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Okeanos Educational Program

Capacitor works with universities, high schools, and elementary schools to deliver comprehensive learning programs that focus on science/art/ocean conservation. We do this in partnership with the Ocean Ark Alliance.  We also provide science lectures and presentations from ocean experts both local and international. Through its contemporary dance-science performance, Capacitor will inspire a new demographic of children to pursue science and achieve greater physical fitness.

Target population

Few people are afforded the opportunity to explore the deep ocean. In touring Okeanos, the company aims to deliver an experience of wild nature to thousands of people who may never have the chance to commune with the ocean and its inhabitants directly. In doing so, Capacitor excites audiences with the creative possibilities of live performance and generates a greater sense of stewardship for this great body we require for survival.

Scientific Advisory Panel

  • Tierney Thys PhD - Marine Biologist, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and Expedition Leader, Monterey Bay Aquarium consultant, past director of research at the Sea Studios Foundation, a team of scientists and filmmakers that makes award-winning media to raise awareness of environmental issues

  • Sylvia Earle PhD - Chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (90-92) and National Geographic Explorer-in-rRsidence.

  • Bart Shepard BA MS - General Curator of the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences

  • Michael Arvedlund BSc MSc PhD CICS, Reef Consultants

  • John Potter PhD - Principal Scientist at the NATO Undersea Research Centre

  • Morton Lomask - Bathyscaphe Explorer, 1957 (10K foot dive) - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 32, 1028 (1960)

  • Healy Hamilton PhD – Director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics at the

  • California Academy of Sciences

  • Terry Gosliner PhD – Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology at the California Academy of Sciences

  • Rebecca Johnson PhD - Invertebrate Zoologist at the California Academy of Sciences

Pre Show Talks

Capacitor and Fort Mason Center presented Okeanos, an dance-circus ocean sensory immersion devoted to improving human-ocean relations in April 2012. Capacitor hosted TEDxSF, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, and the BLUMiND Summit prior to the Okeanos premiere at Fort Mason April 12-15, 2012. Speakers presented talks such as Andy Sharpless (Oceana.org), Patri Friedman (Seasteading Institute),  Jenefer Palmer (OSEA), Edward T. Lu (Liquid Robotics), Casson Trenor, Amos Nachoum (Big Animal Expeditions), Chris Welsh (cofounder, Virgin Oceanic--Explorations of the deepest parts of the ocean basins), Brett Hobson (AUVs and ROVs from the globally acclaimed Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute MBARI), Erika Montague (expedition member, Deep Challenge - Jim Cameron's full ocean depth expedition to the Challenger Deep), Luke Beatman (Liquid Robotics engineer for the record-breaking PacX wave gliders), Sterling Zumbrunn (underwater photographer, Backscatter). Dr. Tierney Thys (Nat Geo Explorer), Dr. Sylvia Earle, David de Rothschild (Plastiki), Jenifer Austin (Google Ocean), and Chef Barton Seaver (Cod and Country), Dr. Wallace J Nichols (BLUEMiND), Farhana Hug (browngirlsurf.com), Dr G (greensteininstitute.com), Amir Vokshoor (I.N.I. Foundation), and Sarah Kornfeld (mindandocean.org). 

Ocean Solutions Cafe

To harness the momentum Okeanos creates, the show can be followed an interactive post-show reception with booths sponsored by ocean conservation groups. By partnering with ocean conservation groups, Okeanos is a compelling vehicle for environmental communications. The café also presents an opportunity for those on the front lines of ocean conservation to collaborate and extend their networks.