Proteus

For the nineteenth century, the world beneath the sea played much the same role that "outer space" played for the twentieth. The ocean depths were at once the ultimate scientific frontier and "the reservoir of the soul": the place of the unconscious, of imagination and the fantastic.

20 years in the making and based almost entirely on images of nineteenth century painters, photographers and scientific illustrators, PROTEUS brings these undersea worlds to life in a "visually stunning fusion of art, cinema and science" (David Caron, Chair of Biological Sciences, USC).

The central figure of PROTEUS is biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel. As a young man, Haeckel found himself torn between science and art, materialism and religion, rationality and passion, outer and inner worlds. Through his discoveries beneath the sea, Haeckel eventually reconciled these dualities, bringing science and art together in a unitary, almost mystical vision. His work profoundly influenced not only biology but also movements, thinkers and authors as disparate as Art Nouveau and Surrealism, Sigmund Freud and D.H. Lawrence, Vladimir Lenin and Thomas Edison.

The key to Haeckel's vision was a tiny undersea organism called the radiolarian, one of the earliest forms of life. Haeckel discovered, described, classified and painted four thousand species of these one-celled creatures. In their intricate geometric skeletons, seemingly infinite variety and stunning beauty, Haeckel saw the future possibilities of organic and created life.

Around Haeckel's story, PROTEUS weaves a tapestry of poetry and myth, biology and oceanography, scientific history and spiritual biography. The legend of Faust and the alchemical journey of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner are part of the story, together with the laying of the transatlantic telegraphic cable and the epic oceanographic voyage of HMS Challenger. As these threads lead us back to Haeckel and the radiolaria, PROTEUS becomes "indescribable...a remarkable movie that continually urges the mind to reach beyond what is examined on the screen" (Leonardo: The Journal of Arts, Sciences and Technology).