The project Dialogues across the seas was born in 2018, six years ago, with the events we organized in Cervia, in conjunction with New Plymouth, then our group had a panel at ISEA in Montreal in 2020. We had some publications: two English editions of Dialogues across the Seas. The Ocean that keeps us apart also joins us. Charting knowledge and practice in the Anthropocene, published in 2022 and 2024 (with the second, just published, enriched and expanded), and an Italian edition, Dialoghi attraverso i mari. Il mare che ci separa, ci unisce. Tracciare conoscenza e pratica nell’Antropocene, published in 2023.
From 2018 some things seem changed. The “art*science – Art & Climate Change” research program, which in 2018 started the Dialogues across the seas’ project, aimed to create a constructive transdisciplinary dialogue on topics that are very popular but also controversial, like “green”, “sustainability”, re-using and recycling, alternative and renewable energies, the environment as habitat, the idea of “Nature”, and of course the sea and the marine environments… Today there is more awareness about the climate crisis emergency and about the issues related to the ocean and the sea environments. Today a fundamental field of research on climate concerns the state and evolution of the seas, of the oceans and the marine environments. In 2021 the United Nations have proclaimed the “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development” (2021-2030), with UNESCO, in order to search for solutions about a sustainable development and for connecting people through the oceans and the seas. Our Dialogues across the seas’ project has anticipated that official interest in the care of the marine environments and we are glad to contribute in the discussion on these topics with our publications and activities.
Water covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface. All living beings are mostly made of water, or live in water environments: water and life are intimately connected on Earth. Seas and oceans have been elements of division, of geographical separation, but at the same time they have culturally and historically connected people and cultures. Today the many “technologies of distance”, like the Internet and all the remote communication based tools, connect cultures and people, but for centuries boats and seas have represented the longest-range connection network, allowing to go beyond the land journeys possibilities.
But water does not only concern seas and oceans. Seemingly in contradiction with the increase in sea levels, global warming makes vast land areas arid, drying up rivers, basins, lakes, glaciers, creating phenomena of water scarcity aggravated by waste and pollution. All this causes not only environmental but also social and political upheavals, generating mass migrations towards more habitable areas of the planet. Furthermore, with the climate crisis, the temperature – and therefore the energy – of the atmosphere increases, causing more frequent extreme meteorological events, storms and floods, as it happens in catastrophic way in many areas of the world, more and more frequently.
Now we are trying to expand the Dialogues across the seas project internationally, more inclusively, aiming to connect more cultures worldwide. One more direction is to include in the project also issues and situations related to fresh waters, that have entered in a deep crisis in many areas of the world. Moreover, among our goals is to organize events and exhibitions involving local artists, scientists, scholars, activists, to discuss the issues, increase awareness and discuss from many perspectives about viable solutions and future. We would love to make Dialogues across the seas an ongoing and expanding project, with new periodic publications collecting voices worldwide.