The Process: The Sea Snake is Listening

Artist Dana-Fiona Armour reveals what the sea snake knows about our changing oceans – and what it’s telling us about the climate emergency. 

It’s animals like the sea snake – a vital but often neglected bioindicator of marine health – that can be a crucial lens to environmental change. With fragile eco systems, rising sea temperatures and decreasing salinity, what would it take to retune our ears and listen to the sea snake? 

In her major courtyard commission for 2026, Serpentine Currents – Fragments of a Changing Future, Armour visualises how marine ecosystems are degrading and changing. 

The installation blends sculpture, science and responsive light technology, translating complex research and predictive ocean data from the British coast into visuals, with the sea snake at its heart.  

The dataset is also projected 50 years into the future, in a world where warming seas might allow sea snakes to inhabit UK waters. 

If the sea snake is telling us that the oceans are collapsing, with devastating consequences, then what does the future of our coastlines look like? 

Dana is joined by marine biologist, composer and researcher, Heather Spence, and researcher at French CNRS and Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, Anthony Herrel.  

Credits: 
Contributors: Anthony Herrel and Heather Spence 
Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott 
Producer: Tess Davidson  
Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley 
Host: Laurent John 
Theme Music: Ka Baird  
Additional field recordings and sound: Heather Spence, Felix Blume (FreeSound)