Paper short abstract:

Alastair Lomas is a photographer and filmmaker undertaking a PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the GCVA. He uses large format photography, alternative developers and cyanotype printing to examine the relatively new practice of seaweed cultivation on the west coast of Scotland.

Paper long abstract:

'Seaweed Saves the World' is the working title of an ongoing project examining the emergence of seaweed cultivation on the west coast of Scotland. Seaweed is currently being hyped as a panacea for numerous world problems, from food shortages to fossil fuels.

Based at a marine science research institute in the potential 'seaweed capital of the UK', Alastair follows his interlocutors as they move seaweed between sea, laboratory, nursery and farm with the aim of cultivating it. In the process he examines the labour, knowledge practices and spaces required to make crops cultivable at sea, and interrogates the boundaries between 'wild' and 'domesticated'. He also questions what the possible futures of this nascent industry might be.

Alastair's practice is informed by the shared origins of anthropology, photography and marine science. In particular he draws on the work of amateur botanist, phycologist and photographer Anna Atkins, who is believed to be the first woman to make a photographic image; the photographers of the Challenger Expedition, a founding moment in marine science that also saw the collection of early anthropological data; and Alfred Cort Haddon, the marine zoologist-turned-anthropologist who led the first anthropology fieldwork expedition and for whom recording devices were an essential tool. Taking cues from the ways in which his scientist interlocutors are exploring the uses of seaweed as an alternative to unsustainable and environmentally-damaging practices, Alastair also engages with the material properties of seaweed to make a home-made developer for his fieldwork photographs.