“Around Alone”: technologies, society and the sea premiered at the RGS AC2025

On the 27th of August 2025, Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep.) and Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency), research team CO>SEA, presented the premiere of the new short-documentary “Around Alone. Documenting Ocean Relationships” at the Royal Geographical Sociaty with IBS Annual Conference 2025 (RGS AC2025), University of Birmingham, “Film Geography” session.

“Around Alone” is the new short documentary produced by the research group CO>SEA Collaboratory for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean of Sapienza University of Rome (MEMOTEF) and Raw-News Visual Production Agency. Continuing the exploration of the “sense of oceanic place” as a key concept and form of knowledge in the social geography of the sea, Roman navigator Matteo Miceli’s story shows us the high seas as a space imbued with cultural and symbolic meaning, discovered and experienced with the aid of eco-sustainable equipment on a completely self-sufficient world voyage aboard the Eco40 vessel. This third documentary contribute to documenting Ocean Relationships in creative, together with the first two short docs (“Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships” and “Sense of Place. Documenting Ocean Relationships”), both screened at the RGS during the “Film Geography” session.

The documentary has been filmed in Ostia and the Atlantic Ocean, directed by Federico Fornaro and shot by Fornaro and Giuseppe Lupinacci, with the scientific project coordination of Chiara Certomà, has been produced by Raw-News Visual Production Agency for the PRIN2022 MIUR project “DSICity”, in collaboration with the EU Project PartArt4OW and with the endorsement of the UN Ocean Decade Program.

Tackling the pervasive use of digital and sustainable technologies for social innovation, world-famous navigator Matteo Miceli’s story shows us that the high seas can be regarded as a space imbued with cultural and symbolic meaning, discovered and experienced with the aid of eco-sustainable equipment on a completely self-sufficient world voyage aboard the Eco40 vessel. “Around Alone” is part of a series of visual geography investigation on Marine Social Geography advanced by CO>SEA research team, and reports the living experience of seagoing people to document the multiple ways a sense of oceanic place can shape into the multiple connections between society and the Ocean. This third documentary contributes to documenting Ocean Relationships in creative ways, together with the first two short docs (“Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships” and “Sense of Place. Documenting Ocean Relationships”), both screened at the RGS during the “Film Geography” session.

The authors explained: “We expanded our considerations on using filmmaking and in general, visual documentation as a research practice building our theoretical and methodological considerations on the immersive experience of the research projects. We adopted an engagement approach firmly based on visual products not merely as a means of communication but also as the base for stimulating debated by making things public and gathering attention, while documenting the entire research process. We used the visual to make evident the matter of concern, stimulating the debate and engaging people in doing research with us on the field; to make the ocean environment accessible for everybody; to give a narrative of the entire process. We interrogated on how film-making can involve people in in the processes of knowledge production (how visual documentation helps to understand the phenomena studied), discussion of what is happening (how the choice of shots, lights and specific technical solutions helps to highlight the problem and provide a specific vision of it), propose interventions (such as images produce an emotion that leads to action). Visual techniques possess a unique heuristic power, compelling researchers to adopt different perspectives and approaches when documenting, collecting information and interpreting it. Visual techniques can materially alter our perspectives, enriching our understanding of the subject matter. They can draw attention to aspects unnoticed by existing understandings, thus reshaping narratives and complementing scientific discourses. As such, the visual serves as a tool for research, integrating, prosecuting, and expanding scientific discussions through alternative means. Rather than merely presenting the same theoretical concepts in different communicative forms, visual techniques contribute to the evolution and enrichment of scientific discourse by offering unique perspectives and insights. These contribute to knowledge production interventions through deliberate choices in preliminary studies and specific working conditions, framing, lighting, and technical elements. The gaze of the operator imbues meaning into the captured image, guiding viewers in the discovery process and shaping their perception of the issue at hand.”