Author Archives: Sophia Fugazzotto

Final Essay

Posted on by
2

Sophia Fugazzotto 

ECL 305 

Professor Pressman 

May 7th, 2024 

The Contemporary Mermaid

Mermaids, although fantastical creatures, are created by humans, and can represent humans’ own struggle with the concept of gender. They are modern entities that are gender fluid, that do not assign roles or confine people, but are also like humans on their top half. Instead of being a foreign being of nature that is allowed to act differently than us, they are a hybrid that sits between human and nature. Mermaids of contemporary culture complicate gender roles with their refusal to conform to a gender, forcing us to reflect on our own need to categorize people into genders. In this essay, three different mediums of mermaids will be examined; Stephanie Burt’s “We Are Mermaids”, River Solomon’s The Deep, and my own photograph. 

Stephanie Burt’s poem “We Are Mermaids” is an example of a piece of work that encourages the reader to consider gender norms and roles by providing the perspective of a non terracentric world. Perhaps with this title, Burt is making the point that we ourselves are mermaids; we are gender fluid beings, and mermaids are a reflection of a part of us that does not need to be confined to gendering by genitalia. The poem focuses on a world in the water, one that seems constant, but is complex and full of choice. The water is a place of fluidity, freedom, lacking the pressures we feel on land: “You can spend your life benthic, or brackish, subsisting and even thriving where a fingertip comes away saline and still refreshing, exploring the estuary, the submerged lip, and congeries of overlapping shores on the green black water, the harbor, the bay” (Burt, lines 24-29). This gives a view into a world that is unconstrained by demands of human life, the aquatic world is allowed to be ever-changing and fluid–as contemporary mermaids are in their lack of gender conformity. The poem also constantly changes the point of view, through use of ‘we’, ‘they’, and ‘you’. By changing this point of view, it prevents the reader from creating a solid conception of a being, and allows for an interpretation of fluidity. Another relevant part of this poem is the author herself. Stephanie Burt is a transgender woman, and many of her poems in this collection focus on the transgender experience and activism. This perspective is important to gender fluidity because it shows that one can be fluid in expressing their gender. 

In addition, the poem also brings up the topic of purpose in our world, and the nature focused perspective allows us to see our society in a different light. “You don’t have to be useful, you are not required to come up with something to say” (Burt, lines 21-23). This stanza, by Burt, tells us that we don’t have to play by the rules of this industrial society; rather we can be whoever we want to be, we don’t have to meet the expectations of others. Sophia Raya discusses this stanza in her blog post, considering how our value as a person comes from the role we play in an industrialized world, and gender roles create social expectations within this world. She also says: “Being a mermaid, like more oceanic ways of thinking, is not constrained to rigid structures that have been imposed on them by society and other terracentric ways of thinking. Instead, mermaids and any other aquatic creatures can occupy any space or even become a part of that space where fluidity and water is found” (Raya, 2024). Without a society and the need to be useful, mermaids are allowed a free and fluid lifestyle, where they can choose to express themselves however they please.

Another text that represents contemporary, gender fluid mermaids is The Deep by Rivers Solomon. In this novel, the main character, Yetu, interacts with Oori. Yetu is a mermaid, who lives in the depths of the ocean, while Oori is a human, or ‘two-legs’ as the mermaids call them. The contrast between these two characters is important because it provides a perspective of our culture’s social norms from someone from a different culture, and even a different world. As Yetu and Oori converse, the topic of sex comes up. Yetu, being a mermaid, possesses a tail, as opposed to two legs, like humans. Yetu reflects on the perspective of gender of the wajinru: “Wajinru bodies didn’t tend to have differences along those lines, but like two legs, there were men, women, both, and neither. Such things were self determined, and Yetu wondered if two-legs had body determination too” (Solomon, 116). This passage illustrates the self determined nature of the wajinru. It opens the possibility of there being more than two genders, as well as the ability to choose for oneself. This presents a sharp contrast to our society, where gender is assigned at birth, based on the genitalia that one possesses. Rather than being determined by their orientation in a sexual relationship, their gender is chosen by themselves, which separates sex and gender. Although sex is determined by chromosomes, our culture associates gender with sex and the lines between the two are blurred. Gender often comes with roles and expectations as it is a social construction. Yetu adds later: “‘Wajinru have a place to envelope, and then there’s something else, and that is what gives sperm. Yet it is always tucked away until the time of mating’” (Solomon, 117). This quote is an important addition to the first because it emphasizes the point that wajinru are capable of taking on both ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ roles of sexual acts, yet their gender could be man, woman, both, or neither, regardless of whether they choose to envelope or to release sperm during mating. 

This part of this novel is an important example of how mermaids allow us to reflect on our cultural norms of gender through their lack of need to confine a mermaid to one, and through the innocence of Yetu. Yetu does not understand how our culture works, and how we choose to assign gender and categorize people, and this perspective can show us how unimportant our idea of gender is. 

Finally, this photograph, created by me, is intended to portray a gender fluid mermaid through the posing, model choice, and mermaid tail. The mermaid is a hybrid creature, and depictions of them often allow us to project ourselves into them because of their half human nature. In this photo, the model’s top half is human, with a piece of human clothing covering their chest. The bottom half, however, is in a mermaid tail. 

Posing was an important part of this shoot. I wanted to create a more masculine mermaid, since many depictions of mermaids tend to be feminine–even the name mermaid is feminine. In this photo, the mermaid is flexing their arm, which is a more traditionally masculine pose, since strength is often associated with men. Having masculine posing on a more feminine body creates a disruption in categorizing this mermaid into a gender, and allows us to rest in a place of fluidity. In addition, the choice to have the mermaid on a rock, and not in the water, represents mermaids’ ability to be part of our world. Even the rock on which the model sits is disrupted by a rusted pipe that is clearly manmade, showing the mix between two worlds. This photograph was taken on the beach, as it is a common place for mermaids to be across different mediums. 

The model for this shoot is also gender fluid, going by she/her, they/them, and he/him pronouns. This is particularly relevant to this topic, as contemporary mermaids represent a gender fluid entity through their intentional indecision on gender. Being able to work with a gender fluid model who was also comfortable moving between more feminine and masculine poses was an advantage in this shoot. 

And the mermaid tail, of course, contributes greatly to this photo. Mermaids do not have what we have; they possess tails on their bottom half. In this photo, the mermaid tail covers the bottom half of the model. Therefore, we cannot categorize them so easily, and although we may be tempted to, we do not need to. Representations of contemporary mermaids, such as this photo, and the wajinru in The Deep emphasize the point that we should perhaps reflect on our need to categorize and organize.  

These three contemporary works contain mermaid centered ideas that allow us to reflect on ourselves. These fantastical creatures can easily be seen as separate from us, part of nature, different, but the reality is that they can be used as a mirror to analyze ourselves, our social norms, and our history. They can show us how our norms, such as gender and gender roles, are not as significant or ‘correct’ as we think, with their own fluidity and lack of need to categorize themselves or each other. 

Works Cited 

Burt, Stephanie. We Are Mermaids, Graywolf Press, 2022.

Mermaid on Rock. 16 Apr. 2024. Windnsea Beach, San Diego.

Raya, Sophia. “We Are Mermaids .” Literature and the Environment: Mermaids, 29 Apr. 2024, 

https://spring2024-ecl305.jessicapressman.com/we-are-mermaids-2/.

Solomon, Rivers, et al. “Chapter 7.” The Deep, Saga Press, 2019, pp. 106–126. 

Extra Credit: Digital Humanities Showcase

Posted on by
Reply

I went to the Digital Humanities showcase this morning as I had some of my photos being presented, and I got the opportunity to look around at other people’s projects. There was an educational VR project that involved putting on a VR headset and going on a ride into the paleolithic era. I thought this was a super innovative way to approach education. Another interesting project I got to see was one on transit in San Diego. There was a group of students in a journalism class that put this together, and the project looked into the transit system in San Diego. They analyzed a few different perspectives, such as corporate interests and comparison to other countries. I found this project to be interesting because of the differences between the U.S.’s public transit and other countries. When I traveled in Europe and Asia, the public transit was much more efficient, organized, and clean. The same presenter for this project also told me about a project she did individually about composting. Apparently, in 2022, San Diego passed a law saying all organic waste should be composted in the county. I found this surprising because I literally have never seen a green can in San Diego. Where I am from, in the Bay Area, everyone has composting bins along with their trash and recycling. The girl I was talking to also said that the city said they would give out green cans but then only followed through with about 200,000 cans, which isn’t enough for the population of San Diego. It’s interesting to see what’s going on in the county that I might be oblivious to.

Extra Credit Discovery Post

Posted on by
Reply

For my extra credit discovery post, I chose the Sirena story from the Penguin Book of Mermaids. This story is based in Guam, and part of the Chamorro culture. I wanted to read this story because one of my closest friends is from Guam. This story is an important contribution to my learning in this class because of the different cultural perspective it provides through intergenerational oral traditions and curses. 

At the beginning of this tale, a scene is painted of a grand-mermaid spending time with her nieces. The two young mer-girls want to hear the story of how mermaids came around, and beg her to tell the tale even though they have heard it many times before. “An ancient grand-mermaid sits on top of her pearly throne, brushing her long white hair. Upon her lap perch two little mergirls, their sparkling tails twisting and twirling… ‘All right, sit down and behave. I’ll tell you the tale of Sirena,’ laughs the grand-mermaid. Looking at the two mergirls with their rapt eyes, she slowly nods. And so the story begins…” (p.234). This type of storytelling is important because it follows the route of oral storytelling, as opposed to written word. Often, oral storytelling is used to teach lessons, as it is in this story; it is a story about the importance of responsibility. In addition, oral storytelling is more common in indigenous cultures, and the Chamorro culture is an indigenous one. When I talked to my friend from Guam about this story, she immediately knew what I was talking about without me even mentioning the title, and said it’s a legend there, and that both her grandmother and mother told this story to her when she was growing up. She said there’s also a statue of Sirena on the island, which shows how important this tale is to Chamorro culture. 

Another important part of this tale is the use of curses. When Sirena does not keep up with her responsibilities, and her mother is left to do her chores, her mother becomes very upset. She curses Sirena, which shows the power that an elder holds, as well as consequences. “‘Sirena!’ Her mother’s face loomed out of the darkness. Her angry eyes burned with wrath. ‘Shame, shame, shame on you! Careless, idle child! Your own sister of six can do better! Shame, Sirena! I had to walk over to your auntie’s house myself for the breadfruit. Sirena, if you ever go in the water again, you will become an ugly, fat fish!’ her mother screamed. Sirena knelt trembling in a corner, her godmother’s hand on her shoulder. ‘No, please, no!” Sirena wailed when she heard her mother’s curse” (p.236). This is an origin tale of a mermaid, created by a curse. Even though Sirena’s mother says she will become “an ugly, fat fish”, Sirena transforms into a mermaid when she goes into the water next. Whether this is just a mishap of the curse, or nature being more forgiving than a human, is unclear. What I found most interesting about this passage was that her mother has this power to curse her child. I wonder if there is more respect for elders in Chamorro culture, like there is in some East Asian cultures (when compared to the U.S.). Does this respect give them the power to curse? Can they curse anyone? Or can they only curse their offspring? Since this is a legend on Guam, it also creates fear for the children who hear the story, who then feel they must be responsible children otherwise something similar may happen to them. 

Week 15: We Are Mermaids

Posted on by
Reply

“You don’t have to be use-

ful. You are not required 

to come up with something to say

You can spend your life benthic, or brackish,

subsisting and even thriving where a fingertip

comes away saline and still refreshing, 

exploring the estuary, the submerged lip 

and congeries of overlapping shores 

on the green-black water, the harbor, the bay. 

You can live with your doubt, 

and that’s why it’s yours.”

I like this second half of the poem. The idea of not having to be useful, not having to say something when prompted, feels very different than how our Western society operates. There is a lot of pressure to be useful, to contribute and make a meaningful impact on society, but this poem presents the idea that nature, in its purest form, does not feel these pressures. If we are truly part of nature, then why do we feel these pressures to perform, to contribute, to be useful. It is also interesting when she says “you can live with your doubt, and that’s what it’s yours”. I wonder what this doubt is. Is it about how society works? Is it about the existence of mermaids? Is it commenting on the general state of worry our country lives in? But it also makes the doubt personal, through the use of the word ‘your’, and the following line of “that’s why it’s yours”. It’s yours because doubt is a subjective experience, based on belief systems and experiences. 

There is also a strong use of imagery in the second stanza of this quote. It transports the reader to a place where they are the being underwater, giving the reader a glimpse into what it would be like to be an aquatic being, with no worries or pressure to be useful. Instead, they are simply exploring their surroundings, being one with nature. 

Final Essay Proposal

Posted on by
Reply

I am planning to do a creative-critical essay, with photos I took (attached to this post) and an essay on gender fluidity. I am struggling to make a strong argument so any feedback from fellow students is deeply appreciated. Or any analysis on these photos as I know it is hard for me to objectively see these photos.

Thesis: The image of a mermaid challenges cultural interpretations of gender through the mermaid tail. Lacking genitalia, they symbolize a gender fluid being that we are able to relate to due to their half human nature. This collection of photos presents a gender fluid mermaid that we may be tempted to categorize; but this mermaid is gender fluid, which is captured through posing, model choice, and the mermaid tail. When analyzed in relation to other stories of gender fluid mermaids, like The Deep, we can start to question how we define gender and what value we hold to this idea.

I was thinking to analyze the photos on the tail (lack of two legs), the model (gender fluid model), and the posing (masculine posing), maybe location choice as well. Not sure if I should stick to one photo or if a few would be okay. And then maybe analysis of the passage from The Deep where they talk about the wajinru being male, female, both, or neither and try to tie back to the photos.

Week 14: The Deep

Posted on by
1

One common theme I saw in chapters 5 and 7 was the importance of knowledge and history. When Yetu and Oori are talking about their histories, they come to a disagreement about the importance of history. Yetu says: “‘If the past is full of bad things, if a people is defined by the terror done to them, it’s good for it to go, don’t you think?… It was a very holy thing for my kind. It meant I held onto all the memories so no one else had to, generations and generations of them. Six hundred years of pain.’” (p.94). In contrast, Oori says: “‘I would take any amount of pain in the world if I meant I could know all the memories of the Oshuben. I barely know any stories from my parents’ generation. I can’t remember our language. How could you leave behind something like that?’” (p.94). These are two very different perspectives. One knows all, and one lives without knowledge. If you compare Oori and the wajinru, both live in ignorance of their past, but the wajinru are able to live in the present, while Oori seems consumed by questions of her history and unable to move forward. Is it because the wajinru have the Remembrance? Or is there another difference? Would Oori really want to know her people’s history? As they say, curiosity killed the cat. In addition, this comparison between knowing history and not knowing mirrors the relationship between Yetu and her mother, as her mother often said that Yetu could not understand what it was like, when in reality, Amaba was the one who struggled to realize the pain Yetu underwent. Similarly, Oori is struggling to realize how traumatizing a history can be, especially when relived in such detail. Often, when we consider trauma, we see it as an event that happens to a person, and that person is the one who is traumatized. However, there are some theories that people who are close to the person who is traumatized (partnerships, parental, etc) can be traumatized just by hearing what has happened to someone they care about. Yetu has been repeatedly traumatized by these memories, but no one will acknowledge it because it is ‘history’ and decidedly over with, and because it has happened, they believe one cannot be traumatized by the pure memory. I think this end of the chapter raises the question of the importance of history, as well as how we choose to define ourselves. Do we define ourselves by history, by culture, by community? These two characters show sharp differences in where they find identity; Oori has no culture, community, or history to lean on to shape her identity, while Yetu feels very defined and shaped by her culture and community, and the history she was forced to bear. 

Week 13: Mami Wata: Hybridity, Sexuality, and Power

Posted on by
1

The hybridity of Mami Wata in Ti Jeanne creates an element of fear for those who believe in the tale. Not only is she a hybrid beast whose bottom half is a snake, but she also can assume the form of a woman, who is beautiful (unlike her snake form). One would not know that she is Mami Wata when she is in her human form. “In her mermaid form, be it piscine or reptilian, Mami Wata dwells in the waters of the forests she protects, but just as often, she might pass you by in her human form as she walks down the street in high heels, dressed to the nines and wearing stylish sunglasses. She takes seduction to a whole new level, using her beauty and promises of wealth to attract followers, and is not above sleeping with her devotees or taking them as spouses” (p.274). I found this passage to be interesting for many reasons. First off, her hybrid nature, that varies depending on where she is. On one hand, she is a protector, a guardian, but on the other she is a seductress, a symbol of sexuality. Not only does she take part in human activities (such as sex and marriage), but she also indulges in their vanity, by dressing to their standards (and seemingly separating herself from a more classic nature image). This is interesting because later in the story, she critiques Ti Jeanne for her vanity, and uses it as her reason for enchanting Ti Jeanne. I interpret this either as hypocrisy, or a belief that only river spirits are allowed vanity. Another part of the passage I found interesting was the description of Mami Wata’s seductive behavior. When we (those in the US, perhaps California) think of mother nature, we think of a mother figure, a safe place, nature. However, this representation of “mother water” is not a mother figure; rather she is a symbol of sexuality, seduction, and love. By saying she is not above sleeping with her followers, this myth goes against many beliefs of the value of sex, especially for women. Many women are looked down upon for engaging in sexual behavior, but Mami Wata’s choice to sleep with devotees changes power dynamics in female sexuality. I wonder if this reflects the culture or goes against their beliefs. 

Essay 2: Hybrid Stories of the Sea (Close Reading)

Posted on by
Reply

Sophia Fugazzotto 

ECL 305 

Dr. Pressman 

April 13th, 2024 

Hybrid Stories of the Sea

The 2018 film The Water Will Carry Us Home by Gabrielle Tesfaye tells a story of the Middle Passage and the horrors that Africans faced on this journey. During this film, pregnant African women are thrown off of the ship, but instead of falling to a tragic fate, they are saved by the presence of Yoruba Orishas, and turn into mermaids. Using art as a medium to recount an appalling part of history allows us to see the past through a new lens, instead of just the one we have been taught. To tell this story, Tesfaye uses two different formats of film–modern film making and stop motion animation. This is one of many hybrid elements used in this film. The use of hybridity in The Water Will Carry Us Home connects past and present, by revealing the harrowing journey of the Middle Passage and the people who are connected to it. It is this type of creative storytelling that allows audiences to see that history is not just stories; it is lives that were lived by people, just like us. 

One important element of hybridity in The Water Will Carry Us Home is the use of both modern film making and stop motion animation. The film begins with modern film making, with many shots focused on small details of Tesfaye and what she is doing–such as the henna on her hands, the stretched ear lobes, the tattoos, the smoke from the candles. These small details slow down the film and force the viewer to pay attention to these details, rather than a complex scene. For instance, consider the close shot of the eye henna on her hands, which is later also seen on the boat in the stop animation portion of the film. Had the shots had been wider and not focused on these details, the viewer may have missed the eye on the woman’s hand. This symbol being in both parts connects these two mediums, and connects past and present. In addition, by having modern film making sandwiching the stop animation, it first allows the viewer to relate to something in the beginning (this looks familiar) and then brings the viewer back to reality at the end (this is part of someone’s culture, this is a story told by these people). With this personal touch, the viewer is able to see that this story is not just a tale for the history books, but it is deeply connected to a culture and a people. 

Another element of hybridity is the stop motion aspect. There are two important parts of this format that contribute to the structure and story of this film. The first is, quite simply, the choice to use stop motion animation. Stop motion is the process of taking multiple pictures of the same items, and moving them slightly between each shot, and then combining the photographs to create a moving picture. It is the basis of film, but is not commonly used now due to how time consuming it is. The stop motion portion of this film takes only four minutes; yet Tesfaye most likely spent weeks, if not months, creating these scenes. The quick consumption of this media can be compared to our similarly quick consumption of the Middle Passage in history. The Middle Passage was a harrowing journey that lasted around eighty days on crowded slave ships (“The Middle Passage”). Yet, we do not even spend half of that time discussing the Middle Passage and the horrors that were imposed on the enslaved people on these ships. This creative choice by Tesfaye is important commentary on our consumption of history. 

The second significant feature of the stop motion animation is the hybridity within this format. Tesfaye creates most of the stop motion artwork from paper and watercolor, but she also adds historically famous images of the slave ships. Specifically, the ‘Brooks’ diagram, which was a document created in 1788 to visualize the most effective way to pack slaves onto a ship (“The Slave Ship”). The use of these images within the stop motion changes the visualization of this slave ship–it goes from just drawings to showing the viewer that this was a significant, and painful part of history. Tesfaye could have drawn these cramped conditions herself, but her choice not to brings the viewer back to the reality of what happened to these slaves, and how their placement on the ship was carefully planned, as if they were simply inanimate objects being stacked on a cargo ship. This adds to her creation of a story that is not just part of history, but the lives of real people. 

A final element of hybridity in The Water Will Carry Us Home is the headphones used at the end, which can be interpreted as a way of listening to the ocean and the stories it holds under its surface–stories we may never learn or know of. When one listens to the inside of certain shells, one can hear a sound similar to waves, but it is actually the vibrations of air due to the shape of the shell. What if this is the ocean’s way of recording what it sees? By shaping the shells in a special structure, the sea is able to save its memories, a history that may be locked away forever. These headphones also represent the intertwined lives of humans and nature; they are constructed of sea shells from nature and metal from humans. This use of materials reveals both the ability of human and nature to coexist, but also the power that humans retain over nature through their ability to manipulate it to their benefit, same as slave traders used the ocean for their own benefit. 

These hybrid elements of Tesfaye’s work create a film that does not follow traditional routes, but instead combines powerful features to forge an emotional experience for the viewer. It reminds us of the stories behind the brief chapters in our history textbooks, and the cultural stories from the side of the oppressed. Creative forms of art allow us to see history from a new perspective–instead of pages of words, we are allowed a more emotional and interpretive representation of history that is not controlled by those who ‘won’. The Water Will Carry Us Home bridges the gap between historical events and modern film by use of hybrid storytelling from a fresh perspective. 

Works Cited

Tesfaye, Gabrielle. “The Water Will Carry Us Home.” Vimeo, 10 May 2018, vimeo.com/269045173. 

“The Middle Passage (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/the-middle-passage.htm#:~:text=The%20Middle%20Passage%20itself%20lasted,15%25%20grew%20sick%20and%20died. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024. 

“The Slave Ship ‘Brooks’: Royal Museums Greenwich.” The Slave Ship “Brooks” | Royal Museums Greenwich, www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-254938#:~:text=In%201788%2C%20abolitionists%20in%20Britain,around%20the%20country%20and%20abroad. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024. 

Hybridity of The Water Will Carry Us Home

Posted on by
3

The short film, The Water Will Carry Us Home, had an interesting combination of two mediums: modern film making and stop animation. This mixture of mediums made me think about the hybridity of mermaids that we have touched on quite a few times this semester, but I don’t think this was in the intention of the filmmakers. Rather, I think the combination of these two mediums allowed the filmmakers to tell a story, while also connecting it to real people and modern times. The film begins with shots of women lighting candles, with many shots focused on small details of their bodies and what they are wearing–such as the henna on their hands, the stretched ear lobes, the tattoos, the smoke from the candles. These small details slow down the film and force the audience to pay attention to these details, rather than a big picture. For instance, the henna on the hands with the eyes, which is later also seen on the boat in the stop animation portion of the film. If the shots had been wider and not focused on these details, the audience may have missed the eye on the woman’s hand. This symbol being in both parts connects these two mediums. By having modern film making sandwiching the stop animation, it first allows us to relate to something in the beginning (this looks familiar) and then brings us back to reality at the end (this is part of someone’s culture, this is a story told by these people). There is also hybridity within the stop animation. Although most parts are hand drawn and slowly moved, there are also historic documents embedded in the video that reveal the horrors of the slave ships that moved people to the United States. This is important because it shows the history behind this story. In addition, at the end, there is another woman who creates headphones out of shells and a piece of wire. This creation is a way to listen to the ocean, and is another hybrid part of this film as it combines something man made with something of nature, of the ocean. This hybrid element of this film shows the ability of man and nature to coexist, intertwined with each other, and unable to separate. 

Week 11: Sirenomelia

Posted on by
2

Watching this video reminded me of one of the terms we discussed last week, distortion. This ocean centric language proposal in Deterritorializing: Preface mentioned switching from clarity to distortion, as many things underwater are distorted and how this distortion should be a baseline condition. I saw this distortion in the video we watched this week, as there were both visual and auditory distortions when the camera was underwater. Looking up at the land, one could not see as clearly as one should be able to, and there were light distortions through the water. When an audio clip of someone talking played, it was muffled and incomprehensible. It was interesting to see the world from what a mermaid’s perspective might be, and how separated from the human world this perspective is. When the camera was underwater and pointed up at the surface, the land beyond seemed so far away. If we did switch our language from clarity to distortion, it would allow us to consider other perspectives, and perhaps understand that our personal perspective is not truly clear; rather that it is distorted, as is everyone else’s. 

I also thought the locations chosen by the director were interesting. There was a sharp contrast between the snowy land, that was just nature for miles and miles, untouched by man. Then, where the mermaid was swimming, there was concrete and industrialization. As it states in the description, the mermaid is exploring an old, decommissioned NATO base, which also goes to show that even when humans think they need land, they are willing to just abandon it after it has served its purpose. Perhaps this contrast is making commentary on mankind’s effects on the environment. While some parts are unscathed, others are dominated by the effects of industrialization and humans’ need for land. And by changing the raw environment, it makes it more difficult for the natural world to navigate. Instead of this mermaid having the ability to roam in an open space (as shown in the video at 4:53), the mermaid is confined to tunnels and canals. As humans, we are able to manipulate the world in a way that affects many more species than just our own.