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Abstract

CO>SEA_Collaboratorium for Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean is a newly established research group conducting engaged action-research and participatory transformative practices. It aims to reconceptualise and practicize the material-semiotic nature of societal assemblages in relationship with the Ocean, through transdisciplinary exploration, documentation, engagement and creative and grassroot techniques. Therefore, our presentation strarts with the video-reportage “Blue Kinship: Documenting Ocean Relationships” and, while participants enjoy the hands-on photo exhibition “An Intimate Connection: Society and the Ocean in Water Photography”, we present lessons learned from EU projects we lead—SeaPaCS, FishArt, Tentacular Thinking, and PartArt4OW—through semantic mapping and open questions. We wonder whether and how genuine openness to creative, innovative practices beyond traditional academic approaches, along with transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration, can advance theoretical and methodological development in the new field we are defining of Marine Social Geography and Visual Research. Specifically, we explore how creative methods, especially those combining video-photographic research, complement and challenge scientific investigation, influence research contexts, and enrich participatory practices. This is particularly relevant at the liminal land/sea interface, in the turbulent materiality and fluid spatiality of the open ocean.