Iris Fu




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Delphis
9 x 3.5in. panels, 81 x 3.5in. full length, Accordion bind.

Special Thanks to:
Eleni Antonis
Elizabeth DeLoughrey
Neha Kanive
Rebeca Méndez

    The U.S. Navy’s mammal program trains bottlenose dolphins and sea lions to surveil the ocean floor, aiding offensively and defensively for the United States’ military interests. A couple of months ago, when I was deep into this project, I watched a clip of a Pentagon briefing where Pete Hegseth joked, “I can't confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they [Iran] don't.” The prospect of dolphin soldiers feels like something out of a strange science fiction, yet in many respects, this cyborg fantasy has left its mark on post-Cold War culture. In my research on this project, I largely referenced Cosmodolphins (2000) by Mette Bryld and Nina Lykke. Through Bryld and Lykke’s comprehensive analysis of Cold War aesthetic and dolphin symbology, I became fascinated by the worship of dolphins as savior figures and super aliens (ex. the film Flipper, the video game Ecco the Dolphin, and Apollo, who transformed into a dolphin to guide travelers). I also read a couple of declassified CIA documents for Project OXYGAS, which formally launched the marine mammal training program and became the basis for the contemporary training facility down in San Diego. Shortly after the launch of Project OXYGAS in the early 1960s, these dolphins were deployed in the Vietnam War, then in the Iran-Iraq War, and in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States is not the only country to invest in militarized marine mammals. The USSR famously rivaled the United States in its training program, and after the country’s dissolution, their dolphins were exported all across the globe.

    During World War II, submarines became a significant maritime threat. The United States Navy and the USSR significantly increased investment into underwater acoustic research, a method of surveilling these watery battlegrounds through sound. Psychoanalyst John Lilly capitalized on institutional interest in angling his research on dolphin consciousness and communication, largely gathered from the dolphin’s brain and acoustic fats, as a Cold War asset. High-intensity military sonar, derived from such Cold War innovation, is now a large cause of mass strandings of dolphins across militarized coastlines. 

    Lilly came to regret his abuse of dolphins in his research, primarily in being empathetic to a relation between dolphin consciousness and human consciousness, yet this anthropomorphic congruence also paved the road for marine mammals’ exploitation as maritime bioweapons. Reflecting on similar language in evoking empathy for landscapes, the climate, our fellow humans, etc., I wanted to consider human-centered affect in relating to animal kin as textured, problematic, and enduring. My uneasy relationship to these delphis (dolphin) stemmed from the Greek root meaning womb, which is through the printed form of a 9-panel accordion book in which I interpolated my body across the panoramic Playa del Rey landscape. The performance was shot on an early winter morning. I am also wearing a camera harness, recording my POV from my phone. This is a work in progress as I continue to investigate the tension between myself and the construction of militarized animals.
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