Multimedia for Science Final Project

Wired for Creativity, When Ocean Engineering Meets Art 

by Sydney Mantell

Kylie Pasternak’s path to becoming a marine technician, submersible pilot, and Ocean Engineering Master’s student at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography was inspired by a single story. 

While in an Associate’s engineering program at Bristol Community College, Kylie Pasternak took an Ocean Engineering class. She didn’t exactly know much about the field, but she enjoyed problem solving and working with her hands. During the course, she was assigned to research the U.S.S. Tuscarora and George Belknap’s 1870s tests of the Thomson sounding machine, a device used to measure depth that was made out of a lead weight on a piano wire. In Pasternak’s research, she came across an entry in the ship’s logbook that would change her life. During a test off the coast of California, something unexpected happened to the crew of the Tuscarora. As the measurement device’s wire unspooled rapidly, researchers figured the Thomson sounding machine must be broken. The wire kept running, though, and Pasternak could feel the excitement jumping off the pages of the logbook as the scientists realized they had found the Kuril-Kamachatka Trench. 

The story inspired Pasternak to uncover more secrets of the ocean, even if it was written 150 years before her own oceanographic journey began. “It changed my whole life.” Pasternak had found her purpose. She felt like she could have an impactful role in the field of ocean engineering and began working as a marine technician, piloting remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). While Pasternak did not have much travel experience or access to marine spaces growing up, her job allowed her to visit National Marine Monuments in some of the most remote areas on Earth. Her experiences allowed her to learn more about Polynesian cultures and their relationship with the environment, while developing her own deeper sense of connection.

Pasternak later continued her educational journey at the University of Rhode Island and nurtured her newfound passion for science communication and environmental education. As a graduate student, her role includes teaching about topics like underwater sound during community outreach events. Pasternak wants to make learning about the marine environment accessible, and one of the ways she does that is through artwork. “People care greatly about the ocean but have very little real access to understanding.”

In 2026, Pasternak will continue to build connections between her identity as an ocean engineer and her identity as an artist through the Synergy Project, a collaboration between Art League RI and the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Through this program, artists and scientists are matched in a year-long partnership to communicate research in a creative and engaging way. Pasternak is excited to learn more about a marine science topic outside of her typical wheelhouse and then express those findings through artwork. While she is not sure exactly how the project will come together, she knows that expressing herself creatively will give her a sense of fulfilment within her graduate studies. For Pasternak, sharing her completed Synergy Project artwork with the public is just as important as the artmaking process. “I want [the public] to feel like they own a bit of stewardship to an environment people care greatly about but have little access to,” she said.

When you look around Pasternak’s home, there are signs of her dual Artist/Scientist identity everywhere. From the box of engineering bits and bobs, display box of deep sea manganese nodules, sewing machines, a framed painting of the U.S.S. Tuscarora, and what could only be described as the Barbie Dreamhouse of cat houses, Pasternak’s living space reflects her sense of creativity and curiosity. Her box of collage ephemera is a collection of stickers, business cards, flyers, artwork, scientific magazines, and more that represent the places she’s been, her accomplishments, scientific concepts, and components of her role as an ocean engineer. 

As she flipped through an issue of the environment coastal & offshore (eco) magazine, one of her favorite collage materials for community outreach events, Pasternak reflected, “If you don’t know what an ROV looks like, there’s bound to be someone in here using one… that’s what, I think, is the special sauce, to see people doing the work.” For these reasons, Pasternak’s passion for outreach is directly tied to her artistic practice. Art is a pathway to increase access to marine science, just as the narrative found in the U.S.S. Tuscarora logbook inspired Pasternak to pursue her career.