More-than-human relations in marine science at the Archipelago Sea: Unveiling and exploring embodiment with documentary filmmaking

Abstract

The current climate change has forced a wide arching discussion about more-than-human relations, e.g., humans acting on and being acted upon in complex ways by non-human others. For example, how the sea nurtures life on land and how life on land, such as humans, in turn affect the sea. Better understanding of these relations is needed, as during past centuries stories of human exceptionalism has been the dominant paradigm in human-environment relations.

This discussion is investigated in the present thesis and expanded through a filmmaking process documenting affect in marine science's specimen collection process with research questions; "What affective aspects appeared while exploring marine scientists’ sea relationship at the Island of Seili?" and "How can a film present marine scientists’ sea relationship to an audience?". The af-fective relations scientists have with their research environment and subjects is not part of natural sciences, thus, this research is an attempt to document parts which are left out and present them to an audience. The specimen is collected by an embodied scientist from a messy reality, for ex-ample, of a muddy sea bottom, then the data is extracted and cleaned, as well as the gear, the body, and the equipment of the scientist. This raises the question; what else the scientist learns from the more-than-human world in the specimen collection in addition to what is translated to natural sciences data. The thesis operates on a meta level, observing closely the act of specimen collection in marine science, and on a phenomenological level documenting the marine researchers embodied experiences about the sea and the more-than-human world. The research is conducted by utilizing the researcher-body of the author to immerse in the research environment and collect affective data with the research diary method. Additionally, the research conducts sensory ethnography interviews and a workshop to collect affective data from the research participants.

It results that a film created with these methods can engage and immerse the audience, evoke ethical and environmental reflections in them, disseminate scientific knowledge in a relatable way, and critique knowledge creation accessibly. The research illustrates how documentary film can be used as an assemblage to gather sensory ethnographic data. The artistic process can be used to analyze and juxtapose the data to present the affective observations for the audience of the film.