Art and Ecology Merge on the Coast

A swirl of netting, a sweep of arms. Garments sculpted from salvaged lab gear rustle like waves, dancers sway like forests of kelp. At the Bodega Marine Laboratory, science leapt beyond the lab bench in a surprising collaboration—part fashion show, part modern dance, part film screening—where artistic expression met ecological research on the Sonoma Coast.

From beetles to ball gowns: Research inspires creative expression

Artistic Visions of Coastal Renewal brought Ph.D. students Katie Erickson and Mei Blundell and Ph.D. candidate Tracie Hayes, all members of the UC Davis Population Biology Graduate Group, together for a public showcase - but their projects grew from very different roots. Katie’s vision began at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs, where a costume-filled “Invertebrate Ball” planted the seeds of a marine-science-meets-couture concept. Mei was inspired by the timing in marine ecosystems and how musical rhythms might mirror biological cycles. 

Both Katie and Mei found inspiration, too, in seeing the previous cohort of Bilinski Fellows at BML build bridges between art and science, challenging themselves to look at and communicate about their research in new ways. In particular, attending an art exhibition curated by Tracie Hayes in 2023. Tracie, a two-time fellow and member of the current cohort, joined this event by screening a short film collaboration with KQED’s Deep Look about burying beetles and their life on the Bodega Marine Reserve. 

Learn More About the Bilinski Fellowship at BML Program

Reimagining adaptation through fashion

Katie invited her team of collaborators, the n-girls collective, to Bodega Bay for an artistic retreat spent rummaging through discarded equipment, sketching designs, and “brain-dumping” words and phrases that captured their shared mission. “Exaptive Potential” emerged as their unifying theme, riffing on the evolutionary concept of adaptation: when traits evolve for one function but find new use in another. The garments reimagined castoff materials into clothing that was as beautiful as it was unexpected.

“For me, this was a practice in being hopeful,” Katie said. “Maybe species can't adapt to our rapidly changing environments, but there could still be another path to survival. Finding exaptative potential made me realize how many amazing properties the things around us hold, and how those could be used in new ways.”

Dancing with the tides

Mei collaborated with composer Max Gibson and choreographer Linda Bair to translate the movement of kelp—its tumbles, pulses and sways—into dance. They even used 12 minutes of underwater recordings as the basis for an improv rehearsal. “I imagined us as an algae-covered rock rolling in the current,” Mei recalled. 

The resulting piece, …all dripping in tangles green…, draws from Mei’s PhD research on how kelp life stages contribute to population resilience following marine heatwaves. Individual differences in the dancers’ movements created surprising emergent patterns as the kelp populations they embodied endured two heatwaves, recovered, and rebuilt. Mei found that the experience demonstrated how art could serve as a parallel form of research, one that builds emotional connection and scientific curiosity at once. 

“This isn’t in my dissertation,” Mei said, “but it’s a major part of my PhD experience. It helped me show up to science as a more whole person.” 

Finding meaning in transformation

More than a performance, Katie and Mei found that their projects became a meditation on transformation and resilience. The impact was clear: audience members recognized familiar lab materials reshaped into vessels of meaning, and fellow scientists saw a new model for creative engagement. As they celebrated post-show, surrounded by peers, costumes and music, the message was simple: beauty, like science, often begins by noticing what others overlook.