Silvie-thesis outline
THESIS OUTLINE
This thesis will be a journey through time, recounting the socio economic development and forceful spatial expansion of The Netherlands, from the perspective of the sea. The sea, shapeshifting, a multitude, is a witness, a vehicle for transport - of a message and the source of creation and destruction.
This thesis aims to blend historical research as well as more fabulating / speculative writing.
INTRODUCTION
The sea has seen the first maritime expeditions, the transition of VOC ships, the cradle of capitalism, into VOC cargo ships, organic shells replaced by Off-shore Shell refinery platform, while its waters are rising.
Time is said to have come from the word 'tide'. 2 tides a day, created by an intermix between the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon, and the rotation of the earth. The sea with its waves crashing on the shore is like a metronome. What would the song of the sea sound like?
CHAPTER 1: The Tide: The Moon and the Merchant
"If the Moon pulls the tides, it also rules the market" (Alice Sparkly Cat)
In Astrology the Moon is related to material fortune.
The sailors looked up at the stars to navigate. Expeditions and imperialism driven by hunger not by technological invention - what came on the market in the Netherlands (counter example of China).
The moon is only visible half of the time, through reflecting the light of the sun.
Visibility always comes at the cost of the invisibility of something els.
"The sea, or water, is the great medium of circulation established by nature, just as money has been created by man for the exchange of products" (Alfred Thayer Mahan, Naval Strategy).
Asymmetrical exchange.
"Debt creates currency" (Sparkly Cat p. 117)
Empty ships that come back full. Extractivism.
CHAPTER 2: The Deluge
At the core of the origin story of The Netherlands is the control of water. Control in the name of protection and control in the name of expansion: the annexing of land from the sea and overseas.
"The [Great] flood is a metaphor for The Netherlands as a phenomenon." (Geuze p. 8)
This text refers to the Netherlands as able to resist the Great Flood and was carrying out, further the work of God. Blessed by divinity. They looked at the past but forgot to look at the future. I don't think the Great flood has been - i think it is yet to come.
CHAPTER 3: Liquid land
Liquid financial markets
Liquifying land —> loss of firm ground —> "the problem of a world of floating, nonreferential signs, the creation of value from nothing, has been further intensified"
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Klose, A. (2016). Container Principle. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mit Press.
2. J Michelle Coghlan (2020). The Cambridge companion to literature and food. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
3. Fox, D. (2019). Limbo. Fitzcarraldo Editions.
4. Sparkly Cat, A. (2021). Post-colonial Astrology.
5. Adriaan Geuze and Olof Koekebakker (2005). The flood : 2nd International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam ; catalogue ; [26 mei - 26 juni 2005]. Rotterdam: Internationale Architectuur Biënnale.
6. THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE. (2017). Students: Shipping Tales. [online] Available at: https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/09-islands/students-shipping-tales-christina-varvia [Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].