When used as a listening instrument, a glass is no longer a mere container. By amplifying sounds and voices through a surface, it becomes a conduit between two seemingly distant environments. Like a glass, aquarium walls implement a material and ontological separation between human and marine creatures, highlighting the relationship we have established over time with these living beings, transformed into taxonomical units.
In “The Aquarium is a Listening Glass”, nine short, non-linear stories – set amid scientific archives, underwater research stations, natural history museums, national aquaria and oceanic infrastructure – evoke the glass as a listening device to present singular relationships between humans and fish that would otherwise go unheard. In this paradigm shift, design plays a fundamental role in conceiving the object (and the book) as a sensory device to glimpse new forms of mediation, to generate alliances, and also to promote the potential for a thriving and vital world.

Louise E. Carver / Angela Rui
The Aquarium is a Listening Glass
English
Paperback, 176 pages, colour, b/w, 10,2 x 15,6 cm
2024
ISBN 9791280336187

Contributions by: Tonda Budszus, Benze De Ream, David Gruber, Eva Jack, Armin Linke, Filipa Ramos, Anton Ripon, Giovanna Silva, Flaminia Veronesi, Ache Wang.
Design: studio òbelo (Claude Marzotto, Maia Sambonet)

Where to find it? Humboldt Books website