02
Table of Contents
04
Foreword
06
Floating Museum Introduction
10
Exhibition Plan
12
Works
47
Events
Museum areas/Museum routes
Connection/Materials/Experience
Workshop
03
Foreword We are now in a new geological era, the Anthropocene. But some human actions are causing extreme harm to our environment. More and more people are considering what can be done to achieve a 'good Anthropocene'. Recreational fishing, as the most common daily recreational activity, has important social, cultural and economic values that can contribute to the achievement of a sustainable ecological environment. At the same time, the act of recreational fishing itself poses little harm to nature, "but how can recreational fishing be part of a ‘good Anthropocene’?". It is the question we have been exploring. This project is being carried out in London, UK and Shandong, China. At the same time we carried out fieldwork on recreational fishing in both countries. During this process, we found that anglers not only enjoy the joy of fishing, but also the peace of mind that nature provides in this recreational activity.
04
We interviewed the anglers and when we asked "Do you think the river (fishing environment) is clean?" Most of them answered without hesitation, "Very clean!" These answers prompted us to think, "Is the river really as clean as it looks?" Curious, we carried out further research and found that the environment was not as clean as it seemed. This exhibition is a way of communicating that fishing is a great medium to get closer to nature, and we hope that more people will not only entertain themselves through the act of recreational fishing, but also pay attention to the environment of the water bodies they fish in. We hope that more people will not only be entertained by the act of recreational fishing, but also pay attention to the environment of the water bodies they fish in.
05
About the Floating Museum Sewage discharges, household wastes disposal, improper angling practices, and other destructive human coastal practices cause severe pollution of urban waterways, which is one of the notable manifestations of the Anthropocene. The waterways are teeming with shipping vessels, which leave their carbon footprints on the waterways that extend to all areas where people live. The Floating Museum focuses on the urban river, moving people from the shore to the polluted water, and transferring people from the status of spectators to the perspective of participants. Go to the floating museum and follow it to experience and realise the urban waterways that people rely on for survival.
06
"Experience"
"Connection"
“Material"
“Events"
Floating Museum Areas The "Connection" area features a documentary and critical paintings in the centre of the exhibition hall, transporting the visitor to the atmospheric stream of the Anthropocene of fishing. The visual and aural stimulation of the impact of fishing culture on society, people and the natural environment. This is where Diving into the nature begins. The "Experience" area is located in the bottom section of the boat, the Experience area provides visitors with a place and atmosphere to immerse themselves in the relationship between fishing culture and the Anthropocene. The “Material' area where visitors can experience the collision and fusion between biological materials and natural products, gives people more possibilities for the future and sustainable creativity. The "Events" area is a workshop where visitors can use equipment to learn about the water quality of rivers.
07
Museum Floating Routes
One of the sections of the Floating Museum is at Erith Pier in London, England. The latitude and longitude of the berthing point are 51°2859'N, 0°1046'. This section of the floating route is located in the East End of London City, the upper and middle reaches of the Thames River, near the docks with a long history of fishing culture. The area is London's best fishing area in the Thames River. For the site, the river basin has broad banks, suitable for large floating museum sites.
08
The other section of the Floating Museum is located in Jining City Basin of The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, China. The longitude and latitude of the berthing point is 35°4047'N, 116°5340'E (near the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Bridge). This part of the floating route is on the west side of the city, with many residential communities. Local anglers often fish on both sides of the canal. For the museum carrier, the repurposed ship, this part of canal has multiple ports and transport vessels, which are convenient for the floating museum to berth and renovate.
09
2F
1F
B1
10
Exhibition Plan
2F 1F
1F
13
Cigarette voter
14
Nitrogen detection boat
10
Trapped
11
Plastiglomerate Fish
12
Museum material
4 Fishing site chatbox- What’s your ideal angling 5 International fishing king chatbox I 6 7
B1
"Monsters" in the water Fish's "Revenge"
8
The world under water
9
Change
1 Virtual Aquarium 2 Ecological Sensory Reenactment 3 Dig out Erith
11
Angling is an essential ecological activity in Anthropocene. This interactive board encourages anglers to reflect and discuss how to maintain a good fishing environment, thereby to understand the natural and practical conditions required for good aquatic systems.
What’s Your Ideal An
12
ngling Environment?
Fishing Site ChatBox- What’s your ideal Angling—Comprehensive media/ 300x200cm 13
14
“Connection”
Past
Present
Future
15
People are fishing, and the history of fishing goes back centuries. However, fishing cultures, tools and environmental conditions have changed over time. If we view fishing practices from the historical perspective, from the future, the present fishing environment will be temporary and will affect and shape future fishing. This film documents the activities of fishermen in London and Shandong, China in 2021, to enables them to communicate across time, space and geography. Fishermen answers questions about their angling environmental conditions, and in this way prompts viewers to think across different cultures and different time periods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTv4YM8vYA0 16
International fishing king chatbox I—Documentary 17
18
Fishing Gallery—Comprehensive media 19
This work shows the situation of the underwater in Erith, with daily items, military boots, missiles and other historical relics. And the anglers on the water didn't know the picture,they still fishing peacefully. This work wants to show the environmental problems caused by the forgotten history of Thames.
20
The world under water—Comprehensive media 21
The comic uses a humorous way to show that fish revenge against humans for destroying their homeland. They use fishing rods and hang all kinds of "garbage" to float on the water to "fish for people" (the explanation of fishing for people: people become "prey", become the target of fishing). When people pick up these garbage, they will be "dragged into the water" by fish. The cartoon uses a more exaggerated way to express the environmental degradation caused by people's fishing or various behaviors in life, and they will eventually feed back to humans themselves through other forms in the future.
22
Fish's "Revenge"—Comprehensive media 23
The comics want to show that plastic products have become terrifying "monsters" that endanger the lives of fish. This work wants to express that people's behavior has affected the aquatic environment. To make people pay attention to their behavior.
24
"Monsters" in the water—Comprehensive media 25
T h e w o r k s p re s e n t t h e p i c t u re s of anglers fishing in different e n v i ro n m e n t s i n t h re e d i ff e re n t periods: Past, Industrial revolution, and Present. The work wanted to show that the natural environment caused some extreme and irreversible harm under human activities, so as to warn people that they should pay attention to the impact of their activities on the environment in their future lives.
26
Change—Comprehensive media 27
28
“Material”
29
Fishing is a good Anthropocene behavior and is enjoyed by large numbers of people. Based on the current situation, we need to think about how to reshape the relationship between anglers and the environment, and focus on the sustainability of fishing and the efficient recycling of biomaterials. The interior of the pavilion is made up of fish bones, fish fins, shellfish and biological adhesives, which are calcium-based biomaterials that can be degraded back into the soil after the exhibition to achieve a complete ecological cycle of materials. This is a way for recreational fishing waste to be reused and returned to nature at the end of its life cycle.
30
Museum materials—Mixed building materials 31
Is the garbage trapped the fish? Or are the fish trapped in the garbage? This artwork uses the connection of fishing lines to show the "trapped" relationship between garbage and fish. Due to the influence of the Anthropocene, there is a large amount of garbage around the water, fishes live with them for a long time. The main body of the installation is made of organic materials to form a fish model, and common garbage pieces from water is connected by fishing line and put into the fish body. The installation is decorated with a large amount of metal to reflect the harm of lead (a common fishing tool, poisonous) to organisms and water bodies. Visitors can pull out the fishing line with the hook left outside the mouth of the model fish, and in this way reflect on the mutual restriction between human and the natural environment in the Anthropocene.
Trapped—Recyclable materials/ insect glue bonding materials/ fishing line/ household waste 32
https://youtu.be/wAt_P2GMgy4 33
In the process of the Anthropocene, man-made plastic fiber products, as indispensable materials for human beings, have left ubiquitous material marks in nature. In human fishing behaviors, these substance marks also appear in river banks and water bodies (visible plastic waste and invisible microplastics). "Plastiglomerate", as a new synthetic material, is formed by the physical fusion of natural debris (wood, shells, sand, etc.) and man-made plastic in the course of history, which could potentially form a marker horizon of human pollution on the geologic record. Through this artifact of the blending of materials and the shape of the fish body, it will appeal to people's thinking about the material flow in the Anthropocene environment.
34
Plastiglomerate Fish—Comprehensive media 35
36
“Experience”
37
Ecological Sensory Reenactment—Composite materials
Our environment is destroying, and the outdoor features that anglers have come to expect are becoming weaker. By bringing people fresh air instead of polluted and smelly air, amplifying the sound of the original nature, and wearing AR glasses to view the original ecological area, the workshop guided local people to reexperience the original ecological environment of the river.
38
39
River Thames has often been described as the ‘longest archaeological site’ in the world, because of the Thames foreshore has been mud larking for years, the anaerobic qualities of the Thames foreshore preserve many artifacts throughout history. Since the 1840s, Erith has become a waterside entertainment center and for now it has become a popular fishing area. People who fish here need to know about the past here. This installation area uses synthetic sand to cover some local fish fossils and historical relics (samples) found in the riverbed. Visitors can use tools to participate in the excavation of these historical object models, and use the AR scanning device to identify objects and learn about their history.
40
soil crosscutting
Dig out Erith—Comprehensive media 41
42
Getting fish through fishing behavior to generating a sense of accomplishment is pursued by anglers. Photographs are the more common existing medium for anglers to record their sense of accomplishment. The museum provides a public space with a virtual aquarium as the background. After the fish photos taken by the exhibitors are uploaded in the exhibition hall through the kiosks, 3D images are generated after analysis by AR recognition technology, then "live fishes" will be placed in the virtual aquarium. Visitors could immerse in the virtual aquarium space created by this holographic projection, enrich this public display area by participating, and feel that fish in nature remain in the human world in another way. These virtual, full of vitality fish encourage people to release the fish they get from nature and make people think about the world outside the human race.
Virtual Aquarium—Holographic projection 43 43
44
Virtual Aquarium—Holographic projection 45
46
“Events”
47
Fishermen like to smoke, and most of the rubbish on the city banks is also cigarette packs and butts. One of the reasons for this is the scarcity of cigarette collection devices. The museum supports people to take their cigarette collection boxes to places where they think their cigarette ends are polluted. The PM2.5 air quality monitors that follow the collection boxes will also record changes in cigarette end pollution in their locations.
Cigarette voter—Acrylic board/ 80x50cm 48
49
Many anglers use a large amount of commercial baits to fish. However, many commercial baits only take the fish's demand for protein into account and add a large amount of chemical fish meal, resulting in high phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in the water. Visitors could take this nitrogen detection to popular fishing spots to detect the nitrogen content in the water, reflect on the harm of improper fishing methods to the environment.
50
Nitrogen detection boat —Comprehensive media/ 35x20cm 51
