our flexible ribs and bladders.
ID: A bladderwrack community is clinging to one rock substrate, floating. The water force slapping and pushing their bodies side to side.
bladderwrack, is a macroalgae and absorbs both their nutrients and their carbon from the same place: the water around them.
7:15 AM: The tide is falling. The sun reached you in the act of photosynthesizing, and you reached me. Warm dry wind.
ID: bladderwrack seaweed floating and swirling with their tips peeking out of the water like dollhouse shark fins. East River estuary is calm flowing, backdropped with the Manhattan skyline.
Slow down. Catch me, bladderwrack reflects and moves with the water.
Across the East River estuary, the city’s “hardening shore protection” plan (ESCR) for the Lower East Side has harmed the vital ecosystem of East River Park shore, leaving the community more vulnerable.
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7:45 AM: The morning brought the flocks of Branta canadensis from the open water. Receded towards the land. The geese ‘feeding and grooming time’ gave a sense of the tides’ timing. We gave each other respect.
ID: A washed-up empty pill bottle with a blue cap is swimming and exiting towards the left screen frame, passing a washed ashore bladderwrack.
I laid down at the wrack line, the line of washed-up seaweed and debris. The geese community stayed in the middle tidal zone with the bladderwrack community.
ID: Soft pulsating of the water reflects and shows the pebbles underneath. From left to right, a backdrop of rocks, geese, buildings, a cotton tree, sand, and bushes.
Slow down. Bear witness to my bladderwrack coastal multispecies immersion.
The estuary’s water is brackish, containing a mixture of saltwater and freshwater, but the exact salinity can vary.
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7:52 AM: The tide retreated. The sun expanded into shattering bright light.
Do you want me to fall in love with you? Looked at your blister-like receptacles. Pleasure mixed with dead chicken feet thoughts you bring up in me. Filmed.
ID: bladderwrack lays on pebbles, backdropped with a pool of water
Touched you. You were so slimy, leathery, and slippery. You seemed to say: Throw me into the estuary. I licked you before the throw. Salty.
ID: bladderwrack seaweed with many heart-shaped swollen receptacles at the end of the thallus – the fronds- the blade with dark dots that look like berries and glittering from the sun.
Slow down. Catch my bladderwrack fullness.
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afternoon
Prediction: 6:11 AM High-Tide and 12:27 PM Low-Tide
12:38 PM: Humid. Hot. Low-Tide. Walked down the line of rocks, way down to the seabed.
ID: The sea forests are diverse layered brown, green, and red seaweeds, sparkling in the sunlight.
Slow down. Catch me, bladderwrack, with my relatives and neighbors and how we move with the sun and water.
ID: Slanted landscape of a sea forest backdropped with a high-rise and a tree. Sloshing, rumbling water waves advance and retreat from the sea forest.
Pressed my body weight against a rock for stability, gazing upwards with the camera eye, like being in a jungle of unknown possibilities.
ID: A big splash of water covers the whole screen. The building is now green, and the sea forest and trees are purple.
Shit, the boat waves! Pressed even harder my rips into the stone and held my breath, and then release came. Damn, my heart is racing.
ID: The next big splash is a close-up of water bubbles, and the sea forest are now fluorescent red.
It was too tough here for me, I went back to the land but you and your community have found a place to thrive.
bladderwrack may have been entangled with the oyster reefs. It has been estimated that if New York City’s oyster beds had been intact, the damage from Hurricane Sandy would have been reduced by 30-200%.
late afternoon
Prediction: 12:27 PM Low-Tide and 6:41 PM High-Tide
3:19 PM: The afternoon brought heat. Rising tide. Birds’ calls, helicopters, water sounds from afar, and people’s voices filled the air.
Sat crossed-legged on the ground. Sand and pebbles poked into my legs. Are you, sand and pebbles coming from the land or from the estuary? Came from there to here. Where is there?
ID: Top of the screen, a gray-black rocky skyline, backdropped by a hazy skyline.
ID: Below the rocks is a strip of water flowing, and at the bottom, a curled, washed-up bladderwrack seaweed with an empty pill bottle lying on red, white, and light brown pebbles.
ID: A person stands on a rock. Their legs are visible. They step down to lower rocks in uneven steps, hesitating and wobbling.
Pressed the iPhone into the sand in front of you, to get close with you.
Slow down. Catch me, bladderwrack, as I evaporate.
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5:00 PM: Waited for the high tide. Sat on a boulder stone placed for the people, above the high-tide mark.
ID: Waves of orange reflection of water move over a row of lines of rocks.
Instagram news: Global ocean temperatures soared to the highest level on record this week. The hotter the ocean, the more the sea level rises.
Slow down. Imagine the warming water. How will I, bladderwrack, handle the ecological shifts?
ID: One rock shifts back and forth, backdropped by the skyline, purple trees, and bushes with an orange hazy sky.
The water waves action went over the line of rocks. Oh, bladderwrack I was not able to see you. I’m here. Your presence kept me calm as anxiety floated through my body; awesome and frightening.
The East River tidal estuary, which flows into the Muhheakunnuk (Hudson) – Raritan Estuary, also known as the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary, is home to the largest port on the eastern coast of the United States.
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5:30 PM: The tidal water reached the high-tide mark by the people’s sitting area, a straight-line formation of boulder rocks behind a narrow band of vegetation.
Slipped into the water and pressed the iPhone against the boulder. Filming and waiting to see if a bladderwrack from the sound of the wave breaks will be carried towards the boulder.
ID: Waves slamming straight onto the boulder stone.
The sound trembled my skin. Water splattered onto my face and chest. bladderwrack, my eyes burnt from the salt. Where are you?
I didn’t know why, but it felt sad, a feeling that came on suddenly, a slant of darkness, a certain time and place.
ID: Pebbles under the water swirl and tumble around, backdropped by a glimpse of a high-rise building and the Williamsburg bridge.
High tides and low tides are caused by the moon. Hurricane Sandy arrived during a full moon, on a Spring tide. Spring tides occur twice a month at full and new moon, when they attain their most extreme lows and highs.
After centuries of intertidal land-sea grab, paving wetlands, and building on floodplains, part of New York City was returned to its natural footprint, at least temporarily, by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
