Tentacular Thinking

Experiencing underwater assemblages of culture and nature

^{[photo G.Lupinacci/Raw-News for SeaPaCS]}

The project titled “Tentacular Thinking. Experiencing underwater assemblages of culture and nature” has been granted as a group project to Chiara Certoma’s, Raw-News and Platoon Cultural Development, by the EU program Culture Moves Europe, jointly supported by the Goethe Institute.

The project envisages the creation of a visual-tactile exhibition of artistic pictures and recovered underwater debris. The creative team gathered around the EU pilot project “SeaPaCS Citizen-Science against Marine Pollution” which already ideated and realised artistic photography exhibitions and events to create awareness. Tentacular Thinking project aims to expand, amplify and widespread our sustainability message by realising a new visual-tactile experience on a forefront topic in scientific research (i.e. the new biodiversity patterns that have evolved to live on microplastics in marine environments) and by adopting an innovative “participatory art” approach, bringing about a deep engagement of people with the represented issue.

Platoon is a world-leading creative alliance mobilising top-level artists whose creative philosophy is rooted in the belief that reality is unpleasant, demanding, aggressive, incalculable, incomprehensible and therefore worth exploration, not to entertain but to communicating by posing questions, inspiring thoughts and conveying reality. To this end, Platoon creates physical and conceptual spaces of participation (e.g. the »PHOXXI«, the Temporary House of Photography in Hamburg) to bring together communities, companies and bright minds to learn, experience and invent together.

Training on effective, sustainable and immersive settings of art events at Platoon we are working to prepare a “hand-on-art” exhibition, in which people can take art pieces in their hands, comment and ask questions, and re-assembling (some) of the exposed artworks to create compositions, and conceptual and emotional maps. The physicality of the artistic pieces stimulates the relationship and invites reflection: we can’t ignore the problem as if it’s just in the background, on the wall, because it’s in our hands.

“Tentacular Thinking” has been also endorsed by the U.N. Ocean Decade as a Decade Activity. The dedicated page on the UN/UNESCO website is available here: https://oceandecade.org/events/tentacular-thinking/

This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

Outcomes

Mar 2024: What is Tentacular Thinking? A short photo show to present our underwater explorations of the plastisphere in the age of Chthulucene as a standpoint calling for a new way of conceptualizing society’s relationships with the Ocean: https://youtu.be/-lvU5scWtMM?si=EIMeCp_7IjMkhIqE. Available on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/12795609

Apr 2024: Fine-tuning and exhibiting “Esplorazioni della Plastisfera. Intrecci sottomarini di naturacultura“, International Geography Nights, University Sapienza Rome – Orto Botanico, 12 Apr 2024 (in collaboration with FishArt project)

May 2024: Brainstorming, exploring and preparing the exhibition with Platoon Cultural Development in Berlin (photo Marcello Dato):

May 2024: Preparation and delivery of the exhibition “Explorations in the Plastisphere” (+ video showing “SeaPaCS. Participatory Citizen Science against Marine pollution“) at the Museums Night @Sapienza University – Museum of Geography (with the collaboration of Sandra Leonardi):