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Week 9: Blue Humanities

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Out of the two readings for week 9, I found the Blue Humanities one to be more interesting. This article discussed our scientific and conceptual history of the sea and how it has developed over the last few centuries. One part I liked was when the author talked about how with more analysis of historical sea documents, we have started to understand our changing perceptions toward the sea. Our view of the sea has primarily shifted from a more utilitarian and mechanical perspective to an aesthetic, modern, beautiful conception. This tied into some of our discussion from last week, when we talked about how the sea used to be only visited by people who went there for work, but it later moved into a more recreational activity for people as it became this beautiful, relaxing concept. Our interaction with parts of nature depends on our subjective value of the entity. This can apply to really everything; for instance, our social interactions with others will depend on our subjective value of the other. But even within our subjective values of parts of nature, there is variance between person to person. No two people see the world the same, as our worlds are shaped by personal experiences and our top down processing of the world creates a biased and personalized living experience. Take for instance–some people go into nature and take the ‘leave no trace’ method, while others destroy and litter. All depending on subjective value. But it is interesting to see when these perceptions of the world are something that are the same from person to person–this shift from a utilitarian ocean to an aesthetic ocean. Mediums such as stories and paintings are fascinating to analyze because of how they may affect the viewers and change their own perspective of the world. How much of our reality is actually real, and how much of it is influenced and made subjective? I don’t believe anyone can truly see the world in objective eyes. I wonder what other parts of the world that we disregard may become more ‘aesthetic’ to us, or the reverse. Will the ocean become less aesthetic and beautiful to us as we discover more about it? Or as environmental pollution/destruction ruins it? Will we have places on land, similar to aquariums, that mimic what the ocean used to be like? 

Week 9: The Blue Humanities

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This week reading was interesting and something that I was fond over because it showed the variety of ways in which the ocean/sea is used. Not in just a personal way, but to learn history, in other fields of study, also in literature and arts. There were several points that were made that had caught my attention but one that resonated the most would have to be in the last paragraph. “The manner in which this occurred and the significance it holds for modern culture and society is only just beginning to dawn on us.”. I thought the word “beginning” was impactful as it is implying that we do not know as much as we think we do, there is still millions and probably billions of things we don’t know about the ocean, but the curiosity of humans has caused this start to learn all those little bits of information that make up the ocean. I also believe the word “beginning” is being used to show the shift in which society has taken to the view they have of the ocean; we went from being fearful and almost terrified of the unknown water, to now finding a comfort of the ocean even just by viewing it from a distance.

Another point that stood out to me was, “people began to come back to the sea in search for a quality they felt to be missing in the new industrial environment, that something called wilderness.” (paragraph 10). Speaking from a personal perspective, I never truly saw the ocean as wilderness or nature since it has always just been classified as a separate but special place in my mind. When I think of nature, I automatically start to imagine the forest with trees, wild animals, in almost isolated places to be nature as it provides a reflection area for humans to reconnect to themselves. Being able to reflect and read that the ocean provides the same feelings and purpose as a forest does, in my head does classify it as nature. It is a space that provides us with more than what we need to be able to regain our own self-identity back when our day to day lives are drowning us and not allowing a simple break.

Overall, I do believe that our attitude change towards the ocean is what has caused us to be able to create career fields in subjects like marine biology, led to the knowledge of what we have now of the ocean, given us more opportunities to study the ocean further, gives us what we need for everyday living like food, but also are a significant factor of the personal comfort we gain that does not compare to other forms of comfort. There is more to thank the ocean for than we realize as it has always been a home for many in the times that we longed somewhere we felt like we belonged.