The ‘Flower Animal’ One Piece Swimsuit, featuring a Zoanthus sp. soft coral.
The three coral prints featured in the collection are original photos taken in the Coral Morphologic studio / lab. The entirety of the Coral City collection is made with certified organic hemp, cotton, and natural fibers.
Each item purchased will plant one coral on the reef in Bali with the non-profit organization Ocean Gardener.
The ‘Coral Dream’ One Piece Swimsuit, featuring a Dipsastraea sp. coral.
Watch the full Coral City collection runway show @ Paraiso Miami Beach here.
Natasha Tonić x Coral Morphologic Coral City collection runway show at Paraiso Miami Swim Week 2023.
We are proud to have debuted a new swimwear collaboration with Natasha Tonić at Paraiso Miami Swim Week 2023. Watch the full runway show live from the Paraiso fashion tent, which ran on Sunday, June 11, 2023.
Since their first collection in 2017, Natasha Tonić has led the swimwear industry towards an organic future by utilizing hemp fabrics because microplastics from nylon and other petroleum-based synthetic fabrics are an increasing concern to ocean health. With the Coral City collection, NT takes the commitment to sustainability one step further by planting one coral for every swimsuit purchased. Pieces in the collection feature coral designs inspired by our coral photography and the Coral City Camera.
Corals will be planted to the reefs of Bali by Indonesian non-profit Ocean Gardener, who have developed a restoration technique that uses organic ropes and wooden stakes to restore damaged reefs without the use of plastics.
Swimwear design by Natasha Tonić ~ Video and prints by Coral Morphologic ~ Soundtrack by Kimi Recor ~ Jewelry by Tiffany Kunz ~ Hair by Kevin Murphy ~ Makeup by New York Makeup Academy ~ Production by Paraiso Miami Beach and Funkshion. Full show credits here.
On Sunday, May 21st, the live audiovisual experience that was Aqua Garden Flow gently pulsed in and out of the historic Miami Beach Bandshell like a jellyfish on the tide. Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda‘s shimmering, joyous score of the film we created with Robert Beatty navigated mangrove stands, seagrass beds, and labyrinths of coral caves to arrive at a journey’s end shared by hundreds—one that felt like the beginning of a new era for Coral Morphologic.
We wish heartfelt thanks to Laraaji, Arji, Robert, and the team at the Rhythm Foundation / Miami Beach Bandshell for an amazing creative collaboration, immersive production, and fit venue for us all to witness Aqua Garden Flow come to life.
Post-Aqua Garden Flow bliss.Laraaji, Colin Foord, Robert Beatty, J.D. McKay, and Arji OceAnanda.
Singer Achinoam “Noa” Nini Barak performing at the I Sea You concert.
We are excited to have contributed our imagery to the official opening concert of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos, entitled I Sea You, which was a powerful cultural message of unity and collaboration, as well as a call to action to protect and preserve the resilient coral reefs of the Northern Red Sea.
Watch thefull Projections of a Coral City program above.
The sun has set on Projections of a Coral City, our largest installation to date, and we are thankful for everyone who made this monumental work possible. From the Knight Foundation’s continued support of our mission, to the collaborative spirit of the Arsht Center, to the hundreds of thousands of people who witnessed this installation: we are eternally grateful.
Projections of a Coral City was the 15-year culmination of our goal to create a new mythology for the city of Miami — one that tells the story of past, present, and future sea-level rise and fall and the ouroboros of architectural development — of the ancient coral reef tract’s calcium carbonate structures and its re-use millennia later in concrete skyscrapers of present day. We hope that Projections of a Coral City shed light on the sea-level rise projections referenced in the project’s title, and how the City’s buildings and infrastructure might be reclaimed by coral as an artificial reef should humanity not act to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change, to which Miami is among the most vulnerable cities on Earth.
Special Thanks to the Knight Foundation, whose generous support made POACC possible; the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, who graciously hosted the event; the dream team of creatives that helped us bring POACC to life; and Light Harvest / A3 Visual for the absolutely stunning projection display.
We are ecstatic to announce Projections of a Coral City, a large-scale projection-mapping installation to be presented on the exterior of the Knight Concert Hall nightly, 6PM-12AM, during Miami Art Week from Tuesday, November 29 through Saturday, December 3, 2022. Projections of a Coral City, featuring macroscopic images of corals native to Miami and from around the world, is a monumental artwork and the largest projection of corals ever presented globally. Projections of a Coral City is made possible through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Miami is a coral city. Built with marine limestone mined from the Everglades, its concrete skyline stands like corals colonizing the fossilized reef ridge on which the city was built. Miami and its maritime environment are inextricably connected geologically, historically, culturally and economically. Engaging residents and visitors with Miami’s coral reefs and waters connects them to the literal foundation of the city and to its future.
The corals featured in Projections of a Coral City were grown on flat tiles and 3D-printed scale models of the Knight Concert Hall over many years in our Miami laboratory, and subsequently photographed and enlarged to envelop the building’s southwest side. These aquacultured corals include the colorful, native Ricordea florida corallimorph. Corallimorphs are an understudied group of soft corals that scientists predict will proliferate in a world where oceans are acidified and stony corals can no longer calcify into reefs. Projections of a Coral City reimagines the Knight Concert Hall’s terraced form designed by architect César Pelli as an ever-morphing coral head and, as the sea-level rise projections referenced in the project’s title portend, suggests how the City’s buildings and infrastructure might be reclaimed by coral as an artificial reef should humanity not act to prevent and mitigate sea-level rise.
An ambient soundscape foreshadowing the City’s future by Coral Morphologic and Nick León will play in tandem with the projections on the Arsht Center’s Thomson Plaza for the Arts on Biscayne Boulevard.
Threshold: a series of gently-swaying coral archways lead departing passengers from land to sea.
We are excited to unveil Threshold, a new Coral Morphologic video work and our second public art installation at PortMiami. Threshold was commissioned by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places in conjunction with Virgin Voyages for the recently-built Terminal V. Take a quick tour below:
President of the UN Geneva General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid and Colin touring the Center for Marine Innovation upon its completion.
Coral Morphologic was recently commissioned by Fundación Grupo Puntacana (FGPC) at the Punta Cana Resort & Club to overhaul and upgrade their coral restoration lab infrastructure at their Center for Marine Innovation with funding support from the German GIZ. This project entailed re-plumbing an outdoor greenhouse that is capable of running either closed-loop, or pulling water directly from the ocean for easy flushing and water changes. Additionally, a climate-controlled indoor lab was also constructed utilizing the latest technology for coral aquaculture, including Ecotech G5 XR30 LED lights, Apex Neptune aquarium computers, Reef Octopus protein skimmers, and calcium reactors. This improved lab infrastructure is enabling marine scientists at FGPC to generate thousands of microfrags of massive reef-building species such as brain and star corals. These important corals will add needed biodiversity to their long-running reef restoration program that has successfully out-planted thousands of staghorn corals grown on their underwater nursery tables offshore.
The climate-controlled indoor coral microfragmentation systems and wet lab feature state-of-the-art LED and aquarium technology to keep freshly fragmented corals healthy.
Coral microfragmentation: growing corals smarter and faster.
Outdoor microfragmentation systems are utilized for long-term grow-out before the corals are transplanted back onto Puntacana’s reefs.
The indoor coral microfragmentation systems and wet lab were designed with a viewing window that enables tourists to observe marine scientists microfragging and growing corals, without interrupting their work.
“A Green Jade Lake is envisioned as an experiential journey that invites the visitor to wander through its different rooms and landscapes and to reflect on the idea of nature in the contemporary moment. In a situation of ecological fragility, we need to rethink the relationships and flows that are established between humans, ecosystems and their environments, and to take into consideration the new complexities that exist between the natural and the artificial.
Taking the image of a forest as its starting point, as the threshold beyond which categories become entwined, the exhibition includes experience, fiction, artistic work and research to allow us to explore new ways in which we can interact with the planet. Addressing different subjects such as coexistence, botany, territorial policies or the aesthetics associated with the representation of nature, the exhibition is understood as a constellation that creates open and transformative universes.
This exhibition proposes a new contemporary approach to nature in which all audiences, all bodies and all voices can participate.”
Artists: Coral Morphologic, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Fabian Knecht, Geocinema, Gerard Ortín Castellví, Jana Winderer, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Jonathas de Andrade, Lola Zoido, Maria Nolla, Mauricio Freyre, Michael Wang, Mónica Mays, Tomás Díaz Cedeño, Ursula Biemann, +
Join us Thursday, February 6th as we launch the Coral City Camera, our publicly accessible 360-degree livestream of a thriving, urban coral reef premiering at Pérez Art Museum Miami from a floating billboard in Biscayne Bay, produced by Bridge Initiative & Bas Fisher Invitational. Admission is free and open to the public as part of PAMM’s First Free Thursdays series.
In conjunction with the floating livestream, National Geographic Explorer Alizé Carrère will moderate a panel discussion featuring NOAA scientist Dr. Ian Enochs, Coral Morphologic’s Colin Foord, and Miami Beach’s environment & sustainability director Elizabeth Wheaton. The night continues on the terrace with a DJ set by Romulo Del Castillo. See you there, Miami!
For Design Miami 2019/, we debuted a preview of the Coral City Camera, a 360° live stream underwater camera located at our collaborative research site with NOAA’s AOML Coral Program. The CCC aims to supplement our urban coral research with real-time scientific data and offer a source of natural wonderment to the public, with the live stream officially going live in February 2020.
We are happy to report the new adidas flagship store in London features a Coral Morphologic video installation. Follow this link for the adidas_LDN location on Oxford Street and watch a tour of the store here.
We are thrilled to share we’ll be curating ‘An Evening with Coral Morphologic‘ at the historic Tower Theater Miami on April 30th. In addition to inaugurating Tower’s new lobby projection system with a CM audiovisual installation, we’ll be showing a film program in the theater consisting of Miami’s first official Tangerine Reef screening, John McSwain’s CM documentary Coral City, and a Q & A session with CM, McSwain, and Brian Weitz of Animal Collective moderated by Miami-based writer and photographer Monica Uszerowicz.
The event is free and open to the public but we kindly ask patrons to RSVP at this link. The audiovisual installation/ happy hour runs 5-7pm, and the film program/ Q & A runs 7-9pm. We will have a version of the poster above for sale at the event, designed by Rob Carmichael of SEEN Studio.
Update 5/1/19: Our audiovisual installation in the theater’s lobby will run till early December – if you are in the area feel free to stop in and check it out.
Coral Morphologic was recently commissioned to build a high-tech indoor coral microfragmentation and wet lab by the Alligator Head Foundation in Portland, Jamaica. Additionally, a 300 gallon reef biotope was built to serve as an educational display. Over the course of three trips, the Coral Morphologic team coordinated purchasing, exporting, and constructing the AHF Marine Lab where it now serves both the local marine scientists working to protect the Alligator Head Marine Sanctuary, as well as international scientists that can visit and conduct their work with state-of-the-art equipment in a controlled laboratory setting.
During the 2018 NBA All-Star weekend, adidas held a two-day celebration of basketball culture at ROW DTLA in Los Angeles. The event, called 747 Warehouse St, brought together creators from the worlds of sports, music, fashion and design. To represent the oceans and rally new champions for the cause, Parley created an adidas X Parley X Coral Morphologic experience focused on the beauty and fragility of the oceans, featuring a CM video installation aimed at generating environmental awareness. Watch a highlight video from the event below.
Members of the Gables Earth Club with the 300 gallon Coral Morphologic reef aquarium post-installation in 2015.
In September 2015 the lease ended on our first lab warehouse and we had to downsize our systems. We decided to donate our 300 gallon glass reef aquarium system–complete with all the gear, rocks, and corals–to the students of Coral Gables Senior High School in order to plant the seeds of reefkeeping and coral aquaculture in the next generation. The lab is maintained by student members of the Gables Earth Club, and overseen by faculty science teacher Mr. Eric Molina. We believe that no other activity accomplishes the goals of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) better than reef keeping, and includes an added R for Responsibility (STREAM). While math and science can be taught from textbooks, the holistic act of coral aquaculture requires hands-on attention and care. We’ve observed firsthand how these students understood the assignment and really have gone above and beyond to care for these delicate creatures.
Coral Morphologic TV debuted this past weekend at the Sagamore Hotel, on Miami Beach. The site-specific installation was commissioned by the Red Bull Guest House, and consists of 4 vinyl-wrapped outdoor televisions each playing the Coral Morphologic films Natural History Redux & Circumtropical on loop.
The ‘Coral Therapy’ Design Curio at Design Miami/ 2014.
For Design Miami/ 2014, we were honored to be asked to create a conceptual room in which we debuted Coral Therapy, a 360-degree virtual reality film experienced via the Oculus Rift. When viewing Coral Therapy, the viewer is enveloped by fluorescent corals and sea anemones; much like being inside a virtual planetarium theater. Coral Therapy is designed to convey a virtual out-of-body experience in which the viewer is transported to a tranquil tropical reef in outer-space. An original ambient score enhances the cosmic coral perspective while accentuating the peaceful and relaxing experience.
From April 13 – May 4 we will have Tombstone, our new installation, on exhibition at Swampspace in the Design District of Miami. The piece consists of a projection of Colpophyllia natans thrown onto a keystone screen of its own fossilized ancestors, set upon concrete blocks, they themselves comprised of calcium derived from ancient Floridian reefs.
‘Aquacultural Transformation’ Installation No. 1 at the Southeast Financial Center lobby, downtown Miami.
In the first installment of our Knight Foundation-funded public art series Aquacultural Transformation, we have been commissioned by the owners of the Southeast Financial Center in downtown Miami to curate the new HD video-wall in the lobby. The video-wall is comprised of twenty-five 55″ screens, measuring 23′ x 14′ in total size, making it one of the largest HD walls in Florida. We have produced a series of coral films for Aquacultural Transformation that will run during the morning hours of 7-10 a.m for the next six months. Our goal was to create a technicolor, aquatic ambiance in the lobby that engages and relaxes workers before the start of a hectic work day – therefore acting as an antidote against the 24-hour barrage of news and financial information that these workers are constantly subjected to. A primary component of the Aquaculture Transformation project is to convey that that the essence of the coral reef is literally infused into the concrete limestone infrastructure of every building in the Magic City. And thus the modern pop-cultural iconography of Miami is ultimately reflective of the neon diversity of our native coral reefs. This can be represented no better than the opening sequence to ‘Miami Vice’, in which the Southeast Financial Center is featured prominently in the last shot.
From August 19 – September 4 we will exhibit public projections in the city center of Cairns, Australia as part of Cairns Festival 2011. Under the direction of Morphologic collaborator Michael F. McPeake, Underwater Worlds celebrates Cairns’ intimate relationship with the coral reef. Showing alongside our films is Australia’s seminal underwater documentary Invisible Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, shot in 1961 by Noel and Kitty Monkman off the coast of Cairns.
We are psyched to share that a selection of our Natural History films will screen on ATP TV during this upcoming weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival as curated by Animal Collective, in Minehead, UK. This will be the first international exhibition of our work; read more about the festival here.
‘Cassiopeia 2’ | 407 Building | Lincoln Road | Miami Beach – Dec. 2-5, 2010
From December 2-5, we presented Artificial Reef, a series of large-scale video projections of corals, on three prominent buildings on Miami Beach. The concept of Artificial Reef was built around the premise that most of Miami’s infrastructure is comprised of fossilized coral reef limestone. The purpose of the project, (funded with a generous grant from the Knight Foundation) was to highlight this overlooked relationship of the city of Miami with its coral reefs. Our goal was to recolonize the city with a ‘living veneer’ of corals encrusted onto the artificial reef that is Miami Beach.
We are infinitely excited to announce our first public art project: Artificial Reef, a nightly projection series showcasing local coral reef-life in massive scale on prominent buildings across Miami Beach from December second to the fifth. The concrete used in constructing these buildings is largely composed of the pulverized fossils of coral and marine life that once colonized South Florida when submerged in millennia past. The Artificial Reef projections will “encrust” and “colonize” the Wolfsonian Museum, the 407 Building, and the Art Deco Welcome Center facades like rocks of the reef. Artificial Reef has been made possible by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation.
During the week/end we will have an accompanying solo show of of our multi-media works at the Art Deco Welcome Center. Video loops, photography and projections will be shown. The opening reception for Artificial Reef will take place at the Art Deco Welcome Center on Friday, December 3rd from 8PM – 12AM. We are additionally psyched to host special live “soundscape” performances by ANR and Sumsun during the reception, with an accompanying collage of our Natural History films curated and affected by video artist Jamie Harley. The video collaboration will be projected onto the bands as they perform. We will have complimentary Prestige beer at the reception.
‘Complex Nano’
Music by Space Voodoo Crystal
Video and Aquarium
2010 Coral Morphologic
Above is a short video featuring a glow-in-the-dark perspective of the 5-gallon ‘Complex Nano’ reef aquarium. A daylight photo of this aquarium is featured in the April/May – 8th Anniversary Issue of Marc Ecko’s Complex Magazine (see below). By comparing the two differently illuminated versions of this nano reef, the true fluorescence of the corallimorphs and zoanthids immediately becomes apparent. The fluorescent pigments of the corallimorphs and zoanthids are preferentially activated under the 470 nm blue wavelength LED lighting used in the video. Notice that the normally bright orange coloration of the clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) appears nearly black in the film.
Both of the fish in the aquarium are captive-raised by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s ornamental aquaculture subsidiary ORA. ORA has been a leader in this field, and we stand fully committed to the further development of aquacultured ornamental marine fish species. You’ll notice that the normally three-striped clownfish has an unusual cross-pattern on one side. This is the result of selective breeding on ORA’s part. In recent years, clownfish hatcheries have developed all black, white, orange, and ‘Picasso’, variations of the standard ‘Nemo’ through patient breeding and selection.
The other fish in the aquarium is an orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani). Wild versions of this fish tend to be more fiesty and territorial, whereas hatchery-raised fish tend to be more gregarious and better suited for life in a community reef aquarium.
Note the commensal (and nearly translucent) Pederson’s cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni) on the fluorescent orange (Ricordea florida) corallimorphs in the video.
During the nights of Art Basel Miami Beach our 2009 film reel was displayed on the 80′ X 42′ LED screen on the facade of the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami as part of the Media Mesh Project. The video compilation was curated by artist George Sanchez-Calderon and featured short films by the following artists: Lou Ann Colodny, Aiden Dillard, Alvaro Ilizarbe (Freegums), Justin Long, Ferran Martin, Coral Morphologic, Gavin Perry, Carlos Rigau, Bert Rodriguez, Damian Rojo, TM Sisters, and Jen Stark.
J.D. McKay (left) and Colin Foord (right) of Coral Morphologic; a self portrait.
During the night of Saturday, December 5th we displayed a video projection at the Art Basel Miami Beach satellite Moksha Art Fair. The subject of the the film was an Entacmea quadricolor sea anemone (right) and its corresponding reflection (left).
Pictured above and below is ‘Version Key’ as installed at the Miami’s Independent Thinkers art show during the days of Art Basel Miami Beach. The aquarium consisted of an eroded cinder block, red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) seedling, and three upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea xamachana) pulsating on oolitic sand; not an atypical South Floridian assemblage. It was displayed against a silver parachute backdrop on a concrete block pedestal surrounded by oolitic sand.
Still photo (above) of aquarium/ projection of our contribution to the Sweat Records X Iggy Pop t-shirt release party, August 22, 2009 at the Awarehouse in the Wynwood Art District. This installation consists of a 10″ X 10″ X 4″ acrylic aquarium atop an overhead projector projecting a 15′ X 15′ image onto the courtyard wall. The live-action component of the installation features a performance by thirty photosynthetic jellyfish (Cassiopea xamachana) collected in the mangrove estuary near the Virginia Key Wastewater Treatment Plant, here in Miami, FL.
Still photo (above) of aquarium/ projection of our contribution to The Collabo Show, July 25, 2009; an installation dubbed ‘Cassiopeia 1’, featuring photosynthetic jellyfish (Cassiopea xamachana) collected in the mangrove estuary near the Virginia Key Wastewater Treatment Plant, here in Miami, FL.
