Workable Zone 4K video, audio Duration: 10.30 minutes 2025

Moving between a geochemical laboratory in the University of Bergen, an icebreaker research vessel in the Arctic Ocean, and Tromsø and Bergen aquariums, Workable Zone documents the scientific examination and popular display of creatures, plants, and sediments extracted from the ocean floor, zooming in on scientific instruments and processes used to gauge the present state of our oceans. The ‘workable Arctic’ is a term coined by Norway’s oil and gas company Equinor and refers to the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia. This industry term distinguishes this part of the ocean from the more challenging areas of the “stretch Arctic” and the “extreme Arctic,” which by their definition are extremely hostile working spaces. In the video, scientists' medical-grade syringes and sample jars are juxtaposed with public aquariums. Workable Zone considers how these transparent vessels of science, education, and entertainment mediate oceanic knowledges, and how we might otherwise attune to the materialities of ocean life that exceed their categorisations and containments.

Kindly supported by Ocean Census, The Arctic University of Norway, Culture Moves Europe and Kildare County Council.