By way of initiating these notes, an introduction to the bodies of water amidst which I write. At the city of Stavanger, Norway, where I live and work, the Byfjorden flows by and splits up, amongst others, into the Riskafjorden and Gandsfjorden. I often walk along the coast of the peninsular part of Stavanger, and during those walks I try to notice momentous variations in the water. But besides those changes that that I can sense if I pay enough attention, I try to attend to, or wrap my head around, the long periods of time in which this very landscape emerged. While the ripples on the water's surface caused by a passing boat occur in a matter of seconds, these fjords were shaped by moving glaciers over periods of millions of years.
In my PhD research, I trace some of these temporalities of oceans and seas and try to tease out the ways in which they are connected to various other rhythms, patterns, and occurrences. Think of this as a kind of temporal ecology. I do this because I am interested in a type of green energy called "ocean energy." Ocean energy is an umbrella-term for a variety of experiments and techniques that generate energy from movements in the ocean, such as waves and tides. The companies that develop and sell ocean energy see the temporalities of oceans and seas primarily as an energy resource. Perhaps ways of noticing the inseparability of, for instance, the tides from a host of other ecologies and organisms helps to understand oceans and seas as something more than just an energy resource awaiting to be tapped.
As I work on my dissertation, I will post weekly notes on this website–to organize my thoughts and to keep you updated!
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