Davenport Grant

This summer I began my initial investigations of photographing the underwater world for environmental activism and scientific research. One component of my research was to investigate the health of the reefs surrounding Kauai by using photography with twelve photo transects and fish surveys. A second component was to investigate the regimes of truth and to critically analyze objectivity embedded within scientific photography. The scientific paradigm is affected by social, political, and economic processes. Finally, a third component was exploring modern artist movements, ancient legends, and other radical ways to reimagine the ocean.

Photo transects & Data Collection

For my photo transects, I photographed Anahola Coral Reef, Poipu, Turtle Bluffs, the Landing, and Anini. Much of the coral on the island is in the process of bleaching due to climate change and the surge of tourists in Kauai. I investigated the history of underwater photography and experienced first-hand the challenges and power underwater photography. During my advanced diver certification course, I took a module for underwater photography and learned about the skills needed to operate a camera at lower depths. My certification allowed me to dive up to 100 ft below the surface where I was able to photograph larger sylasterid coral colonies. I photographed the organisms and searched for new life and baby coral colonies at three 50 m transects, at 5 m depth, 10 m, and 20 m depth. I also worked closely with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in regard to conservation and fish assemblage characteristics, the Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (CRAMP), and Dr. Daniela Pica from the Universitá Politexnica della Marche. My research investigated how underwater photography is used scientifically, politically, and artistically as a historical record of life under the sea. Part of my investigation expanded to other artists including the work of Carol Bennett, Jamie Allen, Barbara Milman, Bas Jan Ader, William Turner, Simon Starling, and Werner Herzog, and David Littschwager. Investigating alternative more radical ways to interpret this estranged world through audio, acrylics, video, watercolors, sculpture, etc. has an enormous potential to reimagine the theories surrounding marine biology research.  

Additionally, at the end of the summer after discussing my project with my thesis advisor Professor Tucker and visiting the Yale’s British archives I was inspired to collect some artifacts as a physical component of my research. Coral can be used as proof as political objects for climate change. I was inspired by a little blue book I found in special collections from 1941. Seaweeds by R. L. de Zeng held a collection of seaweed samples. Part of what I loved so much about was that the book allowed for the samples to a voice of their own. The tactile nature of these objects allows for a curiosity and wonder to naturally evolve in the viewer. Each object has a story of its own, some of these objects were carried for thousands of miles with the current, others once held life inside them, or are traces of something currently alive.

key words: environmental, curiosity, political, artistic, Anthropocene, ethnographic work  

Figure 1: Koloa Landing, Polihale State Park, Anini Beach, Anahola Beach Park, and Tunnels Beach were my six main dive sites. Koloa landing and Poipu beach are the most touristic parts of the island while tunnels beach has been shut down from the public sphere for the last six months due to flooding. During the summer months, the currents are strong in the South which allowed for the North shore to be more accessible. Apart of the diving experience was making sure to be safe at all times, having enough oxygen, navigating buoyancy and being aware of the currents.

Scholars & Investigations

I drew from several scholars on their perspective of art in science including Lorraine Daston, Edward Burtynsky and Heather Davis, and Etienne Turpin. The theoretical framework of this work comes from the sociological theory of Donna Haraway and her theory on situated knowledges and dispelling the ‘binary’ division of nature and society. Additionally, in Markus Reymann’s “Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic Worldview through Art and Science,” he addresses how climate change destabilizes notions of land-based embeddedness and how artist projects present a profound way to engage with our hydrosphere. Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin’s work on the power of artwork in the Anthropocene and the interactions between aesthetics, politics, environments and epistemologies. I drew upon the work of Rachel Carson “Life Under the Sea” as well as Stephen Helmrich’s Alien Ocean. Gillian Rose’s work on the four sites of critical visual methodology and audiencing. Photographing coral can act as proof as political objects for climate change. Additionally, the discovery of ‘new’ builds upon a voyeuristic narrative and fetishization of this underwater space. The fundamental methodology of this work is framed using sociological artistic practices within scientific discourse.