Ocean Wants

Humanity is so destructive to its environment that if we care about it, we sense a prevailing urge to preserve and restore it. In doing so, we foster the notion of nature as an overall balanced and content entity. We perpetuate the belief in a paradisal primal state—that is, until humanity messed things up.

However, as humanity has already drastically changed nature, nonhumans might resent being pushed into reservations. Many wild species adapted to the city and prefer its conveniences to a pseudo wilderness. What else could please them, if given the choice?

10 Ocean Wants: Ocean Nation
feat. Markus Reymann

While the land is ruled by nations and super nations, the ocean is subject to the tragedy of the commons. What if the ocean turned into a nation of its own—the largest nation in the world?
In the tenth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Markus Reymann, director of TBA21-Academy and its Ocean Space in Venice. We speak at his office in Madrid.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

9 Ocean wants: Deep Frontier
feat. Diva Amon

We can see stars thousands of light years away with our naked eye. About life in the deep sea we started to know only 200 years ago—and we still know very little. How do we have to reinvent ourselves to serve the needs of the deep sea and tame endeavors to exploit its habitats?
In the ninth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Diva Amon, a marine biologist focused on the deep ocean. She is also a founder and director of SpeSeas, an NGO dedicated to marine science, education, and advocacy in Trinidad and Tobago. She speaks from her family home in Trinidad.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

8 Ocean wants: Pain-Free Sea
feat. David Pearce

Shouldn’t the reduction of suffering be our priority when taking care of others’ needs—particularly the needs of those we can’t ask? Soon, CRISPR edited gene drives could alter the pain perception and hedonic range of any sexually reproducing species.
In the eighth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to David Pearce, a transhumanist philosopher who advocates the abolition of all negative feelings. He speaks from his home in Brighton, UK.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

7 Ocean wants: Canceled Ice Age
feat. William Ruddiman

For the past 7000 years, humans have stabilized the global climate. The greenhouse gases emitted through deforestation, agriculture, and husbandry prevented the onset of a new glaciation. Only since the industrial revolution has human influence gotten out of hand, causing rapid rises in temperature and sea level.
In the seventh episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to William Ruddiman, geologist and originator of the early Anthropocene hypothesis. He speaks from his home in Virginia.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

6 Ocean wants: Conservation Libido
feat. Eva Hayward

The ocean refuses empathetic ethics based on sameness with us humans. What does the urge to save nature—in certain ways—reveal about us and our desire?
In the sixth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Eva Hayward, historian of science and faculty member in the Department of Gender and Women Studies at the University of Arizona.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

5 Ocean wants: Translating Whales
feat. David Gruber

To know what other humans want, we can ask them. But pets aside, modern societies lost the confidence and interest in communicating with nonhumans. Could advanced machine learning allow for an interspecies conversation, even with creatures that spend most of their time away in the deep?
In the fifth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to David Gruber, marine biologist and leader of CETI, a multidisciplinary project on understanding the acoustic communication of sperm whales. He speaks from his home in New York.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

4 Ocean wants: Cephalopods on Land
feat. Danna Staaf

Before fish and other vertebrates proliferated, it was the heyday of the cephalopods. Their descendants—squid, cuttlefish, octopus, and nautilus—are still around, coping better with human dominance than many fish.
In the fourth episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Danna Staaf, a trained marine biologist who wrote the history of the cephalopods. She speaks from her home in San Jose, California.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

3 Ocean wants: Rise of Slime
feat. Lisa-Ann Gershwin

Five hundred million years ago the ocean was dominated by jellyfish. Thanks to us, humans, they might dominate the ocean again.
In the third episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Lisa-ann Gershwin, a marine biologist with a unique dedication and enthusiasm for jellyfish. She speaks from her home in Tasmania.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

2 Ocean wants: Self-Conscious Fish
feat. Alex Jordan

Fish are compassionate, recognize themselves in the mirror, and fancy designed shelters over natural ones. Recent experiments contest common ideas of what distinguishes humans from smaller, non-mammalian creatures of the sea.
In the second episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Alex Jordan, Principal Investigator at the Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max Planck Institute in Konstanz, Germany. We speak at this home near Lake Constance.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

1 Ocean wants: Coral Renaissance
feat. Marah J. Hardt

We celebrate coral reefs as the colorful rain forests of the ocean. How could we not just save and restore existing coral reefs but allow them to spread?
In the first episode of the podcast Ocean Wants, speculative writer Ingo Niermann, most recently of the book Mare Amoris, is talking to Marah J. Hardt, marine biologist, storyteller and director of discovery at the non-profit Future of Fish. She speaks from her home in Hawaii.

— Ocean Wants, TBA21–Academy, ocean-archive.org

Credits

Commissioned and produced by TBA21–Academy
Conceived, hosted, and edited by Ingo Niermann

Music composed and arranged by Ville Haimala  
Intro read by Joan Jonas
Credits read by Staci Bu Shea
Sound edited by Robin Michel

Produced by Ingo Niermann and María Montero Sierra

Ocean Wants was commissioned to celebrate TBA21–Academy’s tenth Anniversary.

© TBA21–Academy

ocean-archive.org