Beyond Modernity: Alternative Incursions into the Anthropocene, 2021
Online Conference with Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
From conference outline:
In this sense, the “Anthropocene event” is not purely a physical phenomenon: rather, it is inextricably linked to the power relations that govern our social, economic and political systems. This is why critical authors have been problematizing and rethinking the concept of the “Anthropocene”, refusing to accept its homogenized and universal conception of “Humanity”...
...In times of global shared vulnerabilities and of rapid social, political and environmental destruction, moving beyond the modern “abyssal thinking” (Santos, 2007) seems urgently necessary. Following these ideas and other similar conceptualisations,...we invite authors and/or activists to provide critical and counter-hegemonic support to discussions around the “Anthropocene”.
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I presented a paper here, developing an idea of the 'geo-fiction' through the materiality, poetics and philosophy of toxic dust as connector between local and planetary currents. This brings together sociological work on the Uranium trade in Africa by Gabrielle Hecht, philosophy of the demonic dust carrier as navigational device in Reza Negarestani's theory-fiction work Cyclonopedia, and my practice-driven research into nuclear waste sites.
Following the conference, a version of the paper focusing on my practice will be published in the CES e-cadernos Journal. Some of the other work I took into a different direction, focusing on other artists' work. I developed a previous collaboration through researching material legacies of UK colonial nuclear testing in Australia, and work of the Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce. I presented this at a later event on Nuclear History and the Archive with Chris Hill, which led to a further publication, in Journal of Visual Culture at the end of 2022.
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