Krill song dance. This is an animated song and dance about Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill). It expresses what's known about the life of Euphausia after years of observation and data analysis. There's so much more to be known! This story comes from krill biologists Rob King and So Kawaguchi from the Australian Antarctic Division. Their words are arranged into Raku poetic form, the Japanese poetic form suggested by Antarctic scientist, data analyst and shakuhachi player Rupert Summerson. Song-writer and performer Jane Younghusband arranged and sang the lyrics, and composed and recorded the music. Lisa Roberts then set her animations to Jane's recording - animations she had made over many years - of Euphausia dancing.

 

Microscopy art: Maddison Gibbs. Technology and guidance: Dana Bergstrom and Ruth Ericsen, Australian Antarctic Division. 2019

Krill (Euphausia superba - Antarctic krill)

"...If you were to see the whole of me you may only see my big black eyes, greeny gut, and glowing red tail. As I swim, my pleopods and feeding basket bits move so fast you barely see. But you may feel the water turbulence I make.

Sometimes, in the dark, I fluoresce. I love that you see my greeny-yellow stomach full of phytoplankton I have eaten. That gorgeous colour is chlorophyll A, a dye in the phytoplankton that enables photosynthesis. Quite magical, really, when you think that light is the source of most of what we know as life, and just how many krill there are, and how many whales."

Lisa Roberts 2019

Related stories: Ocean health and Ocean-bottom krill sex.

 

	2024 Krill Song
	2022 Raising Darwin
	2022 Flying Sisters
	2021 Water Flows
	2009 Yam Sex
	2020 Tree Spirit
	2019 Algae Oxygen
	2020 Otter Song
	2020 Echidna Family
	2018 Mother Country
	2018 Ocean Breath
	2016 Human Inseparable
	2007 Cellular Memories

 

Mind map