Over the past years, curatorial activities and art institutions have become one key part of the public debate relating to climate change and the Anthropocene. The role of such initiatives as the Anthropocene Curriculum project at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin was one such flagship initiative that was “initiated to develop experimental and experiential approaches to knowledge formation in a rapidly changing planetary situation.” Similarly, such curatorial practices as various Latour and Weibel shows at the ZKM provided an extended platform for art and science type of collaborations, in some cases also with a heavy dose of history of science scholarship involved. They fed into for example broader climate and biodiversity related discussions: the Critical Zone: Observatories for Earthly Politics (2020-2022) exhibition would be a good recent example.

In this vein, my talk addresses some recent curatorial contexts where issues of climate science as well as broader environmental knowledge are addressed in and through artistic projects. This includes the Climate Engines (Motores del Clima) exhibition at Laboral, in Gijon (Spain) that opened in October 2023 and closes in late May 2024. Picking up on some of the themes from this exhibition as well as my involvement for example with the Helsinki Biennial 2023 (where the theme “New Directions May Emerge” borrowed from Anna Tsing). Ultimately, the talk will thus link to the broader scope and possibilities in art-science collaborations as part of the extended repertoire of science and technology studies too.

• http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/exposiciones/motores-del-clima
• https://cc.au.dk/en/dafed/

Bio

Jussi Parikka is Professor of Digital Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University. He has published widely on environmental media, media archaeology, as well as on various aspects of art-science-technology collaborations. His recent books include the co-authored Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies (Minnesota, 2022) that focused on the proliferation of “labs” beyond science and engineering, as well as Operational Images (Minnesota, 2023). His forthcoming with artist Abelardo Gil-Fournier co-authored book is Living Surfaces: Images, Plants, and Environments of Media (MIT Press, 2024).

Coffee, tea, cake and fruit will be served before the colloquium @ 2 pm.