photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

Sea-Water Amplification Ocean School

as a planetary garden

Instead of being limited to a small space that we control, from now on the garden is placed within the limits of the biosphere. And this garden is entrusted to our care. Hence, a feeling of collective responsibility: what we do here will inevitably have repercussions over there, on the other side of the planet, to the extent that each one of us, in our daily activities, in our way of understanding the world and transforming it, however little that may be, can in our own way be a planetary gardener.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

The story of our planet is the story of a water ball shrouded by the ocean, with springs, streams, canals and rivers all around it and also under us and with all that water flowing eventually into the sea…

Tales about the ocean can help us understand the world, our places in it and can stimulate the curiosity and wonder that has the power to create new (unexpected) connections, new ideas, new ways and approaches to thinking about the ocean and our relationship to it and other marine-aquatic environments.

Creating a more ocean-literate society means that we are able to make more informed and responsible decisions about the ocean and all the wonders and immense generosity that the ocean offers us.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

The SWA Oceanic School represents an opportunity for a comprehensive understanding of our relationship with the ocean. Our activities are not only for pre-school and school age children, but are aimed at absolutely everyone who is interested in this type of education. Through our activities we strive to address complex challenges in a holistic way.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

As part of our educational and research practice, we propose that we can only get closer to understanding the vitality and complexity of human-weather relationships if children have the opportunity for sensory and affective engagement with the weather. These connections, which are created in small daily meetings, persist and open up care opportunities in response to climate change.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

Where we are

The SWA Ocean School and all of our educational and research activities take place in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the island of Pico (Ilha do Pico) in the Azores archipelago.

Currently, all educational, research and artistic activities take place in a narrow group of people. If you are interested in our activities and would like to participate in their further development, either here on the island or somewhere else, email us at info@abhpp.org or contact us via our Instagram.

Currently, there is a call for Reference Culture Moves Europe: Individual Mobility of artists and cultural professionals, which has already been used by several people interested in working with us.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Ilha do Pico, Azores, Atlantic Ocean 2024

Key points of Ocean School education

• The view of nature and the ocean landscape as a possible partner with whom it is possible to communicate and be related permeates its basic process of teaching and learning.
• Integration and interconnectedness are universal features of the ocean school.
• We adhere to the principles of reciprocity between people and all other beings.-
• In every activity and learning/learning process we try to find deeper meanings.
• Through our educational, research and artistic activities, it represents something that everyone can learn and use, at every stage of life.
• We are aware of the level of maturity and readiness to learn. This awareness is integrated into all situations in which the educational learning process takes place.
• We are aware that the real sources of knowledge are found within the individual and entities of Nature.
• We are aware that real learning occurs through participation in and honoring relationships in both human and non-human communities.
• We are aware that learning requires letting go, growing and reintegrating at progressively higher levels of understanding.
• We are aware of the power of thought and language to create the worlds in which we live.
• As part of our educational, research and artistic activities, we create maps of the world to assist us in our life journey.
• The approach to education is based on the progressive stages of learning, i.e. how to see, feel, listen and act.
• We learn by observing and doing, reflecting on what we do, and then doing again.
• We are aware that learning is only complete if it starts from the beginning and continues to the end. One skill builds on another, but the basics must always be honoured. Learning is step by step.
• We are aware that learning and teaching require overcoming doubts.
• Learning requires seeing what is real about a situation, a thing, or an entity.
• Learning is also about seeing the whole through the parts.
• The Oceanic School honors the fact that true learning strengthens your self-esteem by starting to understand who you really are and live life to the fullest.
• There are realities and realities. To learn how they interact with each other is to truly understand.
• We are aware that thinking about and recognizing who a person is can achieve a knowledge of who they are not!
• We learn through our bodies through embodied and situational approaches.

Related activities:

Here we provide references to our own research work related to the project Pedagogy for Expanded-Interspecies Listening.

📒 Pedagogy for Expanded-Interspecies Listening 2023

📒 Pedagogy for Expanded-Interspecies Listening, exhibition 2023

📒 Where Whales Swim With Open Mouths , I Sing About The Water Surface, Related water education 2023

📒 I’ll take you to places you’ve never been, audio works 2023

📒 I’ll take you to places you’ve never been, exhibition 2024

📒 Sensory knowledge – Shared atmosphere 2024

📒 Thinking with space-time dimension of place (I), Open Spatial Laboratory 2024

📒 Thinking with space-time dimension of place (II), Open Spatial Laboratory 2024