Synthetic Frontiers of Mediated Seas

• In Event: Mediated Seas, Elemental Oceans

Abstract

From magical terraforming technology to tentacular encounters with a monstrous cephalopod, the graphic novel Great Pacific reads as sci-fi adventure: a heroic, but very fanciful account of the attempted settlement of an oceanic ‘garbage patch.’ This paper maps parallels between this seemingly fictional narrative and two actual attempts to address ocean plastic pollution. I detail how both The Ocean Cleanup’s artificial coastline in the Pacific Ocean, and the Recycled Island foundation’s floating park habitat at the mouth of Rotterdam’s Maas river not only privilege after-the-fact technological solutions, but promise new landforms. Here mediated seas emerge as ‘synthetic frontiers’ where heroic individuals deploy new technologies with decidedly terrestrial ambitions. Bringing together emerging work on media materialities and decolonial approaches to oceans and pollution into an STS critique of technological fixes for ocean plastic pollution, I argue that dominant approaches perpetuate powerful frontier narratives that shape elemental flows of plastic waste and sea water into seemingly inevitable, even inhabitable forms.

Author

• Kim De Wolff, University of North Texas