Mapping Material and Cultural Relationships Across the Ocean

The scholar Mary Louise Pratt describes contact zones as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple.” By nature, coastal environments are dynamic places of encounter where land and water meet, often in unpredictable ways that defy human attempts at control. Coasts vary in their form and use, from spaces of labor or leisure shaped by human intervention to biodiverse environments where plants and animals thrive. Representations of coastal spaces visualize the distinct qualities of these contact zones, including how they shape meetings between peoples and the connections humans make with the more-than-human world.

Maritime trade provided a faster and safer way to move goods, allowing manufacturers around the world opportunities to expand their markets. The web of ports and sea routes that facilitated this ocean trade created new points of cultural encounter and connection. These contacts fueled new global tastes and drove technical innovation.

Considering that the geographical center of the United States is found in Kansas, it seems like the state couldn’t be more disconnected from ocean waters. However, many of the artworks in Soundings reveal close ties between Kansas and the sea. These include the Kansas researchers and artists who shape our understanding of ocean environments as well as Spencer Museum donors whose careers and families took them around the world. Ocean waters flow through the land because of their connection to networks of rivers and streams, as well as the endless climatic cycling of water through the atmosphere. In these ways, the sea is not only a transit route between places around the world, but an ecological phenomenon that touches everywhere, including seemingly land-locked places like Kansas.