The brief for this project was to devise a performance piece that will show a positive message on positive steps being taken to help save the seas. With the brief being given I immediately thought of pollution and I decided to focus on plastic pollution, with researching this I discovered that plastic is the biggest cause of pollution in our oceans and the main areas where this can be witnessed most is at the sites of the 5 Subtropical Gyres. The 5 Subtropical Gyres are the main currents in the ocean, these currents move the water in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions which trap tonnes of waste every day. The waste gets trapped amounst the water and cannot escape which leads to garbage patches in the middle of the ocean. However now there are many positive things being done to help with this type of pollution and hopefully they will one day be able to clear the ocean from pollution. 

            So the six designs for my costumes are based on the 5 Gyres and one represents the ocean as a whole as well as also being the solution to the plastic pollution in the ocean. So the 5 Subtropical Gyres; North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, North Pacific and south pacific costumes have all been developed from inhabitants from each of their regions of sea. Each of these designs look quite magical and colourful as I want them to represent how vibrant and colourful under the ocean is, however each costume has a layer of garment fully made out of plastic. This layer has been used to express how trapped these gyres have become due to all the plastic being disposed off into the oceans of the world.

            The last costume will be representing the ocean as a whole as well as the positive solution which is Seabins.The concept of my piece was to create more of a game rather than a performance, as the science festival aims to educate children I researched the best ways children learn and one of those ways is through fun games. With this being said the whole ocean costume is devised of a kids parachute game with the skirt of the garment being a game for the children to learn about the plastic pollution and the affect the currents have on it. The game consists of the children being split up into teams of the Gyres and they all get given a chance to help save the ocean by collecting plastic rubbish from under the parachute and tossing it into the seabin which is at the centre of the characters waste, the only rule for the children is that they must follow the flow of their current when collect the rubbish. Each time a piece of rubbish is tossed in the seabin the ocean will tell the children a and the gyres costumes will gradually light up as they are being saved.

            So the overall translation of my designs are to create a fun and interactive environment were these magical versions of the oceans currents are trapped and need to be saved by the children, by the use of a positive solution.