Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
4th International Environmental Humanities Conference: The Blue Humanities, Nevşehir, Türkiye, 20 - 23 Mayıs 2026, ss.66-67, (Özet Bildiri)
The term “creaturely aesthetics”, proposed by Stacy Alaimo in The Abyss Stares Back:
Encounters with Deep-Sea Life (2025), refers to aesthetic representations and depictions of the
diverse, astonishingly complex, and enticing life in the depths of the ocean and the potential of
such aesthetic engagement with marine life across literature, science, media and art to awaken
interest, concern, and care for deep-sea creatures. The American novelist Richard Powers’
Playground (2024) interweaves technological and ecological issues surrounding AI
technology, oceanography and a seasteading venture on the French Polynesian island of
Makatea through its distinct but ultimately connected storylines. Centering one of its main
narrative strands on Evelyn Beaulieu, a French-Canadian oceanographer modeled on the highly
acclaimed marine biologist Sylvia Earle, the novel foregrounds the central role of the ocean in
sustaining life on Earth, with a particular emphasis on the remarkable diversity and dynamism
of deep-sea life. Within the framework of Alaimo’s concept of “creaturely aesthetics”, this
study draws on the critical concerns of the blue humanities to argue that the employment of
vivid and striking sensory descriptions of deep-sea life with its abundance, complexity, and
diversity in Playground cultivates an immersive encounter with the many wonders and species
of the deep sea. In contrast to the long-standing and notorious delineation of the deep sea as
“alien”, which often results in lack of concern and indifference for marine life, Playground
seeks to familiarize its readers with marine creatures as playful, awe-inspiring, and affectively
engaging more-than-human beings. This study also emphasizes that through its aesthetic and
sensory engagement with deep-sea life, Playground has the potential to elicit affective
responses that could foster environmental care and concern toward marine creatures that are
increasingly threatened by extraction, pollution, and ocean warming in the Anthropocene.