the mermaid is well enough to swim out and about, so she is looking forward to this event, entitled ”a totalising monster’? coral in art and culture’ which discusses landfolk representations of corals… more information can be found in this part of the webocean.

“the phenomenon of coral bleaching is, like polar bears stranded on melting ice sheets, frequently used in the media to raise public awareness of climate change. pricking our consciousness and conscience, scientists and conservationists tap into coral’s power to capture the imagination, which is recorded in culture since antiquity.

coral’s complex natural properties and appearance – the long-standing ambiguity of its classification as plant, stone or animal; its existence as a multicellular, hybrid, reef-building organism; its symbiotic relationship with algae and bacteria; the vibrancy of its colours; and the intricacy of its root and branch patterns – have led to its appropriation in different cultural contexts, as both symbol and concrete material.

this talk explores ways in which coral has been used, throughout different cultures and periods, as metaphor for metamorphosis, religious symbol, medicine, curiosity, traded commodity, decorative object, emblem of the unconscious mind, and icon of global warming, from antiquity to the present day.”

speaker: marion endt-jones (university of manchester). she is currently writing a book entitled ‘coral: a cultural history’ (for reaktion books) and curating an exhibition on coral in nature and culture at the manchester museum, which will open in november 2013.

date: monday 27 may 2013
time: 7:30pm

‘art history in the pub’
the monarch
40-42 chalk farm road
greater london nw1 8bg
free!

the mermaid has just found some amazing landfolk art and wanted to share it with everyone. art in itself is a shared concept between landfolk and merfolk. the images that were found by the mermaid evoke coral reefs and are made by a landfolk female called amy eisenfeld genser. she writes in the webocean:

‘i am fascinated by the flow of water, the organization of beehives, and the organic irregularity of plants, flowers, rock formations, barnacles, moss, and seaweed.’

the mermaid is looking forward to more of this art and hopes that it might encourage landfolk to look after the ocean based coral reefs, too!

the mermaid calls on all landfolk based in the southern california area to look out for fellow merfolk in need. there is currently a mass stranding of malnourished and ill seal pups. if you find one, please call the pacific marine mammal centre on this number: 949.494.3050 and do not try to touch or feed the seal. they will need special care. more instructions on what to do when you find a seal pup are here. the centre is also looking for donations, as they are running out of food and everything else that seal pups need!

once again the mermaid had conversations with landfolk traders about taking too much merfolk out of the ocean and putting too much bad stuff for merfolk into the ocean. the latest talks revolved around mutated fish ‘farms’ and landfolk ‘hygiene’ products, both new concepts for the mermaid. luckily, the landfolk researchers of mindthesciencegap have helped the mermaid understand them better.

so, landfolk are trying to reduce the amount of fish and ‘by-catch’ they take from the oceans, which seems like exactly what the mermaid is arguing for. the odd thing is that landfolk are trying to do this by breeding new kinds of fast growing fish inland! the problem the mermaid found is that these fish are pretty sickly, because they grow too fast and and whole swarms are kept in small pools, so the mermaid is pretty angry again that landfolk do not understand the life-web. the mermaid is finding it very hard to make landfolk understand even the basics. they may just be too young!

the second issue is also very confusing. so, landfolk are paranoid about getting sick from bacteria, who are major players in the web of life. we call them the old ones. to protect themselves from the old ones, landfolk have started using potions for cleaning themselves and their environment that kill off all old ones, harmful and harmless all the same. worse, the stuff that kills the old ones does not go away, it stays in the web of life and kills merfolk, more old ones and eventually enters the landfolk themselves. this senseless self-harm is simply incomprehensible. so much teaching to do for the merfolk!

the mermaid was very impressed by this report on captive merfolk. she is glad that some landfolk are fighting against practices such as hunting, trading, training and displaying merfolk. this is also part of the mermaid’s diplomacy work. after all, if humans want to study merfolk, they would learn much more, if they didn’t torture us all the time.

here is another sad tale of such practices:

sorry. the mermaid has been out of the webocean for a few months to recruit more sea creatures to help humans understand climate change. in the picture, you can see an elephant seal carrying a sensor on top of its head to record measurements of south pole bottom waters. this sensor, the mermaid has been told, send information to things called satellites in space, to communicate the data back to the landfolk researchers.

the mermaid has discovered another thing about landfolk she finds peculiar: a craze to consume capsules of fish oils, apparently to make their hatchlings think better. the mermaid has researched this a little and thankfully found other landfolk who are similarly perplexed. while the mermaid thinks it is okay to eat fish for sustenance, she believes this should be done in measures and with the right fishing practices and mentality. i.e. you don’t scrape up the ocean floor with machinery bigger than wales. but to turn fish into pills for profiting on landfolk anxieties, that seems pretty illogical. but then, that’s what landfolk seem to be. while landfolk society is sorting that one out (hopefully), they might want to consider eating algae instead…

The mermaid has belatedly heard of groups of landfolk designing habitats for hermit crabs. hermit crabs are currently facing a housing crisis. the mermaid believes this is either dues to landfolk collecting shells for their hermit crab pets and not returning the spare habitats back to the sea. she also wonders whether pollution or other changes in the oceans are the cause. in any case, this has all sorts of other negative effects on hermit crab society, including rising crime rates, including violent attacks and crabicide.

until the causes are known, landfolk want to help by designing ‘shellters’ which serve as a stand-in for the natural habitats. the mermaid knows of at least two projects, called ‘hand up’ and ‘project shellter’. these projects may have merged in the meantime, but the mermaid does not know that. maybe knowledgeable landfolk can help here.

the mermaid finds interesting that project shellter are appealing to anyone to help them find a good shape that hermit crabs might like to live in (until they have outgrown it that is). landfolk-made shellters are currently being tested in places called ‘crabitats’, set up at different landfolk research sites. video updates about the ‘shellter’ project are regularly posted here. as far as the mermaid knows, the researchers are not planning on putting these shells into the sea, but are trying to offer them to landfolk, so that they don’t need to take shells out of the sea. if an ocean friendly material is found, these shells may be used in the sea, too. at the moment, hermit crabs try to use human rubbish as habitats, which is neither dignified nor healthy for my fellow denizens. the mermaid will carry on watching the project with interest.

the mermaid has just heard of this interesting looking exhibition. it can be found by another famous landfolk river called the seine. the seine is surrounded by a city called paris which is rather popular with the more anthrophile merfolk, despite the dangerous water traffic. therefore it is not a surprise that the mermaid would very much like to sea this exhibit – and visit her resident mermaid companion. sadly, the mermaid will not be able to swim down. you may be luckier than her. if this is the case, here is where/when you need to go:

‘can’t you sea?’ exhibition
sea & co @ galerie goutte de terre (75011)
3 – 14 november
opening 3 november 6pm

the mermaid has just come across this project called follow the things which traces things that landfolk wear, eat or otherwise utilise. the latest item they have been tracing is seafood: prawns and sushi. their report on tigerprawns can be read here. today, they have linked to a worrying article on the food that landfolk call ‘sushi’, which tells us about how fish get caught and flown up and down the globe, bizarrely, the mermaid thinks, to increase ‘value’. as member of a culture that regards themselves as experts on seafood, the mermaid can safely say, that this certainly does not add culinary or nutritional value to it, so she is again a bit confused about this practice. merfolk have a lot to teach!
tomorrow, the grocery section of followthethings will have its own commentary on this (including a performative fishualisation). the mermaid will certainly be following this site to learn more about landfolk reasoning and trade, so she can hone her diplomacy skills…