🛎️ Are you ready for a brand new semester of OCEAN / UNI?
🌱 OCEAN / UNI Spring Semester 2023
Imagine the Ocean Dry as Lavender, second cycle:
The Mediterraneans Beyond Aridity
February 1–April 5, 2023
➡️ Registration form: https://forms.gle/YxBid7KXqKTzNUQy9
➡️ More info: tba21.org/oceanunimed2
The second cycle of "Imagine the Ocean Dry as Lavender" brings OCEAN / UNI back to the Mediterraneans and their warming seas as hotspots for highly interconnected climate risks. This time, we are happy to be developing the program together with the research-based curatorial platform EX NUNC. The program will be further enriched by accompanying Activations, a series of participatory workshops developed by QANAT collective.
During its second Mediterranean cycle, OCEAN / UNI strives to deepen its inquiry into the connections between climate politics and the ever-renewing processes and modes of coloniality in the region. Can an analysis of Mediterranean cases help us recognize the impacts of geoengineering and identify neo-colonial continuities in the theory and practice of ecological modernization?
ℹ️ The Spring semester of OCEAN / UNI 2023 is curated and developed by Barbara Casavecchia, Chiara Cartuccia, and Pietro Consolandi, alongside Aleksandra Czerniak, Michal Kučerák, Petra Linhartová, Fiona Middleton, and Markus Reymann. Graphic design: Lana Jerichová.
⚠️ Don't miss the final session of OCEAN / UNI this semester!
OCEAN / UNI, Session 6: A Future Vernacular?
Foregrounding localized knowledges for future-building
Wednesday, December 14, 6–7.30 pm CET
🔹With: Rashad Salim, Expeditionary Artist and Activist; Alfredo Gutiérrez Borrero, Professor of Design at the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo LozanoI
🔹Moderator: Pietro Consolandi, OCEAN / UNI Research Lead, Artist and Writer
In the epilogue of the Fall 2022 semester, we adopt a poetic, scientific, and artistic lens to speculate on reviving historical, heritage, and vernacular material cultures for the future.
Exploring the traditions of convivial, low-impact Ocean technology, including Indigenous architecture and artefacts, the closing session asks whether there is scope to enfold and incorporate these within the accelerating Anthropocene technosphere to support greater co-existence and regenerative material cultures. The imagined position is not a step backward to a romanticized past but rather a move towards a future vernacular.
🔹Sign up at bit.ly/signupforoceanuni
#oceanuni #oceanarchive #criticaloceanliteracy #futurevernacular #rashadsalim #alfredogutierrezborrero #online #session #digitaloceans #education #conservation #ocean #blueagency #learning
Deepwaters of Digital Oceans Symposium | DAY 1: Virtual Ocean
Virtual worlds have coexisted with us for quite some time, but social media corporations have recently privatised the metaverse concept with the promise of new landscapes.
The idea of the metaverse has become synonymous with great expectations. Instead, we want to focus on small-scale immersive digital experiences that can connect us more deeply with the blue world around us. Are we really shifting into the metaverse or are we still stuck within the frameworks of Second life 2.0?
Welcome note: Petra Linhartová, director of Digital & Innovation at TBA21
Moderator: Leonardo Dellanoce (IT), cultural entrepreneur, gamer, art historian, digital strategist
Panelists: Yara Feghali (US), Tom Kwasnitschka (DE), José Luis de Vicente (ES)
❗OCEAN / UNI: Session 5 takes place on Friday, December 9❗
Our fifth session, “Performing Blue Degrowth” with John Childs and Muhammad Arju, originally scheduled on November 30, will exceptionally take place on Friday, December 9 at 5 pm CET.
Our guests, along with the moderator Louise Carver, will delve into the narrative of "blue growth" that has become prominent across policy and business domains. Hailed as the solution to eradicate poverty, support innovation, and stimulate further economic growth in a range of sectors, blue growth is upheld as a key strategy in alignment with long-held notions of the Ocean as an economic frontier. What would it look like to actively build narratives and enact blue de-growth?
We continue as planned with the sixth and final session of this semester on vernacular futures on Wednesday, December 14, at 6 pm CET. The activation for both sessions will take place on December 19 at 6 pm CET.
➡️ You can find more information on the program and registration form at tba21.org/studiesinblueagency.
#oceanuni #bluegrowth #bluedegrowth #digitalocean #onlineclass #ocean #tba21academy #oceanarchive
Deepwaters are the ultimate space of imagination. What is hidden within?
In order to investigate possibilities of decentralized, accessible, and inclusive knowledge practices, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and TBA21–Academy are expanding their research into the encounters of art-technology-science-society. Deepwaters of Digital Oceans (DODO) is a week-long research-based series of events focused on engagement with exponential technologies through the prism of the Ocean.
DODO houses investigations around three clusters: AI, virtual realities, and blockchains. With an emphasis on multidisciplinarity, innovation, and regenerative solutions, our new digital team is committed to establishing new proposals for the blue world through three hybrid formats: workshops, a symposium, and a Hackathon.
➡️ See more about the program and ways to join at dodo.tba21.org.
❗Stay tuned for more details on the program, speakers, and participants in the upcoming week!
DODO is an initiative by TBA21 and TBA21–Academy in collaboration with Ars Electronica and The University of Edinburgh.
#dodotba21 #deepwaters #digitalocean #newtechnologies #oceandata #saveouroceans #criticaloceanliteracy #blueplanet #tba21academy #tba21 #arselectronica #universityofedinburgh #ai #virtualreality #blockchain
🌊 OCEAN / UNI, Fourth session
Wednesday, November 16, 6 pm CET
Thinking with the Seabed: The future of ocean extractivism
➡️ bit.ly/signupforoceanuni
With guests:
Dr. Patricia Esquete, marine biologist, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Clement Yow Mulalap, Legal Adviser for the Permanent Mission of the Federated States of Micronesia to the United Nations
Moderation: Mekhala Dave, Ocean Law and Policy Analyst & Researcher, TBA21–Academy
The wealth of minerals waiting at the seabed is more than a twinkle in the eyes of mining companies, who continue to advance mining plans even as the international regulatory body (the United Nations’ International Seabed Authority) and its attending States assemble the operational and environmental rules for doing so.
Science is raising alarms about the irreversible damage posed to the marine environment by deep-sea mining, and amidst momentum from States and industries, we ask:
What narratives are forming around deep sea mining? Who has agency over our high seas and the minerals therein? How do we redefine our relations with the Ocean and non-human features of the Ocean, also learning from Indigenous knowledge systems to decolonize shared legal frameworks?
#oceanuni #deepseamining #deepsea #mining #isa #internationalseabedauthority #seabed #marinebiology #law #policy #marine #environment
Why the Ocean?
Because it's our greatest ally in the fight against the effects of the climate crisis.
You can still vote for "Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language”, a project dedicated to building an eco-glossary together with the deaf community, in the competition for the Audience Choice Award sponsored by Art Explora.
Click here to vote: bit.ly/voteforabecedarium
Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language is a participatory project by TBA21–Academy's Ocean Space in collaboration with Ente Nazionale Sordi (The Italian National Agency for the Deaf) with the support of the Cnr-Ismar Istituto di Scienze Marine.
#abecedarium #tba21academy #oceanspace #LIS #linguadeisegniitaliana #signlanguage #internationalsignlanguage #deafculture #SignsfortheOcean #theOceanforAll #ArtExplora #Award #Cultureforall
Help us make the Ocean accessible to everyone!
We are happy to share that the project “Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language”, dedicated to building an eco-glossary together with the deaf community, is nominated for the Audience Choice Award sponsored by Art Explora.
Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language is a participatory project by TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space in collaboration with Ente Nazionale Sordi (The Italian National Agency for the Deaf) with the support of the Cnr-Ismar Istituto di Scienze Marine.
Your vote is important and can actively contribute to the development of the project and the start of its second phase.
Click the link and vote for “Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language”: bit.ly/voteforabecedarium
Sign languages unite us: together, we can make a difference!
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
#abecedarium #tba21academy #oceanspace #LIS #linguadeisegniitaliana #signlanguage #internationalsignlanguage #deafculture #SignsfortheOcean #theOceanforAll #ArtExplora #Award #Cultureforall
How can art support oceanic thinking beyond the ocean?
Meandering is TBA21–Academy's new live research program conceived and curated by Sofia Lemos, exploring the possibilities of engaged and contemplative practices and poetics of the imagination for more socially just and ecologically sound worlds.
Following a decade of commitment to critical ocean literacy and advocacy, TBA21–Academy hones in on the cultural value of the aquatic. Meandering expands our practice from the Ocean into rivers, tributaries, springs, streams, alluvial plains, tidal marshes, wetlands, and aquifers, as well as the physical and spiritual water elements that connect all lifeforms.
The live program of Meandering will first emerge as a one-day offering, part of the weekend program Pasaje del Agua in Cordoba on June 4, 2022, unfolding the spiritual, philosophical, and political trajectories of rivers and waterways through visual, performative, and sonic registers, featuring Lafawndah, Isabel Lewis, Eduardo Navarro, among many others.
ℹ️ See more about Meandering and its first live program via tba21.org/meandering.
💦 If you'd like to journey with Meandering behind-the-scenes, don't miss Sofia Lemos and Maya Saravia's contemporary travelogue of research at instagram.com/water_as_intention.
#meandering #river #cordoba #aquatic #wayfinding #worldmaking #isabellewis #eduardonavarro #lafawndah #oceanimagination #socialjustice
Fishing Fly #3: The Fisherman by Veronica Stigger
📘Fishing Fly #3: The Fisherman by Veronica Stigger
Ready to cast a line in the Fishing Fly again? We are happy to share a fresh addition to the serial publication conceived by María Montero Sierra: a story by the writer, art critic, curator, and university professor Veronica Stigger. In “The Fisherman”, the author revisits the parabola of the fisherman king, blending this with other legends from Brazil - her country of origin. “The Fisherman” is the first bilingual release of the series; you can read it in the original version in Portuguese, as well as in its English translation.
Read the story now via https://ocean-archive.org/story/fishing-fly-3-the-fisherman.
”His mouth drifted up and down, as if dancing to a song made by the sea itself in conversation with the wind. And his beard? Where was his beard? He didn’t see it. He didn’t see himself, and that gave him the unsettling feeling that he didn’t exist. Whose face was that, dissolving into the waves? For a few moments, he believed all he had to do was fix his gaze to better recognize himself, but it wasn’t a matter of vision, it was a matter of motion; it was a matter of image: the sea, moving and unstable, refused to create a mirror.”
📘Fishing Fly is a serial publication of short fiction, conceived and edited by María Montero Sierra, that animates vernacular and futuristic conceptions of marine life and human relationships. This series infuses into the actions transmitted through generations to connect us with the salty waters and its many lives. See more at tba21.org/fishingfly.
#MondayStories: Fishing Fly #2: Three Tries by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Stories are back with another work of short fiction from our Fishing Fly serial publication, entitled ‘Three Tries’ by the fantastic Alexis Gumbs, conceived together with her grandfather, Jeremiah Gumbs. She describes the story: “This work of autofiction is a lesson in fortitude. It takes the form of a fable, exploring the relationship between a boy, Jeremiah Gumbs, and an elusive rainbow fish. What underpins this evolving narrative is a theme of starvation—of time, touch and food—and a belief in the nourishing potential of intergenerational wisdom.”
Read the story now via https://ocean-archive.org/story/fishing-fly-2-three-tries.
✏️ Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Ph.D., is a queer Black feminist love evangelist, a community cherished writer and scholar and an aspirational cousin to all beings. The Anguilla Literary Festival has referred to Alexis as “the pride of Anguilla.” Alexis is the oldest granddaughter of Jeremiah and Lydia Gumbs, two leaders of the Anguillian revolution. Alexis is the author of several books, most recently Dub: Finding Ceremony and Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. Alexis is literary advisor to the Ntozake Shange Trust and Creative Writing Editor for Feminist Studies. Alexis lives on land traditionally stewarded by the Occoneechee Band of the Saponi Nation and is co-founder of Mobile Homecoming Trust, a living library amplifying generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance.
📗Fishing Fly is a serial publication of short fiction conceived and edited by María Montero Sierra that animates vernacular and futuristic conceptions of marine life and human relationships. This series infuses into the actions transmitted through generations to connect us with the salty waters and its many lives. See more at tba21.org/fishingfly.
OCEAN / UNI Spring Semester 2022
A brand new semester of OCEAN / UNI is here! 🚀
🌊 “Imagine the Ocean Dry as Lavender”
Mediterraneans as hotspot for climate change and adaptation
📅 February 9 - May 11, 2022
✏️ Register via https://forms.gle/qamB4m95nhAveFu17
The upcoming seven sessions adopt a transdisciplinary and decolonizing approach, inviting Mediterranean scientists, activists, artists, and practitioners to share their knowledges and perspectives. By connecting accelerating anomalies in the water cycles, specific case studies, and situated actions, OCEAN / UNI departs from the present to reflect on possible adaptations and imaginable futures. To look at the Mediterraneans as a paradigm, while non-localizing their shifting condition, means to look at many other middle seas and ecosystems of the globe.
Registrations for the upcoming semester of our online pedagogical course on critical Ocean literacy are now open! With a title inspired by the evocative verses of the Egyptian-Lebanese-French poet Andrée Chedid, the Spring semester of OCEAN / UNI 2022 focuses on the Mediterranean basin as an Anthropocenic hotspot and on building critical approaches to thinking about and engaging with the region.
The upcoming seven sessions adopt a transdisciplinary and decolonizing approach, inviting Mediterranean scientists, activists, artists, and practitioners to share their knowledges and perspectives. By connecting accelerating anomalies in the water cycles, specific case studies and situated actions, OCEAN / UNI departs from the present to reflect on possible adaptations and imaginable futures. To look at the Mediterraneans as a paradigm, while non-localizing their shifting condition, means to look at many other middle seas and ecosystems of the globe.
The spring semester of OCEAN / UNI 2021-2022 is curated and developed by Barbara Casavecchia, Leader of The Current III - “Mediterraneans: ‘Thus waves come in pairs’ (after Etel Adnan)”; Pietro Consolandi; Justine Daquin and Zoé
TBA21-Academy is the exploratory soul of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, and an itinerant site of cultural production and interdisciplinary research.
