Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter: The Thinking Ocean
2026
Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter: The Thinking Ocean
Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter, still from The Thinking Ocean, 2026
The Thinking Ocean by Memo Akten and Katie Hofstadter is part of the artists’ series Cosmosapience, and simulates a dynamic body of water, fluctuating between the physics of fluids and the logic of code. Viewers can navigate a seemingly organic underwater scene, with drifting clouds of particulate matter and swirls of bubbles. The procedurally constructed environment becomes increasingly abstracted, morphing into patterns reminiscent of organic cell structures, circuitry, and code. Currents generated by the movement of a faintly visible, abstract, humanlike form create the perception of the ocean as an embodied presence. The shift between fluid dynamics and computation exposes oceans and computers as expressions of the same underlying principles—systems that can store and transmit information and flow. Recent research has shown that Navier-Stokes equations, which govern the movement of fluids like water and air, can in principle perform any computation that a digital computer is able to. The Thinking Ocean highlights our increasing bias toward granting agency to machines that mimic human behavior, while failing to notice the complex computations unfolding in natural systems surrounding us. The work is accompanied by a voice reciting a non-linear poem that is dynamically generated in real time.
Alexander Whitley, choreography, performance, and motion capture; Paige Emery, music and soundscapes; Niklas Niehus, WebGPU consultant and developer; and Milana Aernova, studio assistant. Developed in dialogue with researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s SOARS Lab (Scripps Ocean-Atmosphere Research Simulator).
The Thinking Ocean utilizes the WebGPU API, which requires iOS 26 or MacOS 26 or later on Apple devices.
Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter are interdisciplinary artists and researchers whose work investigates the entanglements of technology, consciousness, embodiment, and culture. Together, their collaborative research and practice explore how emerging technologies—particularly AI and data systems—interact with the embodied, emotional, and ecological dimensions of human experience.
Memo Akten (b. 1975, Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist, musician, and researcher whose practice bridges machine learning, consciousness, perception, and spirituality. He is a pioneer in artistic explorations of Deep Neural Networks and a recipient of the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica (2013). His works have been exhibited worldwide, from the Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art to the Grand Palais in Paris, the Venice Biennale.
Katie Hofstadter (b. 1981, Macon, Georgia) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator whose work investigates the complex relationships between embodiment, consciousness, and technologically mediated imagination. Her projects have been exhibited worldwide, and her writing appears in publications like Flash Art, BOMB, and The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She is co-founder of global public art campaigns such as the ARORA network and the Climate Clock in NYC.
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