Contribution short abstract:

New soft robots mimic benthic bodies to rectify gaps in marine archives. We consider the epistemological practices of collection and classification within new technological mediations and amidst the material agencies of pressure and flesh as subjects that evade entry into specimen archives.

Contribution long abstract:

Over 500 new lifeforms have been discovered while prospecting for deep sea minerals. While the seabed has largely been represented as a resource awaiting exploitation, still little is known about the ecosystems and lifeworlds of the benthic realm. Collection methods in the deep are confounded by the soft materiality of deep sea animal bodies, who promptly slough their tissues at reduced, near-surface pressures and are easily crushed by traditional ROV mechanical arms. Samples are required in order to taxonimize species and legalize their protection. New soft robots mimic benthic soft bodies to rectify this gap in the ‘pickled archive’ of shelved jars in natural history museums and marine institutes. We consider the epistemological practices of ocean species collection and classification within shifting technological mediations, emerging desires for deep sea extraction and oceanic species protection, and amidst the material agencies of differential elemental pressures and fleshy soft-bodied animal subjects that evade capture and entry into the specimen archive of Linnean objects.

While we have previously conducted and published research creatively exploring earth as archive, the focus was on sand and minerals. We are seeking the chance for collective thinking in considering more-than-human archives through bodies and textures as mediated by lived physics of the deep and emerging mimicry technologies of capture, such as soft bots.