CO>SEA team visited Lisbon and Trafaria (Portugal) from the 30th of June to 1nd of July upon invitation of EBANO Collective and MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre at NOVA University Lisbon – SST.
On the 30th of June 2025 CO>SEA team presented the European Project “PartArt4OW” during the event “Living the Sea: Coastal Lives, Knowledge and Collaborations// Viver o Mar: Vidas costeiras, saberes e colaborações” organised by OLO – Ocean Literacy Observatory, part of the MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre at NOVA University Lisbon – SST, together with EBANO Collective at NOVA/FCT University (Campus Caparica), Lisbon.
The workshop, organized within the framework of the project AYE – Action-research with Youth in Europe (funded by Erasmus+ 2023-1-FR01-KA220-HED-000160088), proposed a transdisciplinary dialogue on the relationships between coastal communities and the ocean. It explored the epistemological, methodological, and representational challenges of collaborative research that integrates scientific inquiry, artistic expression, and local knowledge. Bringing together researchers and community practitioners, the event served as a platform to critically examine how place-based and participatory approaches can contribute to advancing inclusive forms of ocean literacy and environmental awareness.
The research group CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the socio-environmental analysis of the ocean, active at the MEMOTEF Department of Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with the documentary production agency Raw-News, and coordinated by Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome) presents the new short documentary The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationship, realised in collaboration with the documentary production agency Raw-News. The documentary filmed in the sea of Anzio and Nettuno (Rome, Italy) is directed by Federico Fornaro and shot by Fornaro and Giuseppe Lupinacci (Raw-News) and is part of the activities of the European project PartArt4OW. Participatory Art For Society Engagement with Ocean and Water and CoSea_Lab della Sapienza Terza Missione.
Building on the theoretical and methodological framework outlined by CO>SEA in the previous video-reportage Blue Kinship, “The Sense of Place” represents an experimental application of the explorations of Marine Social Geography on some of the key geographical concepts to reveal how these apply to ocean spaces and through the experience of people living at sea. This demonstrates how visual storytelling can deepen the understanding of emotional attachment to the ocean. Through seamless collaboration between researchers and media professionals, the documentary exemplifies the power of visual documentation in marine social geography and in catalysing engaged, transformative and participatory research on the ocean.
The event program included:
- Welcome Observatory for Ocean Literacy Monica Mesquita OLO/Nova FCT
- AYE: Collaborative action-research with coastal communities in Trafaria – Francesca De Luca EBANO Collective – ICS ULisboa
- Youth Participation in Caparica Artisanal Fisheries – Web documentary – Daniel Oliveira OLO/Nova FCT
- Presentation of the research “CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean”, EU Horizon PartArt4OW – Participatory Art For Society Engagement with Ocean and Water – Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome, Dep. MEMOTEF)
- Short documentary presentation “The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationship” EU Horizon PartArt4OW – Participatory Art For Society Engagement with Ocean and Water – Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency for PartArt4OW)
On the 1st of July, CO>SEA team is engaged in a participatory field-research and documentation activity in the harbour community of Trafaria (meeting citizens and seagoing people in the 2° Torrao, Costa do Vapor and Costa de Caparica).
The exploration aimed to contribute to a critical reflection on the usual geopolitical reading of marine territorialization, often understood as the main way in which human societies relate to the ocean — in terms of exploitation, control and ownership. Instead, it proposed to shift the focus to the experiences lived by maritime communities, which reveal more nuanced and complex forms of relationship with the sea, constructed through imaginaries, narratives, symbols, languages, life practices and affective bonds between human and non-human beings. CO>SEA team jointly with EBANO Collective and MARE discussed together with local communities how these intertwining contribute to generating an “oceanic sense of place” — a form of belonging and knowledge that develops in the daily relationship with a fluid, moving, and apparently elusive environment.
This leads us to pose some open questions, which we offer for collective discussion: Is it possible to call the open sea “home”? How does the sense of place in the oceanic environment differ from that on land? Which practices, technologies and sensorial experiences allow us to identify a specific portion of the ocean as unique and unrepeatable? To what extent does the social, historical and technical knowledge of a stretch of sea contribute to the construction of a sense of belonging? How can a sense of place anchored to a mobile and temporary environment inspire new reflections on practices of exclusion and appropriation of places?
These reflections can enrich the collective investigation on the future of the global ocean; and can offer stimulating insights and, at the same time, be nourished by the exchanges and research of the other participants.
Events in collaboration with:
Chiara Certomà 
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