Project
Aquarium of Curiosities 

Project Directors
Isabel Hofmeyr, Wits University
Charne Lavery, University of Pretoria

Project URL
https://www.oceanichumanities.com/aquariumofcuriosities

Project Reviewer
Rahul K. Gairola, Murdoch University

Project Overview

Charne Lavery

The Aquarium of Curiosities is an experiment in archive creation that samples the range of creative and critical work on southern seas. The process of curation is relatively free form with the only criteria that the curiosity is related to the ocean (coastlines, submarine worlds, ports, maritime networks, ships, fish, and so on); to the global south (the poorer parts of the world, the third world, the developing world, but also the southern hemisphere more loosely defined); and also to the arts and humanities (literature, art, history, theatre, film, design, stories, or science that engages the imagination). 

The Aquarium of Curiosities is part of the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South (OHGS), an overarching platform that aims to evolve oceanic humanities appropriate to global south. It is a response to rising sea levels as the most visible sign of climate change, requiring new styles of research and writing in the humanities that speak simultaneously to environmental and decolonial themes. It supports, records, and showcases research, writing, artistic production, and public humanities work that combines critical ocean studies with postcolonial understandings of the seas and other forms of water.

OHGS was established in 2018 with funding from the Mellon Foundation.  The project had a public humanities mandate, so we sought to build a website that could carry out some of this role. The Aquarium’s structure and name are inspired by, but also critique, the “cabinets of curiosities” associated with Renaissance and colonial histories. The idea of an eclectic, snapshot-style collection of natural and artificial curiosities was retained but made more lively and watery by its shift from dry cabinet to wet aquarium. It can also be thought of as a flotsam of cultural production on the oceans from the relatively underrepresented parts of the world.

For these reasons, the Aquarium has two arrangements as part of its structure: a “Floating View” and a “Linear View.” Viewers can access the material as images “floating” past on a random rotation, taking the metaphor of web “surfing” as more seriously oceanic, or they can scroll down to find lists of the same materials organized as lists and by text rather than image. 

The Aquarium was built using the Wix Editor. The dynamic “floating view” comprises six slide deck galleries, set to autoplay when users land on the webpage. Some galleries change every three seconds and others every four seconds, so that the image changes are staggered, suggesting ebb and flow. Each gallery image is set up as a hyperlink to the relevant external webpage. The “Linear View” uses the list builder, with each title linking similarly to an external webpage.

The team comprised the two co-directors of the project and postdoctoral fellow Jonathan Cane who designed the site and the archive. Curiosities were collected by this team as well as by graduate students and research associates who are listed on the website. 

The archive was designed for both academics and interested members of the public. It sought not only to provide an animated sense of the field of oceanic humanities from a global south perspective but also to involve its audience in co-construction. Building up an understanding of oceanic humanities in the global south, as well as have that understanding come from those in the region, was central to the decolonial intentions of the project.  

Project Review

Rahul K. Gairola

The Aquarium of Curiosities, built using the Wix Editor, is a compelling digital archive directed and curated by Isabel Hofmeyr and Charne Lavery. It constitutes part of the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South (OHGS), a comprehensive research project that strives to place the blue humanities in the context of the global south. It contributes to social justice fields including postcolonial studies and Anthropocene studies. In responding to climate change through rising sea levels and its impact on marine life and coastal ecosystems, the project “speak(s) simultaneously to environmental and decolonial themes. It supports, records, and showcases research, writing, artistic production, and public humanities work that combines critical ocean studies with postcolonial understandings of the seas and other forms of water.”

Hofmeyr and Lavery have together curated a compelling and powerful digital archive that can cause ripple in both current discourses of the blue humanities and postcolonial digital humanities, respectively. The project’s homepage is quite handsome and features a “Floating View” and “Linear View” visualization of creative, critical, and cultural material that is “relatively free form.” The curiosities include a wide range of digital materials traversing genres and types and, according to the co-directors, “are inspired by, but also critique, the ‘cabinets of curiosities’ associated with Renaissance and colonial histories.” Some highlights from the digital collection include a book review of Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology by author Astrida Neimanis in The Sydney Review of Books, a public scholarship piece on the Anthropocene published in The Conversation, and a “Haunting Virtual Floods Submerge Cities Around the World” article published in CNN. It includes other media ranging from literary essays to digital art to films, essays, music videos, and more.

Beneath these two sections is a final expository section titled “Digital Humanities,” which could benefit from further development. For all its interesting media, the Aquarium of Curiosities could more purposefully identify exactly how this assemblage of digital media is “decolonial” in  What social and political framing aside from water makes this online archive decolonial? Does focusing on “the global south (the poorer parts of the world, the third world, the developing world, but also the southern hemisphere more loosely defined)” necessarily make a project “decolonial”? Addressing these matters in the framing of the project itself would ensure that the project isn’t perceived as tokenistic. Examining the tension inherent in the “free form” nature of the project would also be useful. On the surface, this idea appears at odds with the focused and poised social justice work of postcolonial digital humanities as clearly outlined by scholars including Roopika Risam, Radhika Gajjala, Nishant Shah, Rohit Dasgupta, and others. Additionally, project directors should consider elaborating on how these disparate elements speak to social justice currents in the blue humanities. 

I would encourage the project directors to also consider how cultural artifacts could be presented in a more structured manner according to media type. Categories would provide useful ways for users to explore the rich materials in the archive. In addition, they could encourage contribution of new materials. For example, for “Music Videos” some additions might include M.I.A.’s “Borders,” P.J. Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” Kehlani’s “Water,” Ibeyi’s “River,” Tom Tom Club’s “Suboceana,” and/ or David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s “When Love Takes Over.” Added structure would empower the Aquarium of Curiosities digital project to more fully realize its vision. And this, in my view, would amplify its tidal impact on its global visitors and audiences.