UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA FACULDADE DE BELAS-ARTES
Apnea
Book Ocean Immersion ANEXOS
Janna Nadjejda Ribow Guichet
Dissertação
Mestrado em Arte Multimedia Especialização em Fotografia
Dissertação orientada pela Professora Doutora Maria João Pestana Noronha Gamito
2021
Breathe in, Breathe out.
We are there in the open sea, preparing ourselves to immerse into the underwater world.
We have a wetsuit on, diving goggles and long fins.
It ́s deep very deep, some miles away from the coast.
For some of you it might seem very scary to immerse in there, just into the open sea.
But we are protected from our marine origins, we have a mammalian dive response which protects us in the deep. We have this in common with whales and dolphins in a reduced form. The more often we immerse our face into water, more often our triggers of the mammalian dive response get activated. It slows down our metabolism, lowers our heart rate and helps us to use oxygen more efficiently.
And we still have a part of ocean in us, we persist to seventy percent of water, an embryo to ninety nine percent and when we are born, we can hold our breath like a dolphin.
Lying there in the water we prepare ourselves to hold our breath. The more relaxed we are, the less oxygen we need. Because every tension and every thought costs oxygen.
So, we breathe deeply and slowly into our belly. Through the belly breathing we release our tensions, control our fears, and fill up our body with fresh oxygen.
We observe and scan through our body. It is a way to meet us, Pelizzari described the in- ner research:
“A fundamental rule is that of being open with oneself, reaching a state of total intro- spection that annuls external stimuli and, above all, disturbing mental phenomena.
Who relaxes is doing something to get out of the usual state of deconcentrating, mun- dane and little stiff.”
Pelizzari, 2005, p.120
From the big toe, in little steps up to the head, we search for tensions and transform them into lightness. We just let go.
Everything what is bothering us, everything unnecessary in this one moment.
It ́s the way to our own Still Point.
A moment when our mind is clear, and we can focus on our challenge, on the outside, without fear or the habits we have learned over the years.
We breathe and connect totally with ourselves, dive into ourselves and the outer world erases. Once there, we take a deep breath in and hold our breath. We close our eyes and turn around.
We duck dive to enter the underwater world.
We start to descent, moving our fins slowly.
We hold on to the line to find our way down.
Pull with one hand and then the other one, we equalize our ears and fall a bit deeper.
We focus on our inside.
We stay just in our head.
We are just there in this one moment with ourselves.
We go deeper and equalize, the pressure is rising, Dancini described the sensation so nicely:
“...when we undertake this adventure with one breath, with our own efforts, we are rewarded with a pure sense of union with the eternal immensity of nature.”
Dancini, 2005, p.20
So, we dive into that peaceful world, equalize, and unite with the ocean.
We swim and equalize in our own rhythm, which helps us to relax and float down into the deep in an absolute stillness.
Without fear, we just float down into the deep.
The only barrier we are going to find there is ourselves, just there in us. Maybe our mind will drag us away. It’s a Mind Game. So, we tell ourselves that we are capable.
Mário Albuquerque, who reached 80 meters under the surface in one breath, said something very wise:
“Once we control ourselves we are free.”
Alburquerque, 2019
And so, we glide deeper.
Step by step.
Just by ourselves.
We feel the silence, the peace.
Our heartbeat slows down.
Almost like hibernating.
So peaceful.
Almost like letting your body behind.
Being there just with yourself.
Your Soul.
Or whatever that might be.
Everything disappears.
Every stress.
You just let loose.
Let go.
Of fear.
Of tension.
Of everything.
Gliding deeper is getting easier.
The air in your lungs gets compressed because of the hydrostatic pressure.
So, you start to fall.
Out of space into freedom.
Reaching down at the end of the line.
You open your eyes.
And it ́s just one.
One color.
Just like it would be in the universe.
It ́s quiet, peaceful – it ́s timelessness. Freedom of space, outside and inside.
Everything blends.
You unite with yourself, feel complete.
Feel one with the huge ocean.
Just a piece of it.
You reconnect to this place where we all once came from. A moment of suspension.
Old things can pass, and new ones arise. Something is changing, our brain resets.
A liminal sensation, a borderline state.
A sensation which reminds on Barnett Newman ́s words:
“...it is what dismantles consciousness, what deposes consciousness, it is what consciousness cannot formulate, and even what consciousness forgets in order to constitute itself. What we do not manage to formulate it is that something happens...”
Lyotard, 1988, p.28
Down there in the deep, we get more oxygen in the blood, because of the high pressure.
More oxygen passes through our tissues.
We feel good and strong and just wonderful.
A place to stay just there in this one present moment.
But we are still humans and we have an urge to breathe. So, we turn around.
And swim back towards the surface.
We are negatively buoyant.
We push harder to swim back. And Focus.
Just on the line.
The line to survival.
Which will bring us back.
Back to a new life, to a new breath.
“Nothing penetrates deeper than the breath or is more persuasive. Immediately you will object that the moving breath is like the waves of the sea. But what of retention of the breath? Breathing stops. Is not the cessation of the movement of breath, the life-giving force, the greatest point of stillness imaginable?” Farrell, 2006, p.33
You see the endless blue, an eternity.
And there your safety diver meets you half way.
She looks you in the eyes and brings you back safely. Fishes swim by.
The pressure is falling, so is the oxygen in your blood.
We feel our diaphragm bumping.
It doesn’t mean we are low on oxygen yet.
It means we have an urge to exhale.
So we tolerate this discomfort and relax into it.
And focus.
On the present moment and enjoy the ride.
The sun comes closer as it breaks through the surface. The last meters you start floating and you can stop moving. You can let yourself being dragged up into a new world.
And breathe.
REFERENCES:
Dancini, Jose Luiz. Mergulho em Apneia: fundamentos para a prática desportiva. Sao Paulo: Ed. do Autor, 2005 Farell, Emma. One Breath: A reflection on freediving. Hatherleigh: Pynto, 2006
Lyotard, Jean-Francois, extract form L’Inhuman: Causeries sur le temps, 1988.
In The Sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art, edited by Simon Morley, 27-41. London: The MIT Press, 2010 Pelizzari, Umberto y Tovaglieri, Stefano. Curso de Apnea. Paidotribo: Badalona, 2005
Janna Nadjejda Guichet Underwater Photography info@jannaguichet.de
+ 49 178 823 823 9 jannaguichet.com
IMPRINTPHOTOGRAPHED:
08-2019 - 03-2020 in Sesimbra, Portugal Camera: Canon 5DMark IV
Lense: Canon EF 8-15mm/ f 4.0 L Fisheye USM Underwaterhousing: NiMAR Classic
COPYRIGHT:
Photography: Janna Nadjejda Guichet Text: Janna Nadjejda Guichet
University Belas Artes U.Lisboa, 2020
Master Thesis: “Apnea - a liminal experience under the surface”
and book “Ocean Immersion” under guidance of Professor Maria João Pestana Noronha Gamito
