[-empyre-] Introducing Week 2: Mediated Natures, Speculative Futures and Justice and thank you to Week One

[kyle mckinley]

hi everyone,
I've been appreciating this month's themes a lot, and Margaretha's curation
of guests, and have intended to chime in at some point. For now, here's a
link to some upcoming film screenings that speak to these themes. The
screenings are in Santa Cruz, California, but the groups putting this on
are likely of interest to all:

https://thepanoramacollective.tumblr.com/

in cahoots,
kyle

On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 10:28 AM, Julie Andreyev <jandreye at ecuad.ca> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi Margaretha, Meredith and -empyre- soft skinned space,
>
> Thank you for inviting me as a Discussant for this week’s topics. I am
> responding to Margaretha’s question in the introduction about justice in
> encounters with more-than-human others. I’d like to enter here, by pointing
> broadly to the challenges and potentials offered by encounters with other
> animals. Ben, in his response to the topic brought up the history of
> exploitive relations with other animals and the problems these produced for
> the animals involved, and for the degradation of human empathy. The
> utilization of other beings for the benefit of humans even finds itself
> into art practices, such as with some bioart and art involving other
> animals in gallery settings. Artist working within these genres continue to
> employ harmful and even lethal methods, generally holding an
> anthropocentric view on animals, plants and microbes as living materials;
> these artists arguing for freedom of expression.
>
> This is the starting point for my own art research and practice that asks,
> how to generate post-anthropocentric aesthetics, as discourse and applied
> methods, that model respectful empathetic forms of relating with other
> creatures and the ecologies we share? The methods I am particularly drawn
> to for their empathetic potential are interspecies collaboration, and
> interspecies participation. My work over the past decade has explored
> processes with dogs, salmon, and forest ecologies.
>
> http://julieandreyev.com/epic-tom/
> http://julieandreyev.com/salmon-people/
> http://julieandreyev.com/biophilia/
>
> Recently I been working with a free-living crow family that lives in the
> territory that includes my home. The interactions with the crows have
> included working with stones as an interface for communications and
> creativity between us. http://julieandreyev.com/crow-stone-tone-poem/
>
> What I have found in all of these interspecies instances is that ethics of
> care, that includes respect for autonomy is critical for developing
> improved (non-exploitive) relations. As well, building in indeterminacy
> methods, by being open to the contributions of other lifeforms leads to
> surprises in terms of creativity, and this can lead to greater empathy on
> the part of humans.
>
> I look forward to additions and comments
>
> cheers
>
> Julie Andreyev
>
> > On Oct 9, 2017, at 3:06 PM, margaretha haughwout <
> margaretha.anne.haughwout at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> > Dear -empyre- soft skinned space,
> >
> > Randall, Lisette, Valentine and Antonio have enlivened a rich terrain
> for us to continue our conversation and our work. I am so grateful to
> Randall for introducing a critical lexicon for ecoaesthetic systems, a
> lexicon that draws out the ways that the neoliberal art system (much like
> the draining industrial agriculture model) must be subsumed by a soil
> practice; to Lissette for reminding us that the multispecies work we do is
> wholly anti-disciplinary, with anti-colonial potential, and is tied to the
> Black Radical tradition, to queer and trans*activism, and feminism; to
> Valentine for asking how "to practice relating to communities of more
> distant soil," how to "live in myriad relations without losing out shit";
> to Antonio for writing in about agroecology and peasant solidarity -- a few
> of many points to acknowledge how generative and *grounding* Week One has
> been. I am confident these ideas will continue to be at play in the coming
> weeks, and I hope all of you will be able to continue to write in.
> >
> > I am so excited to introduce a new set of discussants into the mix, and
> to begin conversations on the theme/s of Mediated Natures, Speculative
> Futures and Justice. Welcome Julie Andreyev (CA), Grisha Coleman (US),
> Desert Art Lab -- April Bojorquez (US) and Matt Garcia (US)-- Meredith Drum
> (US), Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa (US). We will also receive posts about
> projects from guests Tyler Fox (US) and Jordan Yerman (CA) later in the
> week. Once again I'd like to thank Meredith Drum for helping me to work out
> ideas for this month and for inviting in such distinguished guests as
> Grisha Coleman, and Desert Art Lab.
> >
> > What are the ways that afrofuturism, speculative fabulation and science
> fiction influence our practices of multispecies worlding and ecological
> art, as well as how we understand the influence or use of media and
> technology when encountering nonhuman others? The threads between all of
> your work is fascinating -- you all are deeply influenced by SF, use or
> study technology and media, and also insist on justice. How do these
> threads intertwine for you?
> >
> > As well, how can we understand terms like justice, solidarity, ethics,
> survival, radicality in the Capitalocene? What are the stakes, the costs
> and the possible futures for different ecologies and the humans that live
> amongst them?
> >
> > This week's theme can also extend the conversations begun last week
> around systems +/or/vs. entanglements, managing and mourning and the many
> other lines of thought begun by Randall, Lissette, Valentine and the larger
> community of -empyre- (Norie, WIlliam, Melinda, Elaine and everyone).
> >
> >
> > Warmly,
> > -Margaretha
> >
> > ++
> >
> > Week 2 Discussants
> > Julie Andreyev
> > Julie Andreyev’s art practice, called Animal Lover, www.animallover.ca,
> explores more-than-human creativity using methods of ethics of care,
> respect, and play. The projects are output as new media performance, video
> installation, generative art, and relational aesthetics. The Animal Lover
> projects have been shown internationally, and are supported by the Canada
> Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
> Council of Canada. Andreyev recently completed her PhD at Simon Fraser
> University, Vancouver, supported by a Joseph Armand Bombardier Doctoral
> Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
> Canada. Her dissertation, Biophilic Ethics and Creativity with
> More-Than-Human Beings, is an interdisciplinary investigation into an
> expansion of ethics for more-than-human beings, examined through
> interspecies relational creativity in art processes. Andreyev is Associate
> Professor in the Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media at Emily Carr University
> of Art + Design.
> >
> >
> > Grisha Coleman
> > Grisha Coleman works as a choreographer and composer in performance and
> experiential media. Her work explores relationships between our
> physiological, technological and ecological systems. She currently holds
> the position of Associate Professor of Movement, Computation and Digital
> Media in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, and the School of Dance
> at Arizona State University. Her recent art and scholarly work,
> echo::system, is a springboard for re-imagining the environment,
> environmental change, and environmental justice. Coleman is a New York City
> native with an M.F.A. in Composition and Integrated Media from the
> California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been recognized nationally
> and internationally; including a 2012 National Endowment Arts in Media
> Grant [NEA], the 2014 Mohr Visiting Artist at Stanford University, a
> fellowship at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon
> University, and grants from the Rockefeller M.A.P Fund, The Surdna
> Foundation, and The Creative Capital Foundation.
> >
> >
> > Meredith Drum
> > With artist Rachel Stevens, Meredith Drum co-created The Oyster City
> Project –  a constellation of projects and events that draw attention to
> relationships between urban marine ecology, urban planning, neighborhood
> life, politics, economics and environmental justice. One component of
> Oyster City is an AR walking tour and game featuring 3D objects and text in
> real space visible with an iOS device that highlights the history and
> future of oysters in New York City. Another is the Fish Stories Community
> Cookbook a collection of seafood recipes, local histories, stories,
> drawings and ecological information contributed by people who live and work
> in the Lower East Side of NYC. Fish Stories was commissioned by Paths to
> Pier 42 in 2015.
> >
> >
> > Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa
> > Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa is a PhD candidate in Film and Digital Media
> at University of California Santa Cruz. His dissertation "The Celluloid
> Specimen: Moving Image Research of Animal Life" focuses on the animal
> research films made by behavioral psychology during the 1920s, 30s, and
> 40s. His essay “Celluloid Specimens: Animal Origins for the Moving Image,”
> is being published in the forthcoming book Viscera, Skin, and Physical
> Form: Corporeality and Early Cinema. Schultz-Figueroa has curated and
> screened works at such venues as Anthology Film Archives, Light Industry,
> Artists’ Television Access, Northwest Film Forum, and The Shanghai
> Biennial, and his writing has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Culture
> Machine, and Photomeditations Machine.
> >
> >
> > Desert ArtLAB
> > Desert ArtLAB is dedicated to a social art practice, explores
> connections between ecology, culture and community. Through multimedia
> performance, visual and social art, the collaborative reconceptualizes
> desert and dryland ecologies not as post-apocalyptic growth of wasteland,
> but as an ecological opportunity. The collaborative’s projects activate
> public space, promoting ecological restoration, dryland food practice, and
> a new understanding of living in desert environments. The collaborative’s
> work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including: IAIA
> Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, and
> the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Paris, France).
> >
> >  - April Bojorquez is an independent curator and artist based in the Bay
> Area and Southern Colorado. Working within the intersection of art and
> anthropology, Bojorquez employs diverse strategies to produce immersive and
> interactive environments exploring place, identity and museum practices.
> She is fellow of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Museum Studies
> Program and a former curator of art at the National Hispanic Cultural
> Center. Bojorquez is a 2016 Creative Capital Awardee in Emerging Fields.
> >
> >  - Matt Garcia’s artistic practice investigates ecology, its
> relationship to knowledge systems and how media can connect communities to
> a reclaiming or re-imagining of lost epistemology. Garcia is currently an
> assistant professor of Art and Design at Dominican University of
> California.  Garcia’s work has been presented nationally and
> internationally at venues such as: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des
> Beaux-Arts (Paris, France), The International Symposium on Electronic Art
> (2012, 2015), Balance-Unbalance Festival (Noose, Australia), and HASTAC
> (Lima, Peru). He is a 2016 Creative Capital Awardee in Emerging Fields.
> >
> >
> >
> > Week 2 Special Guests
> > Tyler Fox
> > Tyler Fox is an artist, researcher, technologist and educator. He is a
> Lecturer in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of
> Washington. His work is centered on the attempt to create shared
> experiences between humans and nonhumans, both living and nonliving. His
> draws inspiration from the philosophies of Gilbert Simondon and Alfred
> North Whitehead to create speculative artworks that help us think and feel
> alongside of nonhumans.Tyler received his PhD from the School of
> Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, an MFA from the
> Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and BAs in Art
> History and the Comparative History of Ideas at the University of
> Washington.
> >
> >
> > Jordan Matthew Yerman
> > Jordan Matthew Yerman is a Vancouver-based artist and writer who has
> worked and created from Reykjavik to Tokyo. He explores the experiences of
> feral cats as a metric of urban measurement, while assessing the embodied
> practice of engaging such furtive subjects. He documents cities through the
> lived experiences of their inhabitants, be they human or otherwise. He
> imposes interventions upon his images to explore how those inhabitants—and
> those who view them—embody the changes in their built environments. In
> collaboration with Leigh M. Smith, he created Street Cat Photo Booth,
> consisting of networked shelter environments scaled for feline use. These
> autonomous photo booths allow urban cats to initiate their own social-media
> photo shoots, recontextualizing the role these animals play in our
> perceptions of urbanity and neighborhood.
> > Yerman’s work has been entered three times into the proceedings and
> catalogue of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA); and his
> work has been published by the Vancouver Observer, APEX Experience
> Magazine, Wallpaper*, Travel+Leisure, Akihabara News, Tokyo INSIGHT
> Magazine, the Vancouver Sun, Daily Hive, Vancouver Courier, Gripped,
> Spaced.ca, Manager Magazine, Love Meow, Canadian Avalanche Journal, and
> Buzzfeed.
> > He partnered with Fujifilm to photograph cats across Japan, and takes
> high-stakes cat photos for Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue, helping
> abandoned cats find new homes. He studied at UC San Diego, University of
> Exeter, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
> > Street Cat Photo Booth has been demonstrated in New York, Vancouver,
> Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Manizales, Colombia. The Street Cat Project has shot
> in Japan, Iceland, Hong Kong, Israel, Canada, Italy, Guatemala, Colombia,
> and the United States.
> >
> >
> > --
> > beforebefore.net
> > guerrillagrafters.org
> > coastalreadinggroup.com
> > --
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> > http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu




-- 
http://www.kylemckinley.com/
http://buildingcollective.org/
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