In parallel with the detectors of the STRAW-b, whirring away under the ocean, a contact microphone – detector for deep proprioception – is acting as a listening, space-holding tool for sensemaking of a deep dark place where human is inherently foreign; side by side with high-tech extensions to the wildest experimental fantasies of the human.
“how to be present under the ocean as a human” invites to reconsider the ontological position of the STRAW-b in regards to the components of the assemblage of the Cascadia basin – the fish, algae, the human presence via STRAW-b, the water in itself and all other human or non-human entities – and hopes to evoke an embodied literacy of the sea via testing the capacity of deep sea recordings to provoke ecological intimacies in addressing climate grief.
The project was cancelled due to the possible consequences of accidentally overhearing the tracking signals of military submarines.
Listen to raw draft strategies of being a kilometre deep under the ocean as a human here: