The year is 5000, what creatures lurk at the bottom of the Fens?

This was the starting point for World Beneath the Water — a creative science project with students from Wilburton Primary School, produced by artist Susanne Jasilek of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination in partnership with CLIP and the Centre for Landscape Regeneration at Cambridge University. Inspired by ongoing scientific research into the Fens, students were invited to imagine a future underwater world and bring it to life through sound, sculpture, and movement.

CLIP · World Beneath The Water – Wilburton Primary

Imagining life beneath the surface

We began by listening to live hydrophone recordings streamed from Wicken Fen nature reserve, part of artists Kathy Hinde’s ongoing sound sculpture trail at the site. Together we combined analytical listening with creativity and the sounds became clues, sparking questions:

What creatures might make these sounds?
How would they move through their underwater world?
What might the Fens look and feel like thousands of years from now?

Armed with percussion, voices, and everyday materials like foil, cellophane, and fabric, each class created their underwater soundscape of the Fens. They clicked, rattled, and hummed, layering their sounds into shimmering, imagined ecosystems — from eel-like creatures gliding through reeds to curious, colourful beings that have yet to be discovered.

Making creatures, telling stories

The sessions were designed to be playful and exploratory, balancing scientific inspiration with creative freedom. Based upon the sounds, students sculpted their own “eely creatures” using mixed materials, inventing names, habitats, and behaviours. Some imagined tiny darting swimmers, while others built bold, glowing giants — predators of the deep.

At the end of the workshops, the sounds from both sessions were layered into a single immersive underwater soundscape, now installed inside one of the hides at Wicken Fen. Visitors are invited to step inside, listen closely, and experience this imagined future beneath the water — a creative response to the Fens’ rich ecology and the scientific research shaping our understanding of its past and future.

Collaboration and thanks

World Beneath the Water was a collaboration between Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, CLIP, and the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, working closely with Wilburton Primary School. The project was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Explore the gallery below to see the students’ imagined creatures, behind-the-scenes moments, and glimpses into the playful world they created.