The CO>SEA research group unveiled its latest short documentary, "The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationships," at the prestigious "La Notte delle Idee – Mari e Oceani: Verso nuove rotte" (Night of Ideas – Seas and Oceans: Towards New Routes) event held at Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Organized by the French Embassy in Italy and the Institut Français, the event provided a fitting stage for this exploration of the intricate relationship between society and the ocean.
Prior to the screening, Chiara Certomà (MEMOTEF Department, Sapienza University of Rome) and Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency) presented the "PartArt4OW. Participatory Art For Society Engagement with Ocean and Water" project, highlighting its connection to CO>SEA's broader research initiatives.
"The Sense of Place": A Visual Journey into Ocean-Society Interconnections
Building upon CO>SEA's theoretical and methodological framework established in their earlier video-reportage "Blue Kinship," "The Sense of Place" represents an experimental application of Marine Social Geography concepts. The documentary delves into key geographical themes such as "sense of place," "borders," "belongingness," "territory," "environment," and "community," exploring how these concepts manifest within oceanic spaces and through the lived experiences of those who interact with the sea.
Directed by Federico Fornaro and filmed by Fornaro and Giuseppe Lupinacci (Raw-News), featuring Giorgio De Franceschi, the film focuses on the perspectives of seagoing individuals, particularly surfers, to understand how an affective connection with the ocean is formed and expressed. It adopts an emotional communication approach to explore the concept and lived experience of "sense of place" in relation to the marine environment.
Acknowledging the growing international recognition of the importance of ocean literacy, "The Sense of Place" underscores the urgent need to cultivate care-based relationships with the ocean, fostering a sense of responsibility rooted in understanding, connection, and ultimately, love – moving beyond a purely utilitarian view of the ocean's resources. The documentary powerfully demonstrates how visual storytelling can deepen our understanding of emotional attachment to the ocean. The seamless collaboration between researchers and media professionals exemplifies the potential of visual documentation in marine social geography and its role in catalyzing engaged, transformative, and participatory research.
"La Nuit des Idées": A Dialogue with the Ocean
"La Nuit des Idées" (Night of Ideas) at Palazzo Farnese offered a unique opportunity to bring the venue's extraordinary historical and artistic heritage into dialogue with one of the most pressing issues of our time: the future of our oceans. The event provided a platform for an evening of beauty, exchange, discussion, and discovery, opening a space for reflection on new trajectories in our relationship with the sea.
The event program brought together a diverse range of voices, including oceanographers, sailors, scientists, writers, artists, and representatives from the fishing industry. Through politics, geopolitics, environmental and international law, the discussions explored complex ecosystems, spaces of interconnection, and the ocean's enduring inspiration for poets and creatives. The evening addressed topics such as goods and data trafficking, migration, fishing, biodiversity, underwater archaeology, seafloor geology, and even space exploration, highlighting the multifaceted nature of our relationship with the ocean.
Credits and Accessibility:
"The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationships" was produced by Raw-News Visual Production Agency as part of the European Horizon project PartArt4OW and the Sapienza Third Mission pilot initiative CoSea_Lab. The projects are coordinated by Chiara Certomà and are recognized as official activities of the United Nations Ocean Decade. Filming was supported by research funds from the University of Turin (ESOMAS Department). The production also benefitted from the collaboration of CO>SEA team at Sapienza: Caterina Pozzobon, Luca Bertocci, Chiara Salari.
The documentary is accessible via YouTube and Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/15407782.
Special thanks are extended to Giorgio De Franceschi, who features in the video-doc, and to the surfing community of Anzio and Nettuno, where the documentary was shot, the community of sea workers and seagoing people in Anzio, and the Anzio City Administration.
For more details, interviews, or press inquiries, please contact: Chiara Certomà – chiara.certoma@uniroma1.it; Federico Fornaro – federico.fornaro@raw-news.net