The exhibit will open in November and feature multi-sensory art and science components to connect aquarium visitors to life underwater.

Birch Aquarium at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla has announced its new exhibition, “Meditation Ocean: Aquarius Reef Base,” will open Thursday, Nov 20.

The multi-sensory art and science installation reimagines the Aquarius Reef Base — the world’s only active, undersea research habitat, located in the Florida Keys — as a meditation space inspired by life beneath the ocean.

The exhibition, created by artist Hope Ginsburg and the Meditation Ocean Constellation, a collaborative group of artists, writers, educators, meditators, musicians, curators, divers and scientists, contains simulated underwater spaces, ambient reef sounds and more designed to invite reflection.

“Aquarius Reef Base stands on the shoulders of audacious experiments like the Navy’s SEALAB and Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf, when humans first tested the idea of living for days or weeks beneath the surface of the ocean,” Megan Dickerson, Birch director of exhibits, said in a press release. 

“Today, as our ocean and our world face unprecedented change, ‘Meditation Ocean: Aquarius Reef Base’ invites us to return to that boldness, this time to cultivate resilience, presence and a deeper connection to the changing life around us.”

The new exhibition is included with general admission to Birch Aquarium and replaces “Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen,” which opened in October 202  as part of Getty initiative PST ART.

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