Lunar-solar rhythmpatterns: Towards the material cultures of tides

Jones, Owain

Abstract

The movements of the oceans, and the liminal margins of sea, land and fresh water have profound implications for human / non-human life. Those movements and margins are rhythmically affected by tides which are thus a key means by which the forceful materiality of water is animated. Where salt water meets land and river mouths, ceaseless, varying, daily, monthly and seasonal rhythms of sea level rise and fall occur. Complex patterns and rhythms of inter-tidal areas, currents, mixing of salt and fresh water, erosion, transportation and deposition and many impacts on human systems are created. Due to location, orientation and sea/land topography, coastal areas around the world are subject to either microtides, mesotides, or macrotides (4 metres and higher). Particularly in the case of the latter, the rhythms of the tides extend out into a range of intersecting eco-social assemblages. This paper discusses tides and their rhythms, sets them in debates about temporality/nature, and introduces the idea of rhythmpattern which is timespace animated. It also considers dissonance and consonance within and between tidal rhythmpatterns and their overwriting by development.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Nov 1, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2016
• Journal: Environment and Planning A
• Print ISSN: 0308-518X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 2285-2303
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/a4468
• Keywords: rhythmpatterns, tidal geographies, temporal ecologies, rhythms, material culture
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/969439
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a4468
• Contract Date: Feb 24, 2016