Course Eco-Aesthetics in Modern and Contemporay Art

The climate crisis, as one of the most pressing challenges of our time, has led to a new ecological paradigm. Artists are currently working intensively on ecological themes, and numerous museum exhibitions and biennials are dedicated to this topic. Art-historical research is recognizing the importance, after the interdependencies between art, environment, nature, ecology and non-human and more-than-human beings have long been marginalized. This has also led to ecocritical reinterpretations of (early) modern art.

The workshop is intended for PhD students whose research is concerned with an ecological theme within modern or contemporary art. The aim is to discuss your research in the group in order to develop new perspectives, to get methodological and theoretical impulses, to get to know contextualizing examples of works and to discover possible parallels in the topics. A group discussion of two texts is also planned (PDFs will be provided prior to the workshop).

All forms of artistic expression and media can be presented. In addition, a wide range of methods, theories and topics are possible, for example: Artistic Research, Actor-Network-Theory and Agency, Assemblage Theory, Anthropocene and alternative theories (Capitalocene, Chthulucene, Plantationocene, Necrocene, White Supremacy Scene, Technosphere …), Bio, Eco, Earth, or Land Art, Decolonial,  Transcultural, or Postcolonial Studies, Digital Ecology, AI, Metaverse, (Digital) Image Theory, Ecocriticism, Eco-Feminism, Eco-Socialism, Extractivism, Environmental Humanities, Human-Animal Studies, Extinction, Gaia-Hypothesis, Livelikeness, NatureCulture, New Materialism, OOO, Post- or Transhumanism, Synthetic Biology, Speculative Realism, Symbiosis, Sustainability, etc.

Aim:

Methods and theories for analyzing modern or contemporary ecological art and ecological aesthetics are discussed, compared and applied.

Literature:

delman, Sam (2020): “Modernity, anthropocene, capitalocene and the climate crisis”. In: David Bollier and Anna Grear (eds). The great awakening: new modes of life amidst capitalist ruins. Santa Barbara: Punctum Books, 23-55.
 
Demos, T.J. (2023): “Climate Futures From Emergency to Emergence“. In: Demos, T.J.: Radical Futurisms. Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come. London: Sternberg Press, 89-123.

Target group:

PhD students, all stages.

Form:

Seminar and group work.

Lecturer:

Hauke Ohls, PhD: hohls@uni-bonn.de

Venue:

Campus Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 5, 8000 Aarhus C, room 1461-616

Course dates:

• 13 March 2024 14:00 - 17:00