Good afternoon

This is a little bit the the issue deep-sea mining is not a big hit it doesn't draw the biggest crowds But that's that's exactly the issue actually, so my name is Marcus Reiman behind me you see creatures from the deep sea I'm the director of tba21 Academy, which is a department of Tusmona mr.

Art contemporary a contemporary art collection and foundation based in Vienna 2012 we decided to Create a program that is purely focused on the environment with a special highlight on the oceans And that has become the tba21 Academy

it is not just Artistic it is it's really trying to bridge the gap between art science exploration and Conservation and that is what after a long time brought us to deep-sea mining So I know I've seen a couple of familiar faces, so I know that a couple of you know about deep-sea mining

But who else does know about deep-sea mining, please? Yeah, okay, so I'm preaching to the choir That's a little bit the problem so more or less there's not a lot to say but I I just tell you quickly how we how we got to this place and

What we intend to do and why I think that an aesthetic dimension in this whole conversation is Is an important one in an aesthetic and cultural one a? Couple of years back we found on the mission blue website mission blue is an organization run by Sylvia Earle Sylvia Earle is coined her deepness. You all probably know her. She's a legendary marine biologist

And on her website mission blue we found a post about the International seabed authority Fantastic maps Very very suspicious little office in in Kingston and

We asked ourselves. Why is the United Nations office a United Nations body hidden in downtown Kingston and We as an organization we have a long-standing history with Kingston we have we run a marine protected area in Kingston a community driven marine protected area and The next time that we were in Kingston. We took an artist with us. I mean Lincoln

Who you might know from projects from the house to go to in a bed and we went to the International seabed authority and had a little conversation with them and It turns out that The International seabed authority as I said is a United Nations body

and they have this annual meeting and they are tasked with the administration and the distribution of the resources on the seabed Which is common heritage of humankind in the high seas so

We we've understood relatively quickly that they that the organization itself is rather complicated in terms of That that it's very closely tied between the policymakers and the mining industry. So so far Deep sea mining is a fiction, right? It hasn't it hasn't happened

It is Yet to be proven that it can happen and that it can happen at a profit So we're talking the reality is that we're talking about mining at four to five kilometers deep in the ocean And we're talking about a soft layer very soft layer

So if we say the seabed, it's not it's not a hard concrete layer where we can actually drive whatever kind of Machines that you need and you pick up the little nodules that we're that we're all after this is an extremely complicated

Mechanism that we're trying to tackle here and This is also it's an environment. You have to you have to imagine that has a sedimentation rate of one millimeter in per per square meter in in a very very slow time and All of a sudden we're talking about

Picking up dread dredging this the the ground picking up the nodule nodules pumping it up to the to the surface and Sieving out the the minerals and then dropping it back down so you can you can imagine what this does to an environment that is hardly explored where the sedimentation rate as I said before is

is bare minimum and this is This is happening or this will this is supposed to happen So the question the question for us is how do we engage with this and why does an art organization should engage with this?

and we we came to the conclusion that we should and the way that we did it was that we applied as an observer to be an observer at the International Seabed Authority and For whatever reason we were granted to be the observed We were granted the observer status. We're the first art organization ever to be an observer at the International Seabed Authority and now

We have the right to come and visit the annual meetings and intervene in these annual meetings and I think here when I went there last year is Is exactly the possibility for an organization like ours to intervene and I was

Let's say at least surprised when I got there last year The the I was there for ten days. I attended all sessions And I think the word ocean was mentioned twice

Usually we're talking about paragraph 154 should be would and not should or should it's it's all about terminologies. It's about paragraphs it's it is not about the the the bigger picture it is a This is exactly where where I think the the artistic intervention becomes

necessary and not in terms of the figurative Intervention where we say, okay, we make visible. What is on the seabed which I think is is very important because it is very much out of sight out of mind and Everybody thinks that they can do whatever they want, but I think also in a descriptive way

In a way that there's also the possibility right now to To change something in our behavior So as I said before this is an extremely difficult extremely dangerous and yet to be discovered what the impact actually might be is undertaking

but for some reason the the promise the financial promise of Deep-sea mining is so big that against all better judgment. We're willing to take the risk of Disturbing an Environment and an ecosystem that we know nothing about to an extent that it might be irreversible

And I think here is exactly the the possibility for for an art institution to to to elaborate the consequences the mechanisms and and the the Responsibilities of this because

You must understand that the International Seabed Authority the way it is is not a desirable place to be for any for any technocrat bureaucrat or scientist It is usually something that you would rather pass through as quickly as possible But you're the one that is that is asked to take the decisions on

Something that has major consequences for for the health of the oceans So bearing this in mind we Like I said, we went to the International Seabed Authority. We looked at the system there and and it is it is striking that next to the decision makers you have

you have members of the mining industry, so so the the intertwinement between policy and industry is is There is hardly any barrier and if there is a barrier, it's it's very You know, it's very flexible. So

Why Why do we need to talk about this? because I think I think the possibility the the opportunity here is really to to take a step back and To to take a look at a couple of the larger questions that are that are connected to this

It's one is the common heritage of humankind. What does that mean? What does it mean for us right now? It just means it that it that there is a Reserve on minerals that will be taken at some point That is the one thing And the the other thing is really what is this urge?

That drives us to open up frontier after frontier after frontier after frontier. So Yeah, I'm I'm I Think that's it for me. I think if you have any questions, please ask but

That would be it. I think you're all experts here or most of you as I understand

ocean Hello. Thank you How did you manage to get that observer status? And what are you actually you don't know yourself? And what are your possibilities? apart from

artworks To intervene. Okay, and there are two things I think So how did we get the observer status? We applied we applied and we have a we have a track record of of you know I mean we have we started a marine protected area and in Kingston. We we had a marine protected area supporting system in

In Costa Rica, so there was a track record of these kind of interventions even as an art organization at the other hand what are our possibilities are I think our possibilities is to and to show up and to insert a certain kind of language that is has no space there and I think exactly this this

The opening up of this cultural space a descriptive space a but also the the bigger picture Which is not confined by terminology not confined by paragraphs is is the possibility that we have and that's that's into the bureaucratic system of the international seabed authority outwards it is it is really the the

Communications platform that an art organization has Thank you. Thanks a lot Marcus for this inspiring talk

And I think it's also very nice that you refer to this common heritage of mankind principle that is really enshrined as a legal sort of very rock-solid legal Principle in the International Convention on the law of the sea so saying that all these minerals belong to all of us So it's our common heritage, but it's somewhere hidden and it's not very prominent in international

Politics, so how can art really help to to bridge this gap between this really? Very remote political process on the one hand and then on the other hand or sort of we as a human beings owning all this Heritage out there and what role can art play there, and what is your your thoughts around?

I think I think When as an art organization the interesting point is to take even a step back and say how come that? That the common heritage of mankind is the distribution and the administration of resources You know and these resources will be taken at some point, so why is it seems that our common heritage?

Is has only thing the only thing it has to do with it is is economics somehow no and and I think this is This is the starting point for for us as an art organization to elaborate on that to create discourse around this idea

What is the common what can the common heritage be and I think I think even a step further back is that you? That you look at the law of the seas and what it was intended, and it's I think in its intention It was one of the most beautiful Judicial ideas that ever happened where the result was compromised after compromised after compromised and we have what we have

That's that's the one thing and the the Other thing is really that you can elaborate on so many different levels as an art organization I think we we all face the challenge of not of what?

Is supposedly the intention span know that that everything has to be three to five minutes if it doesn't make the one-minute mark Then it's like it's gone except of in the art world funnily enough if you go into a Gallery a film that can be super complex. It doesn't have to be you know it doesn't have to be linear

Narrative it can be it can be very Yeah, like I said it can be very complex It's it's no problem at all that you look at something for 20 to 45 minutes And this is possible because it is in an art context So I think this is really this is the possibility that art has nowadays to elaborate

unfold unpack these very complicated issues in in ways that Doesn't fit into two minutes or three minutes or or 90 seconds. Hi I was wondering

Whether you think that this is also mappable onto the Digital realm because it strikes me in a metaphoric way that the way that you know the deep sea is Accessible to you or to the art world or to a minute is very similar to the way that that the web or the large troves of infrastructure there are

accessible to the public so the way that that you try to make certain aspects of Accessibility of resources of infrastructures and their democratic or non democratic Accessibility visible is something that also happens in a digital realm in a way that only large corporations or national states

With with a certain status have access to it So this I think is something that could also figure into the work of of the Academy right yeah absolutely no I think I think it's between the ocean and the and the Digital realm there's there's huge similarities. I mean one is the

unregulated space that it is both of them are The the other is really the the kind of the platforms that take ownership of something And then you have very similar you have the relationship between a nation and a company that then take ownership of these

Resources there is supposedly for all of us, so this is the similarity there is is nearly immediate I think on the other hand it also offers space for for big collaborative efforts for for community driven for Crowdsourced efforts it hasn't it hasn't been done yet, but

Theoretically there is nothing There is not there is nothing to keep us from getting together putting together five hundred or seven hundred fifty thousand Dollars to buy a stake in the seabed on the seabed And we would have to apply through a country at the International seabed Authority

we would have to prove that we can do research and that we would and Publish the or share this research with the International seabed Authority But there's absolutely the opportunity to do so and there's the opportunity to actually get ahead of the curve And then you know you could open source all of this

Environmental impact research and all of that or acquire a root server for example or that Thank you any more questions on this very special approach I

think Take the chance come into exchange or Hi, my name is Alex. I must commit. I'm not very familiar with with all the organizational infrastructure and everything

But what I understand is that you now that you got the permission to attend these meetings You mentioned that you get so to say a foot in the door And what are your next steps? What how do you plan to push this thing this idea further?

How do you go on from now? Well, there's I mean, there's a number there's a number of Of strategies there's there's the collaborative strategy. There's a there are many many organizations working on these topics. They're experts in the field, but but

You usually working whatever in singular models, you know it's like I mean it's really the the intent behind and our approach is really to to break down the boundaries between disciplines and And be able to communicate across these disciplines and through to a wider audience

The the possibility that we have now is There there there are a number of possibilities So I would what I would really like to do is create a and curate a series of artists interventions in the International Seabed Authority because now we do have the possibility to have a speaking interventions in the in the General Assembly and

and the the it would be fantastic if if informed artists like you will see later on on the main stage Trevor Paglen, for example, who's Who knows a lot and understands these kind of complex issues? Would would give lecture performances in the General Assembly this would be on our bill

You know and and this is this is just to push. Like I said, the language is push. It's to push the understanding and That is the one thing on the on the other side. There are there are the possibilities for side events So this is what we're what we're looking at today Or this year and is to have a large public interface between between the International Seabed Authority

And the public in Kingston that knows very very little about the realities there There's a there's a European Union program in the Azores Blue Atlantis, and we're doing a series of

works with with a group of artists called the inhabitants on that because I think I think both locally as In the European Union, it's very little known on on this program And so it is it is twofold it's between public

Advocacy and outreach and and really Within within the institution I Think there's some minutes left for final questions if there are any or

I'm sure Everybody can can meet you after I'm here after the next session, of course because the next session is as well tackling the submarine issue and the deep sea and oceans

Okay