»Das Knäuel Meer«. A collection of drafts for a different perception of the sea - Janik Söllner

The sea has at all times been an emblem for infinity and eternity - as the dreadful and the sublime, but also as the birthing and nourishing; an inexhaustible source of suffering and destruction as well as of resources and prosperity. As knowledge of how to contain and exploit the sea increased over time, so did the realization that the oceans are indeed not inexhaustible and unchanging. For several decades, there has been a gradual awareness of the finite nature of global (including marine) resources, as well as the extent of the changes already wrought. Slowly, it is revealed how much of the little that is known is already lost: the more phenomena are discovered in the oceans, the more complex and incomprehensible the connections between them become. Only the interconnectedness and fragility of these phenomena emerges more and more clearly, along with an inkling of the obscurity of so many other phenomena with which they maintain relationships. In knowledge, the sea is finite; in perception, however, it is still the infinite par excellence. This work claims to present the sea as something multi-faceted and to make it perceptible; as a fragile web of relationships and interactions between the beings, things and phenomena that permeate the sea, das »Knäuel Meer«.