Next Tuesday May 26th, by 6.30 pm at the long table room of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, Karl Benediktsson will present the lecture “Seascapes and Taskscapes: Of Fish, Humans, Ships, and Technologies.”

Industrial fisheries seem a very modern(ist) enterprise. They have turned the creatures of the sea into objects of capital accumulation. The vessels that are the backbone of those operations seem to be ever-increasing in size. They are populated not only by humans but also by technological gadgetry which has greatly increased their efficiency. The contemporary trawler is certainly a far cry from the artisanal fishing boat of the past.

Numerous attempts have been made to overcome the ontological chasm between human actors and nonhuman nature, so prominent in the modern(ist) approaches that underwrite technology and science, upon which the edifice of industrial capitalist society rests. Bruno Latour suggested an ontology of networks; others have proposed more open-ended and loose assemblages, with relations that are constantly reworked.

The session will explore fisheries as complex assemblages of human and non-human actors and entities. Building on Karl’s own “passengering” aboard a factory trawler, it will examine the relations between fish, crew, technology, and environment through the concept of “taskscapes.” Along the way, it will argue that fisheries assemblages remain stable only as long as the relations that sustain them do. Fish movements, stock fluctuations, and climate change, alongside the invention of new technologies and the unpredictable dynamics of oil prices, all shape the entanglements of industrial fisheries. These shifting taskscapes, in turn, give rise to distinct fishing architectures, both aboard ships and along the shore.

Karl Benediktsson is professor of human geography at the University of Iceland. His research explores rural and regional development, fisheries and coastal communities, urban mobilities, animal geographies, politics of nature, landscape perception, and renewable energy landscapes. He has authored and edited several books, including Harvesting Development (NIAS/University of Michigan Press, 2002), Conversations with Landscape (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), and A Research Agenda for Energy Landscapes (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming,). His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Journal of Transport Geography, and Annales de Géographie, and he serves on the editorial boards of Fennia and the Norwegian Journal of Geography.