CETACEAN (The Whale), is a project culminating in a public performance built around a full-scale blue whale skeleton, an enormous marionette suspended and “swimming” through the air of the University of Illinois Stock Pavilion. Using recycled plastic, the 100-foot-long skeleton will be built by local students—a haunting, crowdsourced ghost whale. In addition to providing a cathartic communal moment, CETACEAN will serve as an educational platform for ideas about ecological systems, climate change, and resilience, while embodying collaborative processes, sustainability, and interdisciplinary storytelling. Research, fundraising, and planning for CETACEAN have been going on for a year.

The whale marionette will be installed in the University of Illinois Stock Pavilion during Summer 2023. The final performances will take place in the Stock Pavilion in September/October 2023