OCEAN / UNI Spring Semester

Ocean Commons – Reclaiming the common oceans inaugurates the second cycle of TBA21–Academy’s Ocean / Uni in 2021. This art–science educational initiative, open to the general public, offers 8 biweekly online sessions to delve further into investigations at the core of the research exhibition Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, commissioned by TBA21–Academy, to re-open at Ocean Space in March 2021.

Latched to the launch of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), Ocean / Uni invites exchange and debate to garner knowledges and stake out new perspectives on the oceans and their intractable destabilizations. "Ocean Commons – Reclaiming the common oceans" draws on a community of scholars, artists, practitioners, and ocean enthusiasts to think with the politics of the commons and the world of communal relations from within critical ocean studies and activist practices. To defend and reclaim the commons touches upon ethics of care and the threading of mutual bonds. This call is harnessed by people on the most divergent and intersecting fronts, to counter the sorcery of capital and commodification. But it also alerts us to the disturbing realization that while the commons may be figured as owned by all, this comes with the risk of being cared for by none.

The spring semester program "Ocean Commons – Reclaiming the common oceans" offers broad exposure to ecocritical voices that speak to non land-based worldviews, and bring into focus situated struggles, forms of resistance, indigenous knowledges, legislative imagination, and forms of care. The program consists of expert presentations, discussions, and close readings (see: Arpentage sessions) to build grounds for forms of thinking and practices that exceed mere notions of repair and repristination.

Ocean / Uni’s format of study is centered around eight biweekly sessions to take place online on Zoom Platform and Ocean-Archive.org between January 20 and May 17, 2021.

The curriculum is open to:

• Adults from any background and eager to engage in ecological, political, aesthetic, ethical, and scientific conversations around the futures of the oceans.

Ocean/ Uni will be held exclusively in English, so a good listening and speaking level is recommended to ensure a meaningful learning experience.

To expand on the questions and topics addressed within each Ocean/ Uni session, 8 extra online sessions of so-called "Arpentage" reading circles are offered as an experiment in collective learning, to deepen knowledge and activate the debate around specific ecocritical positions.

These reading circles are conceived as ways to engage the students in a more horizontal, non-hierarchical manner by using the methodology of the "arpentage", which has its roots in working-class culture (workers' circle), as an alternative pedagogy.

Participants are required to register for their attendance to the seminar online in a webinar format. You are welcome to register in advance for more than one session.

• ONLINE REGISTRATION

• Session 1 - Wednesday, January 20, 2–4 pm
  OCEAN JUSTICE: PEOPLE vs. ARCTIC OIL. With: Silje Ask Lundberg, chairman of Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature
  Session in collaboration with NTNU Trondheim
• Session 2 - Wednesday, Feb 3, 4–6 pm
  OCEAN CARE - CARING FOR THE COMMONS. With Rémi Parmentier, Founding Director, Varda Group; Clement Yow Mulalap, legal adviser, Permanent Mission of the Federated States of Micronesia to the UN; Teresa Satta, artist, and writer; Susanne Winterling, artist, artistic researcher, and Professor at Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, NTNU, Norway.
• Session 3 - Wednesday, February 17, 4–6 pm
  OCEAN LABOR. With Louise Carver, Critical Geographer, Lancaster University; Nancy Couling, architect and urban researcher, currently Associate Professor at Bergen School of Architecture; Francisco Rodríguez Teare, artist.
  As part of the program related to this session the video essay "The Lottery of the Sea" (2006) by Allan Sekula will be available for online viewing on Ocean Archive from February 17 till February 24.
• Reading session - Wednesday, February 24, 4–6 pm
  • The book in focus in these sessions is "Forest Law" by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares. Sessions led by Pietro Consolandi and Beatrice Forchini
• Reading session - Friday, February 26, 2–4 pm
  • The book in focus in these sessions is "Forest Law" by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares. Sessions led by Pietro Consolandi and Beatrice Forchini
    
• Session 4 - Wednesday, March 10, 4–6 pm
  DEEP SEA MINING: THE FUTURE OF GREENWASHING
  Sandor Mulsow, marine geologist. Session in collaboration with NTNU Trondheim
• Reading session - Wednesday, March 17, 4–6 pm
  • The book in focus in this session is "Matters of Care" by María Puig de la Bellacasa. Session led by Markus Reymann and Katarina Rakušček
• Reading session - Friday, March 19, 2-4 pm
  • The book in focus in this session is "Tradition and the Modern Age" by Hannah Arendt. Session led by Daniela Zyman
• Session 5 - Wednesday, March 24, 4–6 pm
  FLUID TERRITORIES. With Philip Steinberg, Professor of Political Geography, Durham University; Nicola Manghi, anthropologist and PhD candidate at Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, Italy
• Session 6 - Wednesday, 14 April, 4–6 pm
  SOUNDING BORDERLESS ENTANGLEMENTS. With Jana Winderen, artist; Emma McCormick, artist, writer and researcher; Carl Michael von Hausswolff / freq_wave
  
  • Reading session - Wednesday, April 21, 4–6 pm
    
    • The book in focus in these sessions is "Waves of Knowing - A Seascape Epistemology" by Karin Amimoto Ingersoll. Sessions led by Fiona Middleton and Pietro Scammacca
      
  • Reading session - Friday, April 23, 2-4pm
    • The book in focus in these sessions is "Waves of Knowing - A Seascape Epistemology" by Karin Amimoto Ingersoll. Sessions led by Fiona Middleton and Pietro Scammacca
• Session 7 - Wednesday, April 28, 4–6 pm
  MEDITERRANEAN ENCLOSURES. With Sara De Vido, Associate Professor, Research Institute for Social Innovation, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, and Beppe Caccia, Representative of Mediterranea Saving Humans
  
• Reading session - Wednesday, May 5, 4–6 pm
  
  • Book in focus TBC. Sessions led by Pietro Scammacca and Beatrice Forchini
    
• Reading session - Friday, May 7, 2-4pm
  • Book in focus TBC. Sessions led by Pietro Scammacca and Beatrice Forchini
    
• Session 8 - Wednesday, 12 May, 4–6 pm
  OCEAN AS A METHOD. With Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza,Territorial Agency, Barbara Casavecchia, Markus Reymann, Pietro Consolandi, Fiona Middleton, Pietro Scammacca, Alice Ongaro Sartori, and others.