“One Dive” and the whales’ right to “invisibility”

The project “One Dive” developed by italian student Anna Favaretto as part of her thesis, stems from her participation in a citizen science expedition in the Pelagos Sanctuary within Tethys’ project, Cetacean Sanctuary Research. It is showcased during the Dutch Design Week 2024, from October 19th to 27th in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Thanks to her experience alongside our researchers in September 2023, Anna explored techniques for spotting, approaching, and photo-identifying cetaceans. She recognized the fundamental role of observing the sea, even though she was unable to see a fin whale, as she had hoped. But just this absence led her to reflect on how not spotting these animals influences our understanding of them, and shapes the relationship between humans and cetaceans. She questions how and to what extent we can acknowledge the right of whales to remain “invisible”.

The “One Dive” project is a multimedia installation that narrates the parallel between shipping routes and whale habitats. Mediterranean cetaceans inhabit one of the world’s busiest marine regions, where approximately 15% of global trade and maritime traffic flows through less than 1% of the ocean’s surface.

The installation consists of a vertically filmed and screened movie that follows a ferry’s route in the Mediterranean. The viewer adopts the perspective of a passenger looking out from the ferry’s panoramic window. However, the vertical format limits the view of the horizon, offering only a narrow glimpse of the sea. This is accompanied by an informative and empathetic narrative about whales, who may or may not be present in that column of water.

Only through a special monocular can viewers access a selection of Tethys archival images depicting whales and their scars, which bear witness to an often dramatic coexistence with human activities. Digital artist Eva Jack, in her essay “Whale Watching,” states that “emptiness is a vessel for speculation.” In this specific case, where the invisibility of whales is interpreted as absence, the installation aims to provoke reflection on how we can envision knowledge tools that respect the right of whales to not always be visible to our species while still providing them protection.