Sea Currents in Nineteenth-Century Art, Science and Culture: Commodifying the Ocean World

Scientists, artists, designers, manufacturers, and amateur enthusiasts valued and experienced the sea and its products through the commoditization of the ocean world during the nineteenth century, inspiring a multifaceted material discourse. This book explores the collecting and display, illustration and ornamentation, and trade and consumption of marine flora and fauna, analyzing their material, aesthetic, and commercial dimensions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 09 March 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The exploration and commoditization of the ocean world during the nineteenth century sparked a rich material discourse that encompassed scientific inquiry, colonial expansion, industrialization, and the emergence of middle-class leisure. This book delves into the multifaceted exchange of oceanic objects, revealing how it inspired a diverse range of material expressions. From the sandy shores to the depths of the seabed, marine organisms and environments were made tangible through processing and representational technologies, captivating practitioners and audiences alike.

Sea Currents, a comprehensive collection of essays and case studies by scholars, curators, and scientists, explores the collecting, display, illustration, ornamentation, and trade of marine flora and fauna. It examines their material, aesthetic, and commercial dimensions, shedding light on the intricate relationships between these elements in the modernizing ocean world.

Spanning global art history, the history of science, empire studies, anthropology, ecocriticism, and material culture, this book surveys the profound significance of marine matter in the economies and ecologies of a rapidly evolving ocean realm. It uncovers the ways in which marine objects have been valued, celebrated, and manipulated, shaping the cultural and economic landscapes of the past and present.

Through its interdisciplinary approach, Sea Currents offers a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between science, art, design, manufacturing, and amateur enthusiasts in their experiences and valuations of the sea and its products. It highlights the ways in which the ocean has been both a source of inspiration and a subject of exploitation, and how it continues to shape our understanding of the natural world and our place within it.

Weight: 928g
Dimension: 240 x 163 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501352782