To protect our oceans, marine life, and our own well-being, we need our marine biologists, oceanographers, climate scientists, and everyday ocean-lover to step forward and explore solutions that bring this vast underwater world to the everyday citizen.
A group that is fronting this ocean stewardship is the 11th Hour Racing Team, a professional sailing team with the purpose to advance solutions and practices that protect and restore the health of our ocean.
11th Hour Racing Team has partnered with The Ocean Race, formally known as the Volvo Ocean Race (the world’s premier global yachting race), to focus on innovative initiatives to restore ocean health and implement sustainable solutions across all event operations.
As The Ocean Race draws a huge spectatorship from around the world at all the different race stops, 11th Hour Racing and the Ocean Race organizers have identified an opportunity to use this attention to create awareness of ocean health. One solution for this is LILLY (Large Interactive Laser Lightshow Installation), a 3D hologram experience for Race Village visitors to discover what’s under the surface of the race route from Le Havre, France, to Fort-de-France, Martinique.
The 3D hologram projects a story that follows an albatross flying above the race start. There is a sense of calm and beautiful synchronicity between the yacht fleet and the albatross. A short while into the race this is interrupted by a storm. The albatross dives below the sea surface and introduces us to the underwater world. As we are introduced to this new environment, we are surrounded by colours, a sense of serenity, and a diversity of marine life.
As we continue our journey, we start to notice the colour of the coral fading, the fish species becoming less, and eventually, we are left looking at a plastic bag, floating lifelessly. We are then abruptly interrupted by the sound of an air horn and a cheering crowd from the first boats crossing the finishing line, we are back above the surface at the Race Village. The message that visitors are left with is that there is a lot more going on beneath the ocean, and we need to take action now.
Working with the 11th Hour Racing team, formula D_ conceptualised, designed, and produced LILLI to help them with their goal to inspire everyday citizens to take action towards ocean protection, may this be through seafood choice or plastic use.
