interakcije

The Last Mediterranean Skipper

The new and final work in the so-called Mediterranean Speculative Trilogy by Ivica Mitrović and Oleg Šuran from the Visual Communications Design Department at the Arts Academy in Split premiered at the exhibition titled “How Will We Work?” at the Vienna Biennale for art, design and arhitecture 2017 – Robots. Work. Our Future.

Using the speculative design approach, the project is addressing the automation of the work and labour in the local context (The Mediterranean South East Europe). It is expected that in the near future this trend will result in autonomous cruising sailboats, and thus challenge all related occupations. The project brings the story about “the last skipper” – once romantic and one of the most popular occupations brought to extinction by the automated sailboat systems.

The Mediterranean speculative trilogy comprising the following works: Eutropia, focusing on a “smart” city of the future, privacy and new economies of such cities and Southern Comfort, which investigates the trustworthiness of social networks and evaluation systems in the context of new economies based on tourism. Mitrović and Šuran deal with “big” global technological, economic, social and political topics in the local context that they know best and inside of which they can act in the best possible way in the framework of the so-called “real world”.

The exhibition titled How Will We Work? is on display at the Angewandte Innovation Laboratory (AIL) of the Applied Arts University in Vienna until 27 September 2017.

Video

Full HD, 16:9, 5:57 (Segments from the documentary about the development of autonomous vessels, produced for the science programme on the Croatian television (2017))

Video

Full HD, 16:9, 12:18 (Recordings archived in the surveillance cameras of the sailing boat “Adrijana” during 2036)

Model

Elan 434 Impression

Photographs

Private collection, 13×18cm

Skipper as profession dissapeared on the Mediterranean in the late 2030s. In the beginning of the century, the profession was constantly expanding to reach its peak in 2025 when more then 1600 licenses were issued in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. Following the first wave of automatisation of personal transport, primarily focusing on the development of automatically steered road vehicles and drones, the second wave of automatisation in the late 2020s also included marine traffic.

Automatisation of cruising sailboats reached a high level of reliability and until 2035 all commercial tourist sailboats were entirely automatized. Nowadays, engineering controls on sailboats have the maximum level of reliability and safety. Harbor authorities in the Mediterranean countries have forbidden human controlling over sailboats with an intention to accomplish a maximum level of safety in sailing. In that context, professional skippers are bound to entirely disappear.

Gradually, former skippers turned to jobs in harbors mostly linked to maintenance, managerial positions and tour operators. In harbors, they are the ones to welcome guests and board them on charter sailboats, introduce them to marine safety regulations and escort the boats. Guests on sailboats, in line with the selected and programmed routes, sail on completely automatized sailboats. Based on the weather forecast, current weather conditions and traffic, sailboats can independently adapt such planned routes. Sailboats are additionally equipped with AI systems that can communicate with the crew and explain all tourist attractions and basic sailing skills.

CREDITS

By

Ivica Mitrović and Oleg Šuran

Photo and video

Darko Škrobonja

With

Toni Bulaja, Tonko Petrić, Damir Krstinić and Pero Tudja

Production

Arts Academy, University of Split

English translation

Mirna Herman Baletić

Supported by

The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia

Special thanks to

Diverso Impex d.o.o.

and

Darko Stipaničev, Ivan Paušić, Tomislav Gracin, Vinka Lišić, Tonći Đogaš, Damir Mitrović, Nikša Stipanović, Marko Paušić, Vinko Buble, Nardi Nardelli, Maks Škabar, LaIS – Laboratory for Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split, Caffe bar “Basket”