Published in Russian – in the journal TechnoLogos -Технологос 2020 https://pstu.ru/news/2020/02/12/10336/ FLUID MATTER and TURBULENT SEAS – liquids and art Laura Beloff Associate Professor Aalto University, Finland (formerly: IT-University of Copenhagen, Denmark) INTRODUCTION – THE WET PLANET In 2016 scientists presented evidence about melting arctic ice and its impact on the planet’s polar motion. The polar motion refers to the periodic drift of the planet’s poles. This drift has been observed for more than 130 years and it is believed that the process has been on-going for centuries. It is caused by shifts in masses inside as well as on the surface of the earth. However, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have claimed that since the year 2000 there has been a dramatic shift in polar motion that is believed to be related to climate change and melting of the arctic and Greenland ice sheets (Adhikari et al. 2018). It has been reported that the Antarctica has lost approximately 2.7 trillion metric tons of ice between 1992 and 2017, half of which has occurred in the past five years (Shepherd, Ivins, Rignot et al. 2018). All the ice sheets left on our planet are melting at a similar pace and water is accumulating in the oceans, which in turn causes a redistribution of the weight of the planet as the waters (and ice) flow away from the poles – resulting in wobbly movement on a planetary scale (Adhikari et al. 2018). The 21 st century has been claimed to be the century of biology; this is visible, for example, in the rapid developments of biotechnology and biochemistry. This focus is also visible in the arts with increasing amounts of artists adapting to the current developments in the field of art & science. These artists are working with living matter, biology, biotechnology and biochemistry – or, as Roy Ascott refers to it, with moist media (Ascott 2004). Biological life commences in liquid, typically in water. About 71 % of the Earth's surface is water-covered 1 ; it is an inherent part of life on the planet and the survival of organisms. This means that we, humans, inhabit less than 30% of the earth’s surface by living on dry land. One can state that our planet is characteristically wet. The seas on the planet present a vast liquid environment, which supports various biological ecosystems. Increasingly the seas also support various human-created infrastructures and domestication efforts, such as transport of goods across the oceans. Philip Steinberg, Professor of Political Geography, has written about oceanic transport. According to him the idealization of the ocean as a static, empty surface has its origins in the mercantile era in Europe. During this time various states were consolidating their power as territorial entities on land, claiming their authority at home and in distant colonies through their ability to organize space. The ocean came to serve a contrapuntal function: not as a space to be developed but rather a space to be crossed in order to have other places (on land) to be mined, farmed, industrialized, and later urbanized. Throughout centuries, the world-ocean became to be idealized as devoid of social or physical barriers to movement but 1 https://www.universetoday.com/65588/what-percent-of-earth-is-water/ [accessed 11.1.2019]