Over the past two decades, the sea has slowly crept into human geography. Together with colleagues in the emergent field of critical ocean geography, we have been making the argument, time and again, that geography has historically been a land-locked and terra-centric project. Geography is earth-writing, and earthlessness has been taken very literally in shaping the spaces in which geographical study has taken place. As we have been arguing, new geographical knowledge can be unearthed when thinking from the sea [...] Subjects, objects, knowledges, and forces – seafarers, migrants, offshore protesters, fishermen (and women), naval officers, fish, ships, fossil fuels consumer goods laws, current, and infrastructures have all featured in the numerous publications that now pay attention to life at sea.

– Kimberley Peters and Philip Steinberg, p.28. Allan Sekula: OKEANOS, the sea-themed book on the late U.S. photographer published by TBA21. For his work Fish Story he spent 7 years photographic harbours and port cities around the world

What are the alternative sites of modernity, we may then ask, connected to the oceanic space that we need to reclaim and can reclaim only if we finally give up the notion of the phenomenological void of the ocean? And finally: what does the relationship to water, to the riverine, the estuary, the oceanic bring us? What zones of relationality does it establish? How can water be seen as a hyperlink, as a connection, as a network of
connected thinking along geopolitical fault lines? What does the ocean want to tell us?

From Not just a Fish Story by Daniela Zyman, on Allan Sekula's essay-film The Forgotten Space p. 29 Allan Sekula: OKEANOS, the sea-themed book on the late U.S. photographer published by TBA21.

designboom (DB): what drives your continued interest in working with light?

olafur eliasson (OE): we take light for granted when we can turn it on with a switch whenever we want to, but light has an incredible effect on everything we do and how we do it. in my artworks dealing with light, I am interested in making people aware of the significance of their surroundings, heightening their perceptions. little sun builds on this, in that it deals with the role light plays in perpetuating structural disadvantages.

DB: as an artist and designer, how do social and environmental conditions and affect your creative thinking?

OE: I would say that social and environmental conditions are not external to creativity. creativity is in fact not an isolated formal exercise but one which plays an integral part in the processes of our world. the essence of success in designing something comes from the consequences that the design has in the world. social and environmental conditions are never separated from creative activity.

DB: what lies at the core of little sun’s mission, and why is this initiative so important to you?

OE: little sun’s mission is about spreading energy access for all. there are 1.1 billion people around the world who do not have ready access to electricity. imagine that. not having light affects everything you do – a child who does not have light cannot read or study in the evening, doctors cannot make house calls to deliver babies, people have to stop working once it gets dark.

This is a great structural disadvantage, which I believe we need to correct. many people use kerosene lamps or candles instead, and these have adverse effects on their health and on air quality. it’s also tied to the un sustainable development goals, specifically to decreasing poverty, expanding access to quality education, improving gender equality, providing affordable and clean energy, and protecting the environment.

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