Floating lives, eastern clouds, a seaweed archipelago

MAP Office [Gutierrez + Portefaix]

Published in LEAP Magazine, Issue 40, Chinese/English, August 2016

The Ocean is a research domain ripe with possibilities which can aid in the future development of the planet. With many zones yet to be fully explored, maritime study is critical at this moment in history when the oceans are so endangered by Human activities. One of the potential ways to preserve their assets for future generations is to exploit the economic value of its ecosystems (estimated at US$25,000 billion). Other is to consider the complex organisms that inhabit oceans are marine algae and sea grasses, which together produce more oxygen than coral reefs and rainforests combined. This is a starting point of a new territory to explore, a world that offers an irreplaceable archive to recognize and sustain the future 1.

Coastline in Okinawa, Japan, 2013

1 In March 2016, MAP Office organized the first Ocean Archive discussion as part of AAA Open Platform Art Basel HK. Inviting several art historians, art critic, sociologist, artists and designers to participate in a roundtable discussion, we questioned the mapping of Asia through a compilation of islands, archipelagoes and what is left in between.

Floating city, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

One of the primary goals of our research is to reveal the relationships which exist between the lives of Pacific coastline communities and the abundance of seaweed found in those areas. Learning from the history of the algae in these regions, we aim to forge a new perspective about how Humans have sustained themselves through dynamic exchanges, both between nature and culture, sea and soil, and also between survival and production. An important medical and dietary product, seaweed has been feeding and protecting a majority of sea life, fish and shellfish – as well as their surrounding human communities. Considered prehistorically as an essential ‘brain food’, these ‘vegetables of the sea’, along with other maritime products, have been a primary source of Omega-3 fatty acid in the human diet – encouraging the brain to grow bigger and therefore aiding in the development of Human intelligence.

It is important to note that in China, Japan and India, the early use of seaweed has followed a parallel history to the use of tea. Herbal medicines from the land, but also from the sea, have been used to relieve muscle tensions, constipation and chronic bronchitis. These associations can be observed in various writing and poetry promoting marine algae as a precious source of wellness. According to Ole Mouritsen2, in the oldest Japanese-Chinese dictionary, dated to 934CE, 21 different species of edible seaweeds are described, and instructions are given for their preparation.

Seaweed factory, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

2 Ole Mouritsen, Seaweeds: Edible, Available, and Sustainable, Chicago, University Chicago Press, 2013

Seaweed farming, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

It is a knowledge that has been transferred along the coastline and across time. Sometimes considered a noble product, seaweed was also associated with wealth, as a means to produce salt and to pay taxes to local authorities. More recently, their use was extended onto land as a fertilizer for plants, or as food for domestic animals, including cattle and mutton when grass is missing.

The starting point of our research is Asia, where the specific geography of the coastline has led to the development of various unique and extant examples of floating communities. Located at the periphery of the land, most of the floating villages and clusters are found on rivers, lakes or nearby coastlines, small bays protected from storms and other difficult climatic situations. Generally, life on the periphery presents a strategic position with specific characteristics that define the condition of the floating village itself. For example, the coastal areas of Japan, Korea, China, Philippines, or Hawaii have been greatly influenced by the collection and/or cultivation of seaweed, which is celebrated in festivals and food culture. The Pacific Ocean, older and less affected by ice formation than the Atlantic, contains the largest variety of seaweed of all the oceans. Growing at the interface between land and sea, most of the marine flora is natural and reaches human beings as a gift from the sea. Since prehistory, migration movements of the Pacific Islands population, combined with the harvest process of various shellfish and seaweed along coastlines, provided inhabitants with their daily nutrients. For thousands of years in the Polynesian islands, seaweed was cultivated in special sea gardens designed to host no less than 70 different species. Meeting the early morning tide along the coastline of Okinawa, Jeju Island or in the Philippines, it is still quite common to observe inhabitants (often elderly) collecting seaweed for their own daily consumption or to pickle them in jars.

Seaweed factory, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

In Hong Kong, communities which live on the water are still very active, protected by little bays around Sai Kung or Lantau area. They appear as single entities, disconnected from the others, even when located in the vicinity of small urban settlements. Their floating infrastructures are made with simple materials, a mix of bamboo, fabrics and plastic containers. Theyappear as fragile group of platforms ready to be swept away by the next typhoon, especially when compared to the enormous weight of the cities nearby. Yet, it is their diversity, flexibility and fluidity that have allowed these structures to last for hundred of years – surviving climatic pressures, political movements, border lines, wars, and economic crises.

In opposition to the (unstable) land, water has often played the role of a peaceful shelter for poor and endangered communities to take refuge. Little bays, or agea in Greek according to Aristotle3, are an archetype of comfort geography, providing sustainable protection for a population. As a result, their principal relation with the land has mainly been trade, creating a positive ecological complement to their land dwelling neighbors – for example, trading fish or salt for rice or fabrics.

In the northeast of Hong Kong, on High Island, we have been mapping an enduring model of floating village, one which lives off cultivating seafood directly underneath their little houses. With about 60 inhabitants whose average age is 70, it is model that could soon disappear. As the next generation has long ago chosen to live on land, this 3-dimensional live/work economy and ecology represents a mode of living which could be soon be replaced by new modes of leisure and tourist industry. As a paradicmatic case study, this floating village is the site for “The Island of Sea”, one of

Seaweed farming, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

3Aristotle, Historia Animalium. IX, 622a: 2-10. About 400 BC.

Seaweed farming, Sandu’ao, China, 2016

the eight fictional island scenarios we developed for Uneven Growth4, an exhibition speculating on the future of cities that we shifted into the future of the sea.

In Asia, the network of floating settlements cannot constitute a distinctive region, even if many of them are inhabited by the same tribes: Hakka, Tonka, Mergui, etc. Also the coastlines are extremely complicated by the extensive number of islands and include thousands of bays each with specific unique characteristics. Nonetheless, several typologies of life on the water are shared between China’s Fujian Province, Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Bobojong in Indonesia. They have each set up an industrial economy rather than just producing enough to feed themselves. They also share the same types of problems today such as: an aging population; pollution; climate change; and exhaustion of resources.

China’s Fujian Province contains the world’s largest seafood and seaweed farming community. The region of Ningde accomodates the famous floating village Sandu’ao, which is made up of five islets and one peninsula. Recognized as the world’s largest floating community with about 12,000 inhabitants, it has developed in complete autonomy from the land, and until the 1950s its inhabitants were not allowed to enter China. Sandu’ao is a complete floating settlement, including a gas station, post office, police station, medical center, and a few restaurants and convenience stores. Completely dependent on seafood production originally, and on aquaculture tourism more recently, it is a self-contained community that has managed to develop a unique complex economy combining seaweed with abalone farming. Yet, since the late 1980s, the introduction of artificial breeding and the increasing prices of abalone have transformed Sandu’ao into a powerful floating industrial infrastructure, employing hundreds of migrant workers in the management of the sea farms.

Seaweed grapes on coral, Busuanga, The Philippines, 2016

4 Uneven Growth, curated by Pedro Gadanho , MoMA, New York, 2014

In North Asia, seaweed still represents a major food source, equivalent to about 10% of the population’s nutritional intake. To meet the demand, seaweed aquaculture has recently been scaled up. In Japan, the method of mass producing nori dates from the 1950s when systems of nets suspended above water could adjust to the various depths needed to grow the Porphyra algae in its complex germination stage. Specific depths, currents, temperatures and levels of sun perforation are all are essential to the development of specific types of seaweeds and help to explain their rich variety. And it is specifically their diversity that offers an opportunity for exploration in the art of gastronomy. For example, traditional Japanese cuisine and New Nordic cuisine use using seaweeds for their special umami flavor.

Also in Hong Kong, we organized with chef Christina Keung the first Seaweed Gala Diner at the Genuine Lamma Hilton Fishing Village Restaurant. Mrs Keung prepared an 11-course dinner which combined seaweeds that she collected at the restaurant’s pier, shrimp, razor clams, crabs, and rabbit fish. As she joked “The enemy of the seaweed is the rabbit fish since they eat seaweed. If you see a lot of rabbit fish it means it is seaweed season! Then, a few local fishermen will use a sampan armed with a bamboo stick to harvest the seaweed. They will dry them, and beyond their own consumption, they sell them to the herbal shop or to tourists… On our side we eat them together with the Rabbit fish, its yummy…” 5

Capitalizing on the food chain, the eco/nomy/logy of the seaweed appears to us today as one of the biggest opportunity for the planet in the age of the Anthropocene. Beyond a simple and picturesque conception of a sustainable environment, we want to suggest that seaweed can offer a bright future where we are able to live in symbiosis with the eco-system we are living in.

* We would like to express our gratitude to Ingrid Chu, Christina Keung and Pelin Tan.

Seaweed grapes delicacy, Okinawa, Japan, 2013

5 Christina Keung, Interviewed by MAP Office and Pelin Tan, Hong Kong, April 23rd, 2016

The six principles of seaweed

SCALE 1

GLOBAL atmosphere

Can we still behave as if the human species is the most essential organism on the planet? An affirmative answer to this question echoes the Anthropocene epoch, complete with its set of emerging issues and problems.

Today, there is no doubt that human production and consumption have had and continue to have a tremendous impact on the earth’s atmospheric cycle. Yet it is also true that we as organisms contribute only a small amount to the production of the atmosphere.

In fact, it is the small, almost invisible micro and macro algae, phytoplankton and seaweeds, that produce an average of 70 to 80 percent of the air (and oxygen) in the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. If one of the oldest living organisms on the planet is essential to the production of the atmosphere, they must have also contributed to human development in various ways so as to support human life.

SCALE 2

local coastlines

With around 12,000 species currently known, the biodiversity of seaweed offers a complex family structure from which we can extract six principles to establish the relationship between coastline settlements and their immediate environment. Together, they propose a lexical construction of the macro algae and their possible contribution to life around them. In that sense, the six sequences represent the majority of the characteristics with which most of the species can be identified.

Seaweed principle #2

Seaweeds are benthic organisms, along with crabs, clams, sponges and other tiny organisms living in bottom sediments. They are living attached to the sea floor along the littoral zone, cleaning up the bottom and scavenging on dead organisms.

二、海藻是底栖生物，与螃蟹、蛤蜊、海绵以及其它

微小生物一起生长在海底沉积物上。它们附着在沿岸

的海底，清理、清除死去的有机体。

Seaweed principle #3

Seaweeds are natural filters. As they filter the water for food, they remove sediments and organic substances, cleaning the water. They became useful tools in improving water quality in endangered areas such as the Great Barrier Reef.

三、海藻是天然过滤器。它们通过过滤海水而获得养分，

在这个过程中，它们去除了沉积物和有机物质，净化了

水质。在大堡礁那样濒危的地区，海藻是改善水质的

重要工具。

Seaweed principle #6

Seaweeds are productive machines; they convert sunlight energy into chemical components - vitamins, minerals, iodine and omega-3. The photosynthesis process visible through their pigmentation (red, brown and green) is the basis of ¾ of the world’s oxygen production.

六、海藻是生产机器。它们将太阳光的能量转化成化学

成分——维生素、矿物质、碘和Ω-3 脂肪酸。

它们通过光合作用，利用自身的色素（红、褐和绿）

制造了大气中四分之三的氧气。