The Ocean Runs Deep

The idea

An immersive game-installation that brings the deep ocean closer, as a living world our survival and lives are connected to, through curiosity, presence, and play.

The experience is built around one journey: from distance to curiosity, presence, connection and care. Instead of explaining the deep ocean from the outside, it invites visitors to move, slow down and attune to it, building a relationship rather than delivering information.

The project deliberately avoids fear-, guilt- and doom-based messaging. Threat framing works only when paired with a credible sense that the audience can act on the threat, and deep-sea mining, bottom trawling, warming and acidification are governed at a policy level no visitor can act on directly from inside an installation. The Ocean Runs Deep builds relationship and felt efficacy instead, through presence, curiosity, play and embodied encounter, locating agency in care and stewardship rather than individual behaviour change.

It is a participatory experience at the intersection of game design, installation art and embodied interaction. A possible future digital version is under consideration but is not part of the current scope.

Formats

The Ocean Runs Deep is currently one format (the immersive game-installation) with further formats emerging as the project grows.

Immersive Game-Installation

Public Programming (talks, panels)

Community (online & in person)

Scientific & institutional grounding

The Ocean Runs Deep is a member of the UNESCO Blue Threads Network (Ocean Literacy UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe), and is in close contact with the German Committee of the UN Ocean Decade (ODK). The project has applied for endorsement as a Decade Action under the UN Ocean Decade programme Ocean Literacy With All (OLWA). It is grounded in ocean science, artistic research and participatory design, developed with input from ocean scientists and creative practitioners throughout its research and prototyping stages.

People

The Ocean Runs Deep is led by Dimosthenis Gkantzos, Project Manager (Digital Media and Real-time Technologies) at the Interactive Media Foundation and Project Lead and Creative Producer for The Ocean Runs Deep, with Michael Grotenhoff as Executive Producer and Vivian Schröder as Impact Producer.

Scientific and artistic direction is shaped together with Mae Lubetkin, Art and Research Lead: an ocean scientist and transmedia artist, closely embedded in the project as an external collaborator.

For the SILBERSALZ prototype, artist Max Seeger joins through the Co-Creation Residency, developing the installation together with and Tinkertank.

Milad Ganji, Partners Manager at the Interactive Media Foundation, is the contact point for partnerships and collaboration enquiries.

Following the project

The Ocean Runs Deep is still early in its development, and is communicated publicly as a project in progress. Since July 2024, it has moved through initial research and audience-insight work, its first public talks during Berlin Science Week (November 2025), a three-day Game Jam that produced its first working prototype (May 2026), and, from 21 September 2026, a six-week Co-Creation Residency at Tinkertank in Ludwigsburg with media artist Max Seeger, ahead of its first public presentation at SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival (28 October – 1 November 2026).

Progress and milestones will be shared on Instagram and Substack, with the aim of building an international community that follows the project's development from an early stage and can grow into active participation later on.

These updates cover the science behind the deep ocean, the development process itself (prototyping, playtesting, the residency), the people and partners involved, and the wider network of organisations working on ocean literacy.

The road to SILBERSALZ

The six-week Co-Creation Residency moves through a structured process, from kick-off to a first public presentation:

Kick-off and workshop induction

Conception

Prototyping and testing

Building exhibits and further testing

Finalisation and preparation for installation

Public presentation at the SILBERSALZ Festival in Halle

That presentation is a major milestone for The Ocean Runs Deep: the first time the prototype moves from internal development into a public, in-person encounter with an audience.

What the prototype will include, and what media artist Max Seeger will present in Halle, isn’t finalised yet; the residency itself is still shaping it. Photo and video documentation of the process will show how the work develops, not announce a finished result in advance.

Community

The Ocean Runs Deep sits at the intersection of art, science and games. We aim to connect interested people to communities, sources and voices already working on deep-sea and ocean literacy questions. Follow our journey at Instagram and Substack, for updates, milestones and behind-the-scenes from the development process.