Complementing action-research projects, the CO>SEA team (Sapienza MEMOTEF and Raw-News Visual Production Agency) is engaged in geo-visual research and documentation on the Seagoing people’s Oceanic Sense of Place. A multimethods/geo-visual embedded, embodied and emplaced discovery of individual and collective emotional attachment to the Ocean.
This revolves around the question of whether we can talk of a “sense of place” for a space such as the ocean, which is not stably inhabited and is not naturally apt for human life, because – despite some (actually a few) people can spend long time at the sea for work or pleasure- it is on land and in human society premises that they find the necessary support for going at the sea.
So, if a sense of place is what makes us able to call a place home, how can somebody call home a portion of the coast or – even more difficulty- open sea? There, the knowledge of it comes from: how is it different, and how is it equal to the sense of place we develop on land; what technological translations and sensorial experiences are mobilised to identify a specific portion of the ocean as one and unique? How do the social, historical, technical experience and knowledge about this portion of the ocean influence the creation of the sense of place attached to it? How does the transnational community of seagoing people (e.g. sailors) interact with the local communities? How do issues of localism and the exercise and willingness to exercise power and control, and exclusionary practices impact the oceanic sense of place?
Research diary and related activities
- Oct 2024 Interview with surfers at the Free Surf Arcade, Anzio
- Oct 2025 Interview video-audio with surfer and researcher David White at UCC, Cork [photo F.Fornaro/Raw-News]
- Sep 2026 CO>SEA research dialogues and video documentation on Gianna fishboat, Anzio
- 17-18 Dec 2026 Photographic exhibition “The Art of Surfing” by Giuseppe Lupinacci/Raw-News and screening of “The Sense of Place” by Federico Fornaro and Giuseppe Lupinacci/Raw-News at PartArt4OW Demo-day, Fundacion EPICA, Badalona [photo below G. Lupinacci/Raw-News]
Premiere of “The Sense of Place” @Nuit des Idees – French Embassy
Continuing its exploration of the fascinating relationship between society and the ocean, the CO>SEA research group has premiered the new short documentary entitled The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationships on 14 May during the event La Notte delle Idee – Mari e Oceani: Verso nuove rotte, organised by the French Embassy in Italy and…
Salt lingers in the blood. A geographical dialogue on the Oceanic Sense of Place
…“Tell me about the Ocean” …“The Ocean cannot be told” This paradox frames the enquiry developed in our recent article published in J-READING, which investigates the possibility of defining an Oceanic Sense of Place. Situated at the intersection of critical ocean studies and geographical debates on place-making, the paper examines how place emerges at sea…
“Around Alone”: technologies, society and the sea premiered at the RGS AC2025
On the 27th of August 2025, Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep.) and Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency), research team CO>SEA, presented the premiere of the new short-documentary “Around Alone. Documenting Ocean Relationships” at the Royal Geographical Sociaty with IBS Annual Conference 2025 (RGS AC2025), University of Birmingham, “Film Geography” session. “Around…
Et de la mer nous faison notre “usine a reve”
[photo C.Certoma’] Published in may 2026 the enchanting book by Enrico Squarcina,(University of Milan Bicocca) titled “Mare, terra e marinai” (Sea, Land, and Sailors) edited by Unicopli. Very happy to see it out with a preface of Stefano De Falco and afterwords by myself and Federico Fornaro. From the book presentation: “Starting with a simple…
“Blue Kinships. An Exploration of Society & the Ocean”_now out!
[cover graphic Allegra Guerrazzi] Blue Kinships, edited by Chiara Certomà, as just been released by Palgrave MacMillan, NY. Blue Kinship contributes to the emergent movement of ideas and practices that are interpreting the ocean as a conceptual and physical space for reconsidering our relationship with the complex, heterogeneous and mutable ecological systems of the Anthropocene;…
“Blue Kinships”: engaged research and visual documentation at SiciliAmbiente Film Festival
As part of the public engagement activities of the EU Horizon project PartArt4OW – Participatory Art for Society Engagement with Ocean and Water and the scientific co-creation of knowledge about Ocean and Society advanced by participation for raising awareness about the issues affecting the Ocean, CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean, Raw-News…
New video reportage “Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships”
The CO>SEA research group, hosted at Sapienza University of Rome’s Memotef Department and supported by the EU Citizen Science Prize 2024 – Diversity & Collaboration Award, proudly announces the release of its latest video reportage: “Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships.” This thought-provoking visual exploration delves into the essence of visual research for marine social geography…
“The Ocean bewitched me” at Pianeta Mare Film Festival
On the 9th of October, 12 am-1 pm, CO>SEA team is taking part in the Pianeta Mare Film Festival, at the Aula Magna Scampia, University of Naples Federico II. The Festival takes place in Naples from October 7 to 11 in five locations: two cinematinee in the Aula Magna of the Parthenope University of Naples,…
“Ocean Worlds. From the outside it” at Bremen University
From the 26th to the 28th of September 2024 I have been invited to contribute to the think-and-networking event “Ocean Worlds. From the outside it” organised by Andrea Muehlebach, Anja Binkowski, Sven Bergmann, Karin Ahlberg, Leonie Tuitjers, Enes Dogruin at the University of Bremen and the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany. The inspirational invitation…
Outputs
- C.Certomà, Fornaro F. (2026) “Et de la mer nous faison notre “usine a reve””, Afterword in Squarcina, E. “Mare, Terra e Marinai”, Unicopli, Milano
- C.Certomà (2025, ed.) “Blue Kinships. An exploration of Society & the Ocean”, Palgrave MacMillan, New York
- C. Certomà (2025) “The sea, above all” in C.Certomà (2025, ed.) “Blue Kinships. An exploration of Society & the Ocean”, Palgrave MacMillan, New York
- C.Certoma’, Fornaro F. (2025) “Salt lingers in the blood. Toward an Oceanic Sense of Place” , J-Reading, 2, 51-64
- Certoma’, C., Bertocci, L., Pozzobon, C., Salari, C., Fornaro, F. (2025) “‘Home is the Ocean’: Intervista a Livia Vonaesch“, TaxiDrivers
- Pozzobon, C., Bertocci, L., Certoma’, C. (2024), “Breath. Andare a fondo, risalire”, Taxidrivers
- Fornaro F., Lupinacci G. (directed and filmed), Certoma’, C. (project coordination) (2025) “Around Alone. Documenting Ocean Relationship”, Zenodo https://zenodo.org/uploads/16813616
- Fornaro F., Lupinacci G. (directed and filmed), Certoma’, C. (project coordination) (2025) “The sense of place. Documenting Ocean Relationship”, Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.15407781
- Fornaro F., Lupinacci G. (directed and filmed), Certoma’, C. (project coordination) (2024) Research-based professional video reportage “Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships”, Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.14601389