Old Man of the Sea in a World of Wounds
- Video installation
Glass, steel, water, LED screens
The coelacanth, a prehistoric fish with an evolutionary history dating back approximately 400 million years, was believed to have gone extinct around 66 million years ago. However, in 1938, it was ‘re-discovered,’ seemingly little changed from its prehistoric ancestors, giving rise to ecohorror narratives in pop culture. By retelling the story of this enduring survivor through a sea monster tale, within the context of the ongoing sixth mass extinction, this project encourages contemplation of the monstrosities that the Anthropocene is ushering in.
Monsters have been with us since ancient times, signifying gaps in human knowledge, control, and certainty. Their creation can be seen as establishing a paradoxical sense of predictability, aiding the desire to navigate unfamiliar territories safely. How do the monsters emerging in the Anthropocene affect our understanding of safety and survival?
The script is largely composed of existing accounts of the coelacanth, attempting to weave and amplify them into a cohesive mythology and ‘monster’ narrative structured based on Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Seven Theses (Monster Culture, 1996). Displayed across three screens mounted under water-filled aquariums and arranged inspired by the logic of geologic time layers, the visual contents chronicle a partly unpredictable journey, reinforcing the mythology of the ‘fish out of time.’
Chadd Cole, Kieran Birchley
Sources cited:
Bracker, Milton/The New York Times (1963): Coelacanth Saga, TimesMachine, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/10/06/89553706.html?pageNumber=261.
Bruton, Mike (2017): The Annotated Old Fourlegs: The updated Story of the Coelacanth, Struik Nature, p. 73.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome (1996): Monster Theory: Reading Culture, University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–25.
Courtenay-Latimer, Marjorie (1938): Letter to J. L. B. Smith, in Tyson, Peter (2003): Moment of Discovery, pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fish/letters.html.
Ehrlich, Paul (1997): A world of Wounds: Ecologists and the Human Dilemma. Excellence in Ecology, (Kinne O Ed ) 1–210, Oldendorf, Ecology Institute Publisher, cited in: Fricke, Hans (2002): Quastenflosser: Gaias Welt und unsere Verantwortung, in: Oldenburger Universitätsreden, vol. 136, pp. 1–26.
Hendershot, Cyndy (1999): Paranoia, the Bomb and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, p. 75.
Liganga, Lucas/Tanzania Natural Resources Forum/SWARA (2009): Planned Port and Fishing threaten Tanzania’s Old Man of the Sea, in: SWARA Magazine, vol. 3, p. 26.
Molev, Victor (2017): Coelacanth, Saatchi Art, saatchiart.com/print/Painting-Coelacanth/34417/3768271/view.
Nash, Ogden/Linell Nash Smith (2007): The best of Ogden Nash, Ivan R. Dee, p. 192.
S. A. Press Association (1939): Prehistoric Monster of the Deep, in: Cape Argus.
Storey, Francine M (n. d.): Instructions for Search, cited in: dinofish.com/poem.htm.
Weinberg, Samantha (1997): A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, London, Fourth Estate, p. 220.
Weinberg, Samantha (2013): A fish for our time, in: The Economist: 1843magazine, economist.com/1843/2013/12/30/a-fish-for-our-time.
“#13 Ash Volcano” by Canary Games on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Oilfish Roudi Escolar, Promethichthys prometheus,” “Hammerhead Shark,” “Kitefin Shark, Dalatias licha,” “Sentinel crab, Macrophthalmus abbreviatus” (licensed under CC BY 4.0), “Blue Shark, Prionace glauca” and “Shortspine Spurdog, S. mitsukurii” (licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0) by Yuichi Kano (FFishAsia) on Sketchfab.com.
“Basalte” by Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (licensed under CC BY 4.0), “Roche – Basalte” by Société Géologique de France (licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) on Sketchfab.com.
“Oyster Shell” by Spelthorne Museum on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Bivalve: Rastellum diluvianum (PRI 50394)” and “Bivalve: Exogyra ponderosa (PRI 50396)” by Digital Atlas of Ancient Life on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC0 1.0.
“Pocillopora damicornis caespitosa” and “Leptoseris cailletti” by The Smithsonian Institution on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC0 1.0.
“Scan of Kelp and Seaweed on sand beach” by Sterling Crispin on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Model 73A – Great Hammerhead Shark” by DigitalLife3D on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
“Fishing Hook V2” by danchristie25 on Sketchfab.com licensed under CC BY 4.0.
A Hidden Monster of the Anthropocene
- Book
Monsters are constructs and projections. As design products with ubiquitous presence in our world, they offer opportunities to revisit and reshape existing knowledge frameworks and how we form cultural assumptions about difference. In this context, this thesis explores the case of the coelacanth (Latimeria), an extant fish that gained scientific and cultural significance as a Lazarus taxon with an immense evolutionary age and as the assumed oldest living ancestor of humanity.
The research dissects how and why the animal was shaped as a monster in public (western) narratives and investigates perspectives that can be gained by studying this case of a ‘real-life’ sea monster whose story appears to be mainly situated in the past from a contemporary angle. Employing the methodologies of the academic field of monster studies with an ecocritical focus, the story of the fish and its discoveries is framed and analysed according to Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Monster Culture (Seven Theses) (1996) while considering associated ecohorror narratives comprising the Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy (1954–56), Monster on the Campus (1958), and The Shape of Water (2017). The identified parallels between the animal’s and cinematic creatures’ narratives form an allegory for anthropocentric views on and the treatment of ecological Otherness, defining the studied monsters’ significance in the context of our current ecological crisis.