We are proud to present the debut 7″ vinyl release (‘Innovator’ b/w ‘Stuck In The Night’) from Miami’s Plains. The record is limited to 100 copies in black vinyl with individually-stenciled sleeve art by band leader/ songwriter Michael McGinnis. We have rubber stamped our corallimorph logo onto the b-side of the center-sticker and stamped/ numbered the a-side.
BAR is hosting the 7″ release party this Friday, September the 3rd with live sets from Plains and Animal Tropical. We will have the record for sale for $7 at the show.
For those who wish to purchase the Plains 7″ online, please see the Discosoma Records site.
We were recently commissioned to create the official video for the London/ Paris based electronic music collaboration WALLS, released by Kompakt Records in Berlin. ‘Hang Four’ was premiered on NME.com.
The yellow coral in the opening and closing shots is a sun coral (Tubastrea coccinae). The polyps are seen expanding in reaction to the addition of food to the aquarium. Unlike most reef building corals, the sun coral is non-photosynthetic, and relies on the capture of plankton as its sole energy source. In the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, this is an invasive coral species that most likely hitched a ride into the Caribbean basin following the opening of the Panama Canal. It has since spread northward into the Gulf of Mexico, colonizing oil rigs one-by-one. This particular colony was collected from one of the rigs not far from the BP Deep Horizon disaster about 2 years ago. It is unknown to us whether these corals have been negatively impacted from the spill, but as an invasive species, it raises a number of questions about whether their potential loss should be considered a detriment or not. Nevertheless, research on the impact these sun coral communities have experienced in the Gulf will be useful in determining oil tolerance on a stony coral species in close proximity to the oil disaster.
The iridescent, twinkling gelatinous creatures are called ctenophores (TEEN-o-fores) (aka comb jellies) ranging in size from 5-10mm in total length. They float in the open ocean and beat their rows of cilia (the iridescent, beating ‘combs’) which allows them to filter plankton out of the water. They often float in huge conglomerations of hundreds of thousands. They are an important part of the pelagic (open ocean) community of plankton likely impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf.
The little jellyfish are called ‘club hydromedusa’ (Orchistoma pileus) and range in size from 7-10mm. They also live in the open water near the surface, using their stinging tentacles to capture smaller zooplankton.
We are proud to present the debut 7″ vinyl release (‘Take Your Time (With Me)’ b/w ‘Never Seen Snow’) from West Palm Beach’s Guy Harvey. The record is limited to 100 copies in black vinyl with individually-screened sleeve art by the band. We have rubber stamped our corallimorph logo onto the b-side of the center-sticker and stamped/ numbered the a-side.
To celebrate The Vagabond is hosting the 7″ release party this Friday the 13th with sponsorship by Sweat Records and the live sounds of Guy Harvey and The Jameses. We will have the record for sale for $7 at the show; see you there!
For those who wish to purchase the Guy Harvey 7″ online, please see the Discosoma Records site.
Click play to check out the a-side, ‘Take Your Time (With Me)’.
Special thanks to Lolo from Sweat Records for facilitating the event and Brian Butler from www.theupperhandart.com for the awesome poster design, which interpolates images from our natural history film, ‘Transmission’.
On Sunday, July 18th from 4 – 8 pm, we will unveil Flower Animal, a collection of fluorescence photographs documenting zoanthids (a soft coral) of Florida’s coral reefs. The show will be open to the public at the Biscayne Nature Center Gallery at the North Beach of Crandon Park on Key Biscayne until September 26th, 10am – 4pm daily. Park entrance fee $6. There will be food and drinks at the opening.
Morphologic friend and colleague Akihiro Shiroza recently returned from a stint at sea aboard a NOAA research vessel. He spent several weeks floating amidst the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico studying the effects of the spill on the pelagic plankton community. As an accomplished artist and videographer, NOAA asked Aki to formally document their work on video. This allowed him unprecedented access to capture film of the rainbow-hued sheen of oil that coats the surface of the Gulf. ‘Resonance of Contrary Components’ is at once disconcerting and sublime.
The Squat Urchin Shrimp (Gnathophylloides mineri) is an amazingly successful creature that can be found living amongst the spines of sea urchins throughout most of the world’s shallow tropical waters. In the Caribbean they hitchhike exclusively upon the black and white West Indian Sea Egg (Tripneustes ventricosus), traveling along where ever its host may go. The squat urchin shrimp is very small, reaching no more than 6mm in length, and orients itself parallel with the spines making it all but invisible and protected from a would-be-predator. Often colonies of up to half a dozen squat urchin shrimp of varying sizes will all share the same urchin. Beyond its circumtropical distribution and perfect camouflage, the squat urchin shrimp further demonstrates its successfulness by feeding upon the epidermal tissue of the very spines that grant it protection. This is a relatively benign form of parasitism that doesn’t seem to bother the urchin. These shrimp will also feed opportunistically upon detritus that the urchin picks up as it moves along the sea floor. The squat urchin shrimp is a creature that has found a near perfect niche in a truly self-sustaining, self-contained world of spines.
‘The Heart Urchin Pea Crab’ Dissodactylus primitivus on Meoma ventricosa
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Morphologic Studios
Barely 7mm in size, the aptly named heart urchin pea crab (Dissodactylus primitivus) lives its entire life as a passenger upon the slow-moving red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa). It is an example of the unusual life that can be found by looking in unexpected places on Floridian coral reefs. The red heart urchin is an unusual member of the echinoderm clan (e.g. urchins, sea stars, sand dollars, sea cucumbers) that spends most of its time burrowing in the sand. It sifts through the grains of sand searching for organic detritus that constitutes its diet. Likewise, the heart urchin pea crab lives a well-protected life (usually below the sand) amongst the spines of this fist-sized urchin. While most crabs move swiftly, this pea crab moves slowly in order to navigate through the corridors of spines, even spending time inside the urchin’s mouth. It is likely that the crab feeds upon some of the food that would otherwise be consumed by the urchin. This commensal relationship appears mildly parasitic, as the urchin doesn’t seem to gain any sort of direct benefit from the crab living amongst its spines. Frequently, several heart urchin pea crabs will live communally without any noticeable negative impact to their host urchin’s health.
If you look closely, you’ll notice the rhythmic working of its gills and circulatory system within the heart urchin pea crab’s translucent, eggshell exoskeleton.
