This book was written and photographed in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in Brighton, UK.

This research seeks to develop new insights into oceans, wellbeing and climate change discourses. In particular, the study aims to shift focus from design solutionism to design kinship. It seeks to engage communities, human and non-human, to open new narratives and new ways of knowing with the aim of identifying ways of 'living with' oceans in more supportive and mutually beneficial ways.

During recent lockdowns we have seen coastal communities around the UK moving from their screens to the outdoors, seeking a connection with the seas, mostly for physical and mental health reasons.

The research was held during and just after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, engaging with the local community in coastal Sussex and reflecting in an autoethnographic manner through photography, interviews and video making. During it, a photographic book and a documentary were produced.

The topics vary from embodiment, feminism, oceans and climate change communications, more precisely, this research examines how embodied experiences with the sea may help facilitate a transition from the human-centred 'anthropocentrism' that dominates mainstream sustainability discourses towards the more complex species-centred values of the 'ecocene'.

Echo of the Abyss is a Virtual Reality (VR) experience that uses animal guides and immersive environments to cultivate a sense of kinship towards marine life. It emphasises the impact of design elements in creating a feeling of interconnectedness and in challenging mainstream perceptions of the deep sea, such as feelings of alienness and fear. Our approach offers design strategies aimed at increasing a feeling of safety and reflecting on the human and more-than-human bodies' relations in the environment.

Creative direction and research: Beatrice Maggipinto

Prototype design: Yanick Trindade

Advisors: Jessica Hammer, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes