Created by Liang Wu, Postdoctoral Associate of Environmental Humanities, International Studies, and Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University

This media atlas catalogs investigative documentaries, essay films, experimental cinema, and other forms of multimedia that illuminate the largely hidden realities of maritime logistics and global supply chains. Despite delivering 90% of world trade and supporting the global economy, the shipping industry remains significantly out of public view and knowledge. To counteract such “sea-blindness”, this project maps media works that reveal the technological, social, ecological, and political worlds of the maritime industry, including labor regimes, environmental externalities, and industrial governance that sustain the shipping and global system. By geolocating the maritime subjects and spaces depicted in these works such as container ports, shipping lanes, shipbreaking beaches, onshore and offshore infrastructures, and underwater systems, the mapper traces the promises and limits of media and mapping rendering visible and knowable the oceanic networks and mechanisms that underpin contemporary globalization and everyday life.

Image description: March 10, 2026 live map provided by MarineTraffic, a global ship tracking intelligence platform