In the multimedia installation Dead Zones by Suzette Bousema (NL, 1995), natural, artistic, and scientific processes intersect, revealing how human actions on land have even penetrated in the seas.

Dead zones are oxygen-deprived areas in the ocean. In human-made dead zones, microalgal blooms in coastal waters are fuelled by fertilizers from agriculture and other waste streams. When these blooms break down, all the oxygen is consumed by bacteria, leaving nothing for higher life forms. Over the past 50 years, the concentration of nutrients has risen dramatically, leading to an increase in dead zones in coastal areas worldwide. It is estimated that there are now about 500 coastal dead zones, whereas only about 50 existed in the 1950s. In the Baltic Sea, there is a dead zone of 60,000 square kilometres. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River feeds a seasonal dead zone of about 23,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of half of the Netherlands. For her Dead Zones project, Bousema researched the dead zones in the Dutch Grevelingenmeer by diving there herself. In her artistic practice, she collaborated with other artists and scientists. Beggiatoa is a floor installation consisting of sandblasted glass plates with graphic patterns, on steel stands. The patterns are derived from the Beggiatoa bacteria, which grow on the seabed where oxygen disappears, and toxic sulphides begin to form. White patterns, resembling spider webs, act as visual markers indicating where the dead zones are located. The steel stands in this installation were designed by Johannes Equizi. Written in Sediment is a series of handmade screen prints based on photos of sediment cores used in science to document the environmental history of an ecosystem and make future predictions. The sediment cores were taken from the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, both of which have natural dead zones that have been oxygen-deprived for thousands of years. Organisms, like worms or crabs, that usually stir up the sediment, cannot live in dead zone areas, because of the oxygen deficiency. Therefore, organic material from algae or clay from rivers will sink down and stay untouched. This results in a layered pattern in the sediment. Bousema collaborated on this part with paleoceanographer Rick Hennekam of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). For Water Views, Bousema created two window-sized screens made with sugar kelp from The Seaweed Company. Seaweedfilter explores the potential of seaweed to function as natural filters for excess nutrients in the ocean. Seaweeds are macroalgae that, like microalgae, absorb nutrients and produce oxygen. Dead Zones is supported by the NATUURCULTUUR prize from the Fentener van Vlissingen Foundation, Amarte Foundation, Adessium Foundation, Stroom Den Haag, Mondriaan Fund.