Earsthetic: SeaWomen by Mikhail Karikis

Brighton Dome Founders Room, Church Street, Wednesday, November 25, to Tuesday, December 1

IT was while he was driving by the coast of South Korean province Jeju island that film-maker and sound artist Mikhail Karikis first heard the whistling.

“I saw a small pod of figures in the sea,” he says ahead of his 2012 film’s Brighton debut. “At first I thought they were seals or something – I didn’t realise they were humans until I got out and walked nearer.

“They were all women, and were all very old, producing these high-pitched sounds. I had to stay and find out more.”

Karikis had stumbled upon the seafood and pearl divers the haenyeo or sea women, who follow a tradition which dates back hundreds of years, but is gradually dying out.

In SeaWomen Karikis uses two big screens to show two 15 minute films simultaneously. One film follows the women free-diving from the boats, taking in the different activities they do during the day. Its companion focuses on an older diver in her 80s who dives from the rocks but carries out many of the same daytime activities.

“There are similarities and differences in the way they dive,” he says. “You observe their sub-aquatic agility compared to their terrestrial clumsiness, a lot of the divers have arthritis which affects how they walk on land, but in the sea they are almost acrobatic.”

Soundtracking the films are the sounds of the sea and the incredible high-pitched whistles the women produce.

“There is very little research on the physiology and function of the whistle,” says Karikis. “Part of the reason they do the whistles is their breathing technique, it allows them to control the levels of nitrogen as they go down to the bottom of the sea.”

The women freedive (without respirators or oxygen) for several minutes at a time to depths of about 20m – the equivalent of a four-storey building. Many suffer the diver’s illness the bends, and have to go into decompression chambers once or twice a week.

“They have to dive 80 times a day for eight hours, even in the winter,” says Karikis.

“They say that greed is their worst enemy – when they are down there and see the next seashell or the next octopus they are tempted to stay down longer. The younger divers have to learn how to control that to avoid getting the bends.”

There are other reasons for the whistles too, which Karikis experienced firsthand as he dived with the women.

“It’s such a high-pitched sound it stands out above the noise of the sea,” he says. “Their visibility is quite limited as the sea is quite choppy and there is an accumulation of condensation on the inside of their facemasks. The whistles mean that they don’t get lost – it’s a way of signalling to each other. When I went diving I could hear the differences in the pitches – each woman has a signature.”

The sustainable way of collecting both seafood and pearls from the bottom of the sea was the most profitable profession on the island in the 1960s and 1970s.

The women took over from men in the 18th century. Theories as to why range from increased taxes on male divers, a series of male deaths at sea or the fact women have more subcutaneous fat on their bodies allowing them to withstand cold waters.

It created a matriarchal society – with Karikis admitting the remaining women are both revered and feared at the same time.

But with the rise of industrial methods and a lack of women taking on the role the tradition is dying out.

“When I asked them why they didn’t teach their daughters to dive they all started laughing,” says Karikis, who spent two months trying to connect with the close-knit group of divers.

“They thought it was a funny suggestion. They wanted their daughters to go to university and do something much less arduous and hard. It takes a lifetime to acquire this wisdom of the currents and the sealife which lives down there. You can’t learn as a tourist – although they do now have a SeaWomen school where you can learn to dive.”

A whole subculture of songs and customs exists around the haenyeo, which Karikis captured alongside the sea photography.

Extra pressure is being created by a new $970 million US naval base looking out to China which is being built in the middle of a designated UNESCO Biosphere Conservation Area.

Karikis filmed some of the protests against the project in 2011, but they didn’t make the final cut.

“They didn’t really fit with the rest of the film,” he says, adding that screenings in London in 2012 and 2013 were used by South Korean environmental and peace activists to start a conversation about what was happening on the island.

“The film witnesses the remnants of an ancient profession and celebrates that. It is very inspiring.”

Starts 10am to 5pm, free. Call 01273 709709.