Navigating Risk Chiasms. A Test Arrangement

“Navigating Risk Chiasms. A Test Arrangement” is the first iteration of a collaborative research effort between Florian Goldmann and Serapis Maritime, surveying the global networks of maritime risk cultures. Speculatively expanding on the aesthetics and materialities of seafaring, a narrative around both, contemporary models of risk management and the seafarers’ embodied knowledge of leveraging the forces of nature and the technical ensemble of the ship is developed.

The term “risk” can be traced back to the medieval Mediterranean Sea, where it was first used in insurance contracts, securing oversea trade.Scheller, Benjamin: Risiko – Kontingenz, Semantik und Fernhandel im Mittelmeerraum des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters, in: Scheller et al. (ed.): Die Ungewissheit des Zukünftigen. Kontingenz in der Geschichte. Frankfurt am Main 2016, p. 185-210, here 189. By defining and quantifying the risk of contingent damage events at sea, these insurance contracts served as an auxiliary technique facilitating maritime trade, virtually extending dry land, the secure realm of humanity, into the intractable seas. Superimposing a coordinate framework over the ocean, mapping contingent risks, allowed ventures formerly considered too hazardous.
“Risk” can thus be considered the conceptual foundation of today’s global trade. In order to sustain the latter, insurance companies quantify the uncertainty of the seas in risk models, locating potential threats in virtual risk landscapes. The risks of seafaring thereby quantified, are commodified as tradeable assets. This back-up serves to perpetuate the smooth operating of seaways. The exhibition revolves around the question of how these virtual risk landscapes extend and inscribe themselves into the basis of their calculation, that is the physical world and the biographies of the people inhabiting it.

The actuary, designing above-mentioned risk models, and the seafarer both roam the maritime space, the former virtually the latter physically. Their routes cross at chiasms (as in the Χ-shaped Greek letter Chi) between their differing perceptions of risk at sea, as measures to decrease certain risks from an actuarial or management perspective may result in an increase of risks from the seafarer’s perspective. The seafarer is meant to operate according to administrative protocols, remotely conducted by shipping companies, that take into account the terms set by insurance companies and negotiated with states. The seafarer finesses these protocols, sometimes leveraging them to comply with the overall purpose of the trip or to steer through moments of contingent crisis. The human element, the embodied knowledge of operating the vessel, of navigating the seas, cannot be taken into consideration in the protocols. It is based on handed-down narratives of coping with the uncertainty of the seas as well as with the contingencies of the technical ensemble that makes up the ship.

The ceaseless functioning of maritime trade is widely taken for granted, as 90% of transported goods are said to be carried by sea.Liquid Time (Miriam Matthiessen and Jacob Bolton): 90% of the World’s Goods are Moved By Sea. Says Who?, Substack newsletter, Liquid Time (blog), 27. April 2024, https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/90-of-the-worlds-goods-are-moved. It remains invisible as long as its smooth operating ensures and perpetuates consumption. Disturbances such as the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction or the recent attacks on tankers and container ships by the Houthi rebels show that trade routes become increasingly volatile, while climate change adds to its vulnerability. And while maritime shipping itself currently accounts for about three percent of global emissions,International Maritime Organization: Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study, London 2020. it provides the infrastructure for the continuation of the growth-oriented, climate change-inducing global economy as a whole.