CARGC Book Talk: Lisa Yin Han, Pitzer College

"Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor"

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About the Talk

We often take for granted the sensing and imaging processes that have made human activities such as offshore drilling, deep sea mining, and archaeological excavation at the ocean bottom possible today. Yet media technologies such as sonar-based surveys, underwater cameras, digital modeling, and more have played a key role in both representing the seafloor as a space of potential profits, even when they are also used for environmentalist aims. Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor makes the case that the historical development of underwater media technologies has been complicit in perpetuating logics of extraction, exploitation, and militarism in our global oceans. From towed hydrophones to networked seafloor observation, the hunt for resources has driven the imaging of the ocean floor and vice versa, imperiling fragile deep ocean ecosystems in the process.

Building on the book’s exploration of techniques such as petroleum seismology and animal-borne sensing, this talk will delve deeper into the role of whales in media assemblages as both victims and collaborators in global ocean mediation. What are the stakes of bringing images of oil and other ocean resources to life through processes that simultaneously produce death? How might a multispecies perspective on ocean mediation dismantle existing hierarchies of knowledge and sense? Han’s book critiques the epistemological and ideological biases inherent in the pursuit of global ocean media coverage and permanent human presence in the deep sea, contending that such values are borrowed from terrestrial knowledge regimes, colonial notions of the frontier, and anthropocentric perspectives on environment. As the seafloor becomes increasingly accessible to humans, the question is not just whether we have the capacity to tame the seafloor, but rather, who are we taming it for?

About the Speaker

Lisa Yin Han is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Pitzer College, in the Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate Media Studies Field Group. She has previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Arizona State University, and received her Ph.D. in Film and Media Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Situated at the intersections of environmental media studies, critical ocean studies, and science and technology studies, Lisa’s work is informed by a dedication to social and environmental justice, which includes attentions to multispecies worldings and the social and environmental embeddings of media infrastructure. Her book, Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor (University of Minnesota Press, 2024), examines how media operations in deep ocean environments pave the way for extractive industries. Lisa has also published work on environmental and digital media in journals such as Configurations, Media + Environment, Communication, Culture & Critique, and Contraception. Her current work-in-progress focuses on entanglements of waste and underwater life, specifically examining the remediation and resourcing of living waste, or “biofoulness,” through media such as video games, social media, AI, and more. Lisa also works as a reviews editor for the Journal of Environmental Media, and is an affiliate of the Humanities for Environment North American Observatory.

This event is co-sponsored by EnviroLab at the University of Pennsylvania.