University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Master's Theses 2018 BODIES OF WATER: DESIGNING RESILIENT DIVE TOURISM THROUGH UNDERWATER SCULPTURE Rennie Meyers University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses Recommended Citation Meyers, Rennie, "BODIES OF WATER: DESIGNING RESILIENT DIVE TOURISM THROUGH UNDERWATER SCULPTURE" (2018). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 1399. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/1399 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BODIES OF WATER: DESIGNING RESILIENT DIVE TOURISM THROUGH UNDERWATER SCULPTURE BY RENNIE MEYERS A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MARINE AFFAIRS UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2018 MASTER OF ARTS IN MARINE AFFAIRS THESIS OF RENNIE MEYERS APPROVED: Thesis Committee: Major Professor: Amelia Moore David Bidwell Judith Swift Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2018 ABSTRACT As marine ecologies at global and local scales respond to the manifold impacts of global climate change, so too must the dive tourism industry adapt to new ocean dynamics. To be resilient in the face of ongoing change these adaptations are necessarily local, environmentally aware, and systematic. On Lanzarote, a volcanic island at the northern end of the Canary Island archipelago, tourism developers have long claimed a particular skill in implementing environmentally aware, adaptive tourism infrastructure projects on land. At the peak of package tourism development in the 1960s, Lanzarote’s tourism board invested in César Manrique’s particular brand of Modernist art-ecotourism. Thirty years later UNESCO designated Lanzarote a Man and Biosphere Reserve, celebrating the landscapes specifically highlighted by this socio-ecological synthesis. The development of Lanzarote illustrates how ideas of art, ecology, and value can cross oceans and alter environments. Now, with the installation of an underwater sculpture museum qua artificial reef called the Museo Atlántico, these Anthropocene tourism projects extend below the ocean’s surface. Using environmental history, participant observation, and ethnographic methods over a combined four months of field work between Lanzarote’s summer seasons in 2016 and 2017, this thesis details the ideals, policies, and aesthetics that underpin Lanzarote’s tourism infrastructure. Specifically, it interrogates the ways in which the Museo Atlántico contributes – or fails to contribute – to the resilience of coastal development on this arid, alien island. Without considering artificial reefs like the Museo Atlántico as development, conservation-motivated infrastructure installation can undercut the public review processes central to resilient design in the Anthropocene. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For almost five years, Dr. Amelia Moore has provided consistent mentorship, opportunity, and inspiration. She leads by example with grace and patience, dedicated to making her work work for her and making space for new and passionate voices while telling important stories. Thank you for your creativity, commitment, and faith. I’ll always be a member of the Coral Cabal! Ben Morris makes the world go ‘round, and I thank him for not only making so many students work possible but his unerring sarcasm and precisely raised eyebrow when we come to him, desperate a touch of reason and a laugh. Thank you, Bryan Dewsbury, for a large screen at the last minute to get this thesis done. Thanks, too, to the Marine Affairs faculty for their advice and humor when we act like the world is falling apart. Particular gratitude to my thesis committee for their time and consideration. Thanks to, among many incredible and supportive peers, Danielle, Kaytee, Leah, Erin, Talya, Bobby, Jess and Heva. More than anything in this program, I am grateful for the company of funny and kind people who care about the coast and sea and are always willing to get in the water and eat good food! Thanks too to my West Coast women, who are supportive, inspirational, and generously volunteered to read this through. Thanks to my parents for thinking I can do anything, because it’s probably why I’m here. Particular thanks to my sister Maddie, who knows that even if you can do anything you can’t do everything, and teaching me how to say ‘No.’ Finally, thank you to Richard Adcock, my co-conspirator and enabler, who helps me get the projects I start finished while keeping my head above water. Thank you for letting me steer the ship while you make sure she floats. All shortcomings in this text are mine. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION: Resilient Dive Tourism in the Anthropocene ................................ 1 The Museo Atlántico ................................................................................................ 6 Artificial Reef Tourism in the Anthropocene ........................................................ 11 Tourism Infrastructures and Imaginaries ............................................................... 17 Methodology and Procedures ................................................................................. 22 Artificial Reefs: Development for the Anthropocene ............................................ 25 CHAPTER 1: Art Islands: Branding and Preservation of Island Aesthetics in the Canary Island Archipelago ..................................................................................... 28 Carrying Capacity: Fascism, Tourism, and Making Islands Livable ..................... 33 César Manrique, Preserving Nature by Design ...................................................... 38 UNESCO’S Man and Biosphere Program ............................................................. 43 Conclusion: Consumable Islands ........................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 2: Interpreting and Experiencing Artifice at the Museo Atlántico ............ 50 The Museo Atlántico, as Intended .......................................................................... 53 Fluid Phenomenologies .......................................................................................... 61 The Museo Atlántico, as experienced..................................................................... 64 Tourists ................................................................................................................. 64 Dive Professionals ................................................................................................ 76 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 88 CHAPTER 3: Development and Democracy ............................................................... 90 Developing an Ocean Full of Nothing ................................................................... 95 Clandestine Development .................................................................................... 120 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 122 Appendix A: Lanzarote in Photos ............................................................................. 129 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 149 iv LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE Figure 1: A man-made lagoon used for dive training on the Western shores of Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. Photo by Author. ....................................................................... 2 Figure 2: "The Raft of Lampuseda" by Jason deCaires Taylor and his team (Photo used with permission of Jason deCaires Taylor Studio) and the “Raft of Medusa” by Théodore Géricault (Géricault, Théodore, The Rat of Medusa, 1818, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Accessed September 31, 2018). ........................................................ 6 Figure 3: "Desconnectado" by Jason deCaires Taylor (Photo used with permission from Jason deCaires Taylor Studio). ........................................................................ 8 Figure 4: "Crossing the Rubicon" by Jason deCaires Taylor (Used with permission from the Jason deCaires Taylor Studio). ................................................................ 10 Figure 5: A map of Taylor's major installation by the author, with installations marked in yellow. ................................................................................................................ 11 Figure 6 - La Grua de Babel (2000, Fundación César Manrique) ............................... 28 Figure 7: Traditional agricultural practices worked with Lanzarote's volcanic landscape. "When you are born in a county like this water shows its true value." (Photos courtesy of Memoria Digital de Lanzarote). ............................................. 34 Figure 8: Traditional, often gendered, agricultural practices defined the local landscape (Photo by Javier Reyes Acuna with permission of Memorias