Wednesday 28.01.2015

What's Left of Nature: Art and Wilderness in the Anthropocene Open Call

The seminar on What's Left of Nature: Art and Wilderness in the Anthropocene at Translocal Institute is organised as part of the Experimental Reading Room, an ongoing series of public seminars and guest lectures on art and ecology. A number of places are available for the seminar group which will meet on alternative Mondays beginning on 9 February and those wishing to participate are invited to send a short motivation letter to the organisers.

At a time in which nature appears thoroughly exploited, subjugated and managed, reflecting an anthropocene era in which humans have usurped planetary processes and used technology to turn their dreams of mastery over nature into a nightmarish prospect, a counter urge to reconnect with what is left of wild nature is beginning to emerge. Challenging the supremacy of science over the study of nature, drawing on the insights of both the new transdisciplinary field of the posthumanities and the non-anthropocentric knowledge of indigenous peoples, and unlocking the radicalism of the ecological paradigm, contemporary art and theory are on the lookout for avenues to where wilderness remains.

The lack of progress in tackling ecological crisis in recent years has brought an accelerated urgency to efforts from outside the mainstream to question the reliance on technocratic and legalistic solutions to issues such as climate change, deforestation and species extinction, while experiments in rewilding and research in multispecies ethnographies open up new vistas for ecological transformation. This course focuses on the work of theorists and artists who explore the possibilities of post-humanist, de-centred and empathic approaches to nature through the pursuit of experiential knowledge and immersion in what remains of the natural world.

The What is Left of Nature: Art and Wilderness in the Anthropocene seminar is led by Drs Maja and Reuben Fowkes and organised in cooperation with the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) as part of Translocal Institute's Experimental Reading Room project 2014-16. The Experimental Reading Room creates a space to interact, experiment, learn and dream our way to a new orientation towards ecological empathy in contemporary art and society. Based around a parallel program of degrowth lectures by prominent international thinkers and thematic study circles, the project is designed to engender the self-production of socially-embedded, theoretically-informed and practically-oriented knowledge in the vital field of art and ecology.

Supported by:
Erste Stiftung