Inhabitants, What is Deep Sea Mining?
November, 2019 | LOOP Barcelona and La Casa Encendida, Madrid.
November, 2019 | LOOP Barcelona and La Casa Encendida, Madrid.
Inhabitants, What is Deep Sea Mining? Episode 1: Tools for Ocean Literacy, 2018. With Margarida Mendes. Commissioned by TBA21–Academy. Video still.
Past
EN/ ES
As part of a multi-institutional collaboration, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is pleased to announce the presentation of three episodes of web series What is Deep Sea Mining? (2018-ongoing) by Inhabitants, that from the 19th to the 24th of November will be shown simultaneously at LOOP Barcelona and La Casa Encendida, Madrid .
TBA21´s artistic director Daniela Zyman has curated content for LOOP Barcelona´s online platform VIDEOCLOOP, selecting three episodes of the web series What is Deep Sea Mining?, an exploratory video documentary by artist duo Inhabitants, founded by Mariana Silva and Pedro Neves Marques. Resulting from long-term research commissioned by TBA21–Academy and developed with curator Margarida Mendes, this work is dedicated to one of the most compelling ecological, social and economic issues affecting the world´s ocean.
The project interlaces different voices and perspectives to build up awareness of the way mining industries threaten the ocean’s depths and its seabed ecologies, unfolding through interviews, data analysis, testimonies and contributions by actors from different fields of knowledge. The transdisciplinary nature of the series reflects the ethos and methodologies that have long informed and shaped the activities of TBA21–Academy in fostering a solution-oriented imagination for the future challenges related to ocean conservation, advocacy and literacy through the arts.
Episode 1: Tools for Ocean Literacy is an inquiry about deep sea mining and the types of geologic formations where it is set to occur, particularly hydrothermal vents. Understanding the process of deep-sea mining demands not only a temporal investigation – its most salient dates, legal and corporate landmarks, and scientific breakthroughs – but also a spatial axis connecting the seafloor to outer space cartographic technologies. After all, we know less about the ocean depths than about the universe beyond this blue planet.
Episode 2: Deep Frontiers, written by anthropologist Stefan Helmreich, is a brief history of knowledge of the deep sea and its resources. It highlights the ambiguity of this history, as depictions of the deep changed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, this knowledge informs discussions about the commercialization of biological and geological resources, with the deep sea fast becoming a zone of international dispute, opening up a debate about sustainable practices at sea.
Episode 3: The Azores Case is set on the Azores archipelago, an autonomous region of Portugal located in the mid-Atlantic. In 2008, one year before Portugal submitted its proposal to extend its continental shelf to the United Nations, the Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. presented a proposal for mineral prospection and exploration in six areas off the coast of the Azores.
As part of a multi-institutional collaboration, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is pleased to announce the presentation of three episodes of web series What is Deep Sea Mining? (2018-ongoing) by Inhabitants, that from the 19th to the 24th of November will be shown simultaneously at LOOP Barcelona and La Casa Encendida, Madrid .
TBA21´s artistic director Daniela Zyman has curated content for LOOP Barcelona´s online platform VIDEOCLOOP, selecting three episodes of the web series What is Deep Sea Mining?, an exploratory video documentary by artist duo Inhabitants, founded by Mariana Silva and Pedro Neves Marques. Resulting from long-term research commissioned by TBA21–Academy and developed with curator Margarida Mendes, this work is dedicated to one of the most compelling ecological, social and economic issues affecting the world´s ocean.
The project interlaces different voices and perspectives to build up awareness of the way mining industries threaten the ocean’s depths and its seabed ecologies, unfolding through interviews, data analysis, testimonies and contributions by actors from different fields of knowledge. The transdisciplinary nature of the series reflects the ethos and methodologies that have long informed and shaped the activities of TBA21–Academy in fostering a solution-oriented imagination for the future challenges related to ocean conservation, advocacy and literacy through the arts.
Episode 1: Tools for Ocean Literacy is an inquiry about deep sea mining and the types of geologic formations where it is set to occur, particularly hydrothermal vents. Understanding the process of deep-sea mining demands not only a temporal investigation – its most salient dates, legal and corporate landmarks, and scientific breakthroughs – but also a spatial axis connecting the seafloor to outer space cartographic technologies. After all, we know less about the ocean depths than about the universe beyond this blue planet.
Episode 2: Deep Frontiers, written by anthropologist Stefan Helmreich, is a brief history of knowledge of the deep sea and its resources. It highlights the ambiguity of this history, as depictions of the deep changed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, this knowledge informs discussions about the commercialization of biological and geological resources, with the deep sea fast becoming a zone of international dispute, opening up a debate about sustainable practices at sea.
Episode 3: The Azores Case is set on the Azores archipelago, an autonomous region of Portugal located in the mid-Atlantic. In 2008, one year before Portugal submitted its proposal to extend its continental shelf to the United Nations, the Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. presented a proposal for mineral prospection and exploration in six areas off the coast of the Azores.
