Isabella Martin’s project, Baltic Code of Signals, reimagines maritime signal flags to create a new visual language for the Baltic Sea. The project celebrates the sea and its species while communicating its critical condition.
June 2026
The project is set on Bornholm, where Isabella Martin is collaborating with marine biologists and students at Bornholms Højskole and Kongeskærskolen to design new maritime signal flags.
They began by exploring the sea from Tejn harbour, collecting species and recording impressions while a Sensemakers sensor boat collected data on conditions in real time. The students’ final flag designs and associated messages were inspired by Baltic science as well as the feeling of being waist deep in its waters and holding it in your hands.
In the hot press workshop flag designs were painted onto watercolour paper using Bafixanfarver before using the hot press to apply them to polyester fabric squares. A few designs were chosen to print as larger flags onto a used sail sourced from Tejn.
In the sewing workshop the smaller flags were backed with coloured squares using the overlocker before being sewn onto cotton rope as several lengths of bunting.
On the large format printer a series of posters were printed of the flags and their messages which will accompany their display.
The project will be presented by the students at Folkemødet in Allinge before the flags and posters are installed on the former ice chute at Isværket in the entrance to Tejn Harbour where they’ll be on display during the summer.
Baltic Code of Signals is part of the long term Baltic Bodies project, which collaborates with researchers and citizens around the Baltic Sea, connecting scientific observation and embodied experience to make sense of its critical state.
