Culturing the Deep Sea: Towards a common heritage for allkinds
Abstract submission deadline: September 4, 2023
Writers fee: 200 EUR
Submission: 600-800 words
Deadline to submit full text (selected participants): October 9, 2023
Format: Learning resource, Essay, Non-fiction, Speculative fiction
Keywords: Blue Humanities, Eco-Criticism, Deep Sea, Deep-Sea Mining
OCEAN / UNI is back with another semester, Culturing the Deep Sea: Towards a common heritage for allkinds, and we would like to invite you to become a more active part of it again! Along with participation in the sessions, we are commissioning texts to enrich the curriculum. Taking a place-based approach, this semester aims to ‘ground’ both the concept of the seabed and the speculative nature of deep-sea mining, which, as of yet, remains fictional.
We are looking for writings adding another perspective or example to the featured topics. During the semester, we will be focusing on one prospective mining site each session, hearing from those on the front lines of ecological destruction, regulation, and knowledge of the deep ocean. We offer you this space to experiment and test new ideas and bring forward new creative and critical perspectives emerging from the complexity of ocean depths.
If any of the topics listed below are especially resonant to you and you would like to be featured — send us your proposed abstract of up to 100 words until September 4 via this Google Form. The format we are looking for is a learning resource, essay, fiction or non-fiction, but we will consider any other creative interpretation of scientific research that is a part of your practice or its extension. If selected, your final contribution will also be proofread by us, so don’t let the grammar stand in the way of applying! Plus, to stir your imagination, we prepared a small collection of deep-sea-related content that you can already find on Ocean-Archive.org. You can use it within your Journey, or if you want to refer to your own content, you can start by uploading your materials to the Archive. Our team will be happy to assist you in case you run into technical issues.
Please note that the selected participants must be able to finalize the text within four weeks and submit the final version of their texts by October 9. Published texts will then be hosted on TBA21–Academy´s digital venue Ocean-Archive.org under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. With your permission, we will also include your text in a digital publication accompanying the semester.
The topics of the sessions, to be interpreted broadly in the Journeys, are:
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Caring for the deep sea: General Ecology of the Deep Sea
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A remote commons: Nauruan Exclusive Economic Zone
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International Seabed Authority as performative space: Clarion-Clipperton Zone
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Green(blue)washing, energy/materials/transition: New Indian Ocean Site
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Ocean as Library of Ideas: Hydrothermal Vent Site
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out via acquisitions@ocean-archive.org.
Ocean-Archive.org is an online platform that investigates the potential of storytelling and transdisciplinary collaboration within and beyond archival practices. It strives to expand critical ocean literacy in a time of great necessity and catalyzes collective action for a living Ocean. The aim of Ocean-Archive.org is to bring together the multitude of voices and journeys around the Ocean and connect those striving to nurture and protect it. With ocean comm/uni/ty, the platform instigates conversations around the Ocean so that the members can connect and co-create. Designed as a storytelling and pedagogical tool, Ocean-Archive.org translates current knowledge into a shared language that fosters synergy among art, science, policy, and conservation and enables us to make better decisions for urgently needed policies.
Biweekly live sessions and activations online via Zoom and on Ocean-Archive.org
OCEAN / UNI is an initiative dedicated to art, activism,and science that invites fluid thinking with the Ocean as a way to move beyond the binaries of land and sea. OCEAN / UNI’s curriculum provides students, researchers, and the public access to wide-ranging ideas and explorations through regular live sessions, reading groups, small-scale workshops or activations, and other online material, free and accessible to everyone on Ocean-Archive.org
Aiming to complement and enhance land-based understanding of the Earth, it covers a wide range of ecological, political, aesthetic, ethical, and scientific topics around the realities and futures of the Ocean.
