Dr. Émmanuelle Chérel has invited different contributors to write on The Ocean As Method based on the following observation!
"In the context of the "Oceanic Turn" - a contemporary interdisciplinary epistemology (shaped by environmental humanities, ecocriticism, gender studies, decolonial studies, globalization studies, etc., and giving rise to "Blue Humanities," "Oceanic Studies," or "Sea Ontologies") mobilized to grasp the current fragility of oceanic spaces and societies- what is the situation in art history? A whole series of hypotheses and (unpredictable) avenues can unfold, permeating research, thought, and writing, and inviting us to approach the ocean - moving beyond our habitual perspectives - with the serious assumption that it can provoke new ways of thinking.

Writing, listening to, and reading the ocean - or even writing from the ocean - in an attempt to move beyond defining it solely as a bearer of cultural symbols or images (that is, liberating oceanic elements from the cultural and scientific frameworks and landscapes in which—particularly in the West—we have stripped them of their natural character) could lead us into a reflective experience: a form of writing that apprehends the ocean as an "other"—at times familiar, yet nonetheless radical." (Émmanuelle Chérel).

Here a summary of my forthcoming essay:

"The ocean is what fundamentally connects us. Far from merely separating lands, continents, and archipelagos, its essential nature draws us into ceaseless practices of movement and migration, germination and flourishing, learning and the sharing of the commons. As a foundational element of life—encompassing all its human and non-human, cultural, and imaginary components—it challenges us to question the meaning today of concepts such as space, territory, ecosystem, history, and image. In this sense, the ocean links us to fundamental issues that cut across the arts and their institutions, as well as our capacity to reimagine modes of art governance that are more grounded in solidarity and open to artistic and cultural cross-pollination.
Moreover, it is a matter of recognizing the ocean as an entity and a political partner in its own right: rather than simply appropriating the ocean as a space to be traversed, mapped, explored, occupied, and exploited, we must work to build a "hybrid common" - open and evolving - in which human subjects, states, and international governance agencies are "bound by obligations of stewardship, guardianship, respect, and responsibility toward the ocean, both as an entity in itself and as a partner." (Tamatoa Bambridge). Adopting the ocean as a methodology within the field of art means working to create conditions that foster the emergence of commons - commons that break free from polarized representations of the world that lock the old against the new (knowledge, technologies, systems, regimes), the natural against the artificial, the North against the South, the vernacular against the digital, the majority against minorities, and the oppressor against the oppressed. When applied to the realm of art, the ocean invites us to rethink artistic spaces and practices grounded in shared, situated knowledge, spontaneous collectives, and mobile communities that drive social change and artistic creation. Moving beyond the somewhat reified concepts of "inclusion" and "participation" that loom large in existing cultural spaces—and transcending postcolonial theories that, while critical, remain confined to a Western, polarized view of art—we can envision a decisive shift: moving from the notion of "art and culture in society" to the practice of "art and culture as society," by redistributing participation in collective learning, artistic co-creation, and deliberation regarding cultural policy-making." (Larys Frogier)