Gelification

The term « gelification » of the seas has surfaced recently to describe the overabundance of jellyfish drifting by the thousands. Every disturbance to marine ecosystems seems to play in their favor. Overfishing, pollution, rising temperatures, and ocean acidification — all the upheavals caused by human activity — create ideal conditions for their expansion. Today, many sectors are affected by this proliferation: tourism, fishing, aquaculture, even water desalination; the cooling systems of nuclear plants are sometimes clogged by their presence, causing costly shutdowns. This project explores the turbulence of Mediterranean waters: could jellyfish be agents of ecological and political resistance in the face of human-induced violence?

Submerged Perspectives seeks to examine the Mediterranean sea in the historical wake of the (Black) Atlantic and to explore the forms of survivance that persist in the present of a past that is not truly past. Weaving together ecological collapse and colonial legacies, it follows the voices that circulate in the sea’s depths, revealing what lies beneath its shimmering surface. The sea emerges as a liquid archive of memory and matter — a place of mourning, transformation, and resistance.