Amid the vast sea of innovation that defines contemporary culture, undersea cables exist beneath the surface as profound marvels of modern technology—evocative of the mysterious depths explored in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. These concealed strands of fiber-optic brilliance traverse vast oceans, resonating through the currents of global communication. Seamlessly transmitting data across borders, they weave a network of international connectivity and access to the virtual world. Much like Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, these invisible pathways underpin e-commerce, financial systems, and remote labor, navigating the complex structures of real-time global dialogue. Within this submerged architecture, information flows and human collaboration form a symphony—quietly binding disparate systems to the global economy. Beyond their physical presence, submarine networks transcend infrastructure itself, symbolizing a boundless world of connection. Just as Verne's literary journey ventured into the unknown, these cables extend toward uncharted horizons of human connection, redefining the parameters of modern existence.

Q: What inspired your interest in undersea cables as a foundational infrastructure?

Tan Mu: My interest in undersea cables emerged while I was working on Eruption in 2022, which documents the volcanic eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai. In January of that year, the eruption damaged submarine cables and cut Tonga off from global communication. It was the first time I became fully aware that most of our global connectivity depends not on satellites, but on fragile physical cables laid across the ocean floor.

That realization stayed with me. When I began working on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in 2023, my focus shifted from a single event to submarine cables as a broader symbol of global connection. Inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, I began to think of contemporary technology as a modern counterpart to Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, quietly navigating unseen depths. In this work, the cables appear as invisible systems stretching across the planet. They carry information, but they also represent the deep interdependence of culture, economics, and social life. Through painting, I wanted to elevate this hidden infrastructure into something almost mythic, a structure that quietly shapes how we live and relate to one another.

Q: Beyond their technological function, how do undersea cables reflect human cultural, social, and emotional connections in your work?

Tan Mu: In my work, submarine cables function as more than technical infrastructure. They operate as carriers of human presence. On a practical level, they transmit information that connects people across continents, but on another level, they hold fragments of our collective memory. Messages, images, voices, and emotions all travel through these lines.

I often think of undersea cables as an externalized nervous system. Much like neural pathways in the brain, they transmit signals that allow distant parts of a larger body to communicate. From this perspective, they become the veins of a global organism, quietly circulating knowledge, memory, and emotion. They reveal how deeply intertwined our lives have become, even when we are physically separated.

Q: How do you visually express the tension between the tangible and intangible, the visible and invisible, in your depiction of undersea cables?

Tan Mu: Undersea cables are almost impossible to directly observe. They are buried beneath vast stretches of ocean, inaccessible and largely undocumented visually. Because of this, painting becomes a form of indirect documentation for me. It allows me to give form to something essential yet unseen, transforming invisible structures into visible presence.

These cables also transmit something intangible: information, memory, and emotional exchange. Making them visible becomes a way of visualizing how human relationships are sustained through systems we rarely think about. The materials themselves are also significant. The outer layers of fiber optic cables, made from advanced synthetic materials, reflect the material logic of our time and the new infrastructures shaping contemporary life.

There is also the question of hidden labor. Behind every cable lies an immense amount of human effort, engineering, planning, and maintenance. In works such as Signal: Submarine Network (2024), I focus on cross sections and internal structures to draw attention to this invisible labor. These systems are not abstract or automatic. They are the result of global collaboration and continuous human involvement. By visualizing them, I hope to acknowledge both the physical and human forces that sustain our interconnected world.