Otolith Group Research Articles

Xenogenesis, The Otolith Group, curated by Annie Fletcher

Review of: Xenogenesis, The Otolith Group, curated by Annie Fletcher Reviewed by Michael Holly, University of Sussex Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland, 7 July 2022-12 February 2023

Fictioning the Landscape

This paper develops a concept of fictioning when this names, in part, the deliberate imbrication of an apparent reality with other narratives. It focuses on a particular audio-visual example of this kind of art practice, known as the film-essay or what Stewart Home has called called the “docufiction.” The latter operates on a porous border between fact and fiction, but also between fiction and theory and, at times, the personal and political. In particular the paper is concerned with how the docufiction can involve a presentation of landscape, broadly construed, alongside the instantiation of a complex and layered temporality which itself involves the foregrounding of other pasts and possible futures. “Fictioning the landscape” also refers to the way in which these different space-times need to be performed in some way, for example with a journey through or to some other place as in a pilgrimage. The paper proceeds through analysing four case studies of this fictioning: Patrick Keiller’s Robinson trilogy; Justin Barton and Mark Fisher’s On Vanishing Land; Steve Beard and Victoria Halford’s Voodoo Science Park; and the Otolith trilogy by The Otolith Group.

Contributors

Contributors

Apocalypse (Not) Now

From its beginning in the 1940s, the nuclear regime has been the subject of aesthetic as well as political practices and interventions. This article examines a number of such interventions, from the Surrealists via the Situationists to the present. The focus is on forms of aesthetic activism that challenges the reigning thanatocracy. Key figures are Roberto Matta and Wolfgang Paalen (as “first responders” in the 1940s), Situationists such as Debord and Vaneigem in the late 1950s and 1960s (effecting a repoliticization of avant-garde aesthetics), later writings by ex-Situationists and pro-Situs such as René Riesel and Jaime Semprun, as well as contemporary artists such as Ei Arakawa and The Otolith Group (and their responses to Fukushima). Through concepts and tropes such as invisibility, survival and mutation, these practitioners seek to counteract the “insensible” nature of radiation and problematize post-war society’s dependency on nuclear deterrence and “peaceful” nuclear technology alike.

Question and Answer One

From “Black Collectivities: A Conference,” held May 3–4, 2013, at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator. Members of the audience ask The Otolith Group (Kodwo Eshun and Anjali Sagar) questions about their work following a conversation with curator Naomi Beckwith during the opening night of the conference. Questions deal with topics such as hermeticism, fiction, and mutation, particularly as manifested by the group’s film The Radiant (2012).

The Otolith Group (Kodwo Eshun and Anjali Sagar) in Conversation with Naomi Beckwith

From “Black Collectivities: A Conference,” held May 3–4, 2013, at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator. Naomi Beckwith talks with Kodwo Eshun and Anjali Sagar of The Otolith Group about their performance/recitation It May Be Useful to Assume the Policeman’s Perspective Now and Then and about their film The Radiant (2012).

The Otolith Group’s “Monuments to Dead Television.” Independent Cinema and the Migrant Experience in Europe between Television and the Museum

“Monument to dead television” is the expression the British collective The Otolith Group uses to define its activity of recuperating long-lost quality films, and re-screening them in contemporary art museums and gallery spaces. What these films share is a cinematic vocation and a complex approach to the question of memory and migration in Europe, and to the role of images as testimonies or documents. This essay explores The Otolith Group’s interest in such forgotten archives of modern television in order to unearth their significance for contemporary museums today.

Identification of Lessepsian fish species using the sagittal otolith

Lessepsian species are marine organisms that enter the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, a phenomenon that has dramatically increased in recent decades. The present study describes the morphological characteristics of the sagittal otoliths of 22 Lessepsian fish species collected at four locations in the Mediterranean Sea. These structures are commonly used in the identification of species found in the digestive tracts of predators, and their morphological description is mainly needed as a tool for trophic studies. Here we used the Automated Taxon Identification (ATI) system of the AFORO web database to determine the accuracy of classifying Lessepsian fish otoliths compared with otoliths of native Mediterranean species. The otolith contour analysis correctly classified 92.5% of the specimens, showing that these species have otoliths that can be clearly distinguished from native ones. Four different groups of otoliths were identified according to the morphological differences between the otoliths and the ATI analysis results: a) unusual shapes with no similarities to native species; b) unusual shapes with similarities to phylogenetically distant native species; c) common shapes with similarities to phylogenetically close native species; and d) common shapes with morphological characters related to other native congeners, although they are not classified with them.

Precision of the Northeast Arctic cod age determination under variable environmental and information conditions

For 16 years (1992–2007) comparative age-reading studies for cod were carried out by the two national laboratories: Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO), Murmansk, Russia, and Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, Norway. Pairs (6786) of Northeast Arctic cod otoliths were read and compared to assess the precision of age estimation between the two laboratories. Cod otoliths which provide basic information for stock assessment were re-analysed to determine if there were any discrepancies since additional information on fish length may or may not have been available. Two groups of otoliths which were sampled during 1992 and 1994 were analysed in parallel: 285 otoliths with known length data and 661 otoliths without length data available. Knowing the length of the cod appeared to increase the discrepancies between the two laboratories. Analysis of long-term discrepancies in cod age determinations between two laboratories showed that variability of ageing is influenced by environmental variability (temperature and food supply) observed when the otoliths were formed.

The Militant Image: A Ciné‐Geography

The special issue of Third Text maps out a relational geography which takes as its nexus the radical politics and filmmaking practices of revolutionary decolonisation since the late 1960s and 1970s. The essays investigate the archives and afterlives of liberation struggle and revolution, with the aim to bring into productive proximity a series of dialogues between scholars and theorists, filmmakers, artists and curators thinking through what Okwui Enwezor has called 'the transnational public sphere' of militant, non-aligned and Third Cinema. The special issue includes a number of texts by filmmakers including Solanas and Getino, Eduard de Laurot and Margaret Dickinson that have not been published in English before or have been long overlooked, accompanied by scholarly contextualising essays. The Militant Image contributes to an important emergent body of work by artists, filmmakers and curators (Hito Steryl, The Otolith Group, Renee Green, Florian Zeyfang) re-assessing militant avant-garde work so that it might function as a resource for contemporary artistic and anti-capitalist activity. It brings together new international research on the aesthetics and cine-cultural politics affiliated with the non-aligned liberation struggles and revolutions of the late twentieth century. It includes new translations and reprints of key texts and manifestos, and theorises how the digital afterlives of militant films can re-animate moments of political intensity, renewing their relevance to contemporary art. The Militant Image constructs an alternative cartography of cine-cultural practices associated with the liberation struggles and revolutions of the late twentieth century. It thus calls into question the political constitution of the present through critical analysis and artistic responses to the aesthetics of Tricontinental liberation. Following on from the work of Okwui Enwezor, Kristin Ross and Nicole Brenez, among others, it produces new theoretical vocabularies through which to analyse and articulate the subjectivities, aesthetics and strategies of militant filmmaking so as to map out a transnational public sphere constituted through affliliation to Tricontinental politics and experimental film language.

The Image: Disaffect in the theatre of representation

ABSTRACTThis essay addresses the image as it appears in current contemporary art practice, principally through an examination of the work of Turner Prize nominees, The Otolith Group, as well as Hito Steyerl, Rabih Mroué, Gail Pickering and Tom Nicholson. Following an interest in the possibility of an image without a dependency upon a relationship with a human subject or viewer, the essay explores the consequences of the proposition that an image ‘has a life’ beyond representation. This question is addressed through the three parts suggested by the essay's title — first, the status of the image as being beyond representation but instead characterized by its operation and by its relationship to the event; second, the image as presence and the question of theatre as a process of intensification of the image's presentation and the accompanying experience of the image within the affective field; and finally to the question of disaffect. The essay ends with the proposition of disaffect as the reinsertion of the interval — the gap that is lost through the smooth space of affect. Disaffect is here a strategy for the curatorial to approach the question of the unbinding, the unraveling of the centrality of the subject within the representative order. And by contrasting Alain Badiou's notion of the event with that Gilles Deleuze, the question of the ‘outside’ is reintroduced as is, the essay argues, the subsequent unbinding of the centrality of experience to the curatorial project, therefore offering instead a focus on structure and on methodology rather than on the binding (of subject with experience, of experience with knowledge and so on) of affective processes.

Ecomorphological patterns of the lapilli of Paranoplatense Siluriforms (South America)

The morphology and morphometry of lapillus otoliths were studied in bottom frequenters, intermediate and benthonic fishes. The shape, margins and type of sulcus of 3 groups of otoliths from 19 species were analyzed: group 1 (bottom frequenters, 11 spp), group 2 (intermediate, 5 spp) and group 3 (benthonic, 3 spp). The indices EL (maximum width of the lapillus (WOL)/maximum length of the lapillus (LOL) %) and S (sulcus area/otolith area %) were calculated for each species. The lapilli of bottom frequenters and intermediate groups showed, in their ventral face, similar morphological features, high shape variability (oblong shape, elongated shape and quadrangular shape) and a sulcus surface that represents 16-34% of otolith surface. The lapilli of the benthonic group are globosal or rounded with a sulcus surface that represents less than 12% of otolith surface. Statistical analyses showed significant differences in the EL and S indices between the benthonic group and the other two groups, but there were no differences between the otoliths of the bottom frequenters and intermediate groups. EL and S values could be used to characterize the lapilli of the paranoplatense fish and could be considered a useful tool for fish ecology studies.

The Right to Opacity: On the Otolith Group's Nervus Rerum

Taking as its subject Jenin refugee camp in Palestinian Occupied Territories, Nervus Rerum (2008) is a thirty-two-minute by London-based Otolith Group, commissioned by Homeworks IV: A Forum on Cultural Practices, which met in Beirut in 2007, and recently screened at Tate Britain in February, 2009. juxtaposing excerpts from writings of Fernando Pessoa and Jean Genet with mystifying imagery of West Bank camp, builds on artists' remarkable Otolith trilogy of 2003-2008, for which its two members, Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar, exploited critical potential of essay film a distinctive mixture of documentary and dramatic imagery accompanied by poetic, historical, and often autobiographical narration that, in tradition of such diverse filmmakers and groups as Black Audio Film Collective, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Anand Patwardhan, works to disrupt clear boundaries between fact and fiction, subjectivity and objectivity, real and imaginary. In process, Otolith Group has invented inspiring new political and creative possibilities for filmmaking as a critical and conceptual art. Most significantly, Nervus Rerum its title borrowed from Cicero's Latin, meaning the nerve of things confronts problem of representability of a people confined to a geographical enclave by a longstanding military occupation. Established in 1953, Jenin refugee camp was built to shelter Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their native towns and villages in areas that became Israel following nation's founding during 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Under Jordanian control for nearly twenty years, Jenin camp fell to Israeli occupation during Six-Day War of 1967, and was later handed over to Palestinian National Authority in 1996. With a population of some 13,000

Eco-morphological patterns of the sagitta of Antarctic fish

Morphology and morphometry of the sagittae otolith were studied in pelagic and mesopelagic fish. The shape, margins and rostrum of four groups of otoliths from several species were analyzed: group 1 (pelagic fish associated with the under ice cover N = 42), group 2 (pelagic fish associated with water offshore N = 9), group 3 (mesopelagic fish associated with extensive vertical migration N = 57) and group 4 (mesopelagic fish associated with short vertical migration N = 54). E (maximum width of the sagitta /maximum length of the sagitta %), R (rostrum length (RL)/maximum length of the sagitta %) and S (sulcus area (SS)/otolith area (OS) %) indexes were calculated for each species. Sagittae of pelagic groups (1 and 2) showed the smallest sagitta dimensions in relation to the total length of the fish, in this group the sagitta shape is variable. Sagittae of mesopelagic fish (groups 3 and 4) showed variable shape and edges. The shape in group 4 was polygonal and these species have more width than length. Statistical analysis showed significant differences in the E, R and S indexes. These results were compared with other 19 species, belonging to six families, taken from a publisher-edited literature. E, R and S-values could be used to characterize the sagittae of the Antarctic fish and could be considered as a useful tool for fish ecology studies.

Ecomorphological patterns of the sagitta in fish on the continental shelf off Argentine

Morphology and morphometry of the sagittae otolith were studied in fish associated with different substrates. The shape, margins and rostrum of three groups of otoliths from several species were analyzed: group 1 (fish associated with soft substrates, N=10 species), group 2 (fish associated with hard substrates, N=10 species) and group 3 (pelagic fish, not associated with the bottom, N=6 species). E and R indexes were calculated for each species. The value of E=maximum width of the sagitta (WO)/maximum length of the sagitta (LO)%, expresses the relative tendency in the shape otolith (from circular to elongate). The value of R=length of the rostrum (LR)/LO%, expresses the percentage in the total length of the otolith that corresponds to the rostrum. The sagittae of group 1 were circular or polygonal with rounded borders. The rostrum can be absent or poorly developed. The sagittae shape of group 2 was elongated, with ornamented borders and a rostrum. The sagittae of group 3 possessed a prominent rostrum, a deep V-shaped cisure and ornamented borders. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences in the E index of groups 1 and 2, while R values of the three groups were significantly different. These results were compared with 80 other species, belonging to 12 families, from the publisher literature. E and R values could be used to characterize the sagittae of the marine fish and could be considered a useful tool for fish ecology studies.

Confirmation of longevity in Sebastes diploproa (Pisces: Scorpaenidae) from 210Pb/226Ra measurements in otoliths

Fish ages are often estimated by assuming an annual frequency of the band-like, growth-zones recorded in the largest of their otoliths, the sagittae. The total number of growth-zones are normally determined either by counting external growth-zones (whole otolith technique) or by examining otolith cross-sections (otolith section technique). The two techniques do not always yield the same age, however, particularly in older specimens of certain fishes. To resolve this problem, otoliths of the splitnose rockfish Sebastes diploproa were examined morphologically and were assayed for their natural radionuclide concentrations. Four age groups of otoliths were identified based on growth-zone counting; in the first three, whole otolith and otolith section age estimates agreed, while in the fourth, the otolith section age substantially exceeded the whole otolith age. Radiometric analysis demonstrated that all otoliths were deficient in 210Pb activity relative to 226Ra activity with the deficiency decreasing with increasing number of growth-zones. The magnitude of the 210Pb/226Ra radioactive disequilibrium in each otolith group, when compared to the number of growth-zones and the otolith weight histories derived with the two techniques, identifies the growth-zones revealed by otolith sections as annual features. Thus when otolith section age exceeds whole otolith age (usually occurring after 20 to 25 yr of age for this species), the otolith section technique is the correct method of age determination. Estimates of longevity in the genus Sebastes near 80 yr are therefore confirmed.