(OLD) Ecological Thinking: Syllabus 2021-22

1.9.2021 0 Like 0 kommenttia Samir Bhowmik

The course aims to re-position ecology in context of extractivism.

Autumn 2021 – Spring 2022

Description

The course aims to re-position ecology in context of extractivism. Extraction or the drawing out of resources from the Earth has had an immense and long-lasting impact on societies and the environment. No part of our planet is left untouched by the instruments of imaging, mapping, measuring, and extraction. This quantified ecology of the human and the non-human is made only possible and sustained by a vigorous and accelerated form of extraction of resources. The course seeks to understand the broader contexts, including the so-called Anthropocene, wherein extractivism arises, looking into history (colonization and slavery), and contemporary mining in indigenous lands and outer space. Tracing the conquest of knowledge by mechanization and capital, the course maps the eventual transformation of ecology as governed by automation and Artificial Intelligence. 

Spring 2022: This Spring iteration of the course continues to examine ecology in context of extractivism. The class discussion consists of lectures and readings of history, theory and artistic works and case studies dealing with ecology and extractivism. The course ends with a final art exhibition by the students and the publication of student writings as complementary to the exhibition.

Learning outcomes:

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Acquire broad knowledge about extractivism and contemporary ecologies.
• Recognize and analyze the political, social and environmental implications of extractivism.
• Ground and Formulate artistic approaches to question extractive practices and environmental impacts

Completion Methods

• Participation and in-class discussion of the assigned reading.
• Writing short articles to be posted on the course blog: https://blogit.uniarts.fi/en/blogs/ecological-thinking/
• Artworks for Exhibition in April-May 2022
• Final texts for Exhibition Catalog in April 2022.

Implementation

Lectures and Class Discussions: Theory followed by artistic case studies. Art works and texts by students as final outcomes.

Schedule of Classes

Autumn 2021

• Week 1 – General overview and structure. Introduction to extractivism and ecological thinking. Reading 1: Yusoff, Kathryn. “Golden Spikes and Dubious Origins.” In A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None.University of Minnesota Press, 2018.

• Week 2 – Reading 2: Arboleda, Martin. “Resource Imperialism after the West.” In Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. London, UK: Verso, 2020.

• Week 3 – Reading 3: Mezzadra, Sandro, and Brett Neilson. “On the multiple frontiers of extraction: excavating contemporary capitalism.” Cultural Studies 31, no. 2-3 (2017): 185-204.

• Week 4 – Reading 4: Bhowmik, Samir. “Lithium Landscapes: From Abstract Imaginaries to Deep Time and Multi-scalar Topologies.” Media Fields Journal, 2021. http://mediafieldsjournal.org/lithium-landscapes/

• Week 5 – Reading 5: Davis, Heather. “Blue, Bling: On Extractivism.” Afterall Journal 48. July 1, 2019. https://www.afterall.org/article/blue-bling-on-extractivism

Spring 2022

• Week 6 – Reading 6: Parikka, Jussi. “From Planetary Depth to Surface Measure, or How to Read the Future from an Image.” In Deep Mediations: Thinking Space in Cinema and Digital Cultures, edited by Karen Redrobe and Jeff Scheible, 286-303. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021. Artworks & Case Studies: Abelardo Gil-Fournier 

• Week 7 – Reading 7: Önal, Gökçe. “Media Ecologies of the ‘Extractive View’: Image Operations of Material Exchange.” Footprint 14, no. 2# 27 (2020): 31-48. Artworks & Case Studies: Trevor Paglen, Venice Biennale (Canadian Pavilion)

• Week 8 – Reading 8: Starosielski, Nicole. “Thermocultures of Geological Media,” Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016: 293-309. Artworks & Case Studies: Unknown Fields, Balen & Cohen

• Week 9 – Reading 9: Crawford, Kate and Vladan Joler, Anatomy of an AI System (2018), https://anatomyof.ai Artworks & Case Studies: Kate Crawford / Vladan Joler: Anatomy of AI, Nooscope

• Week 10 – Reading 10: Bratton, Benjamin. The Terraforming, Strelka Press, 2019. Artworks & Case Studies: Various Projects

References 

1. Arboleda, Martin. Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism. London, UK: Verso, 2020. 
2. Bhowmik, Samir. “Lithium Landscapes: From Abstract Imaginaries to Deep Time and Multi-scalar Topologies.” Media Fields Journal, 2021. http://mediafieldsjournal.org/lithium-landscapes/
3. Bratton, Benjamin. The Terraforming, Strelka Press, 2019.
4. Crawford, Kate and Vladan Joler, Anatomy of an AI System (2018), https://anatomyof.ai
5. Cubitt, Sean. Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technology. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.
6. Cubitt, Sean. “Ecologies of Fabrication,” in Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment, eds. Nicole Starosielski and Janet Walker, New York and London, Routledge, 2016: 163-179.
7. Davis, Heather. “Blue, Bling: On Extractivism.” Afterall Journal 48. July 1, 2019. https://www.afterall.org/article/blue-bling-on-extractivism
8. Mezzadra, Sandro, and Brett Neilson. “On the multiple frontiers of extraction: excavating contemporary capitalism.” Cultural Studies 31, no. 2-3 (2017): 185-204. 
9. Önal, Gökçe. “Media Ecologies of the ‘Extractive View’: Image Operations of Material Exchange.” Footprint 14, no. 2# 27 (2020): 31-48.
10. Parikka, Jussi. Dust and Exhaustion: The Labor of Media Materialism: https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14790/5665
11. Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
12. Parikka, Jussi. “From Planetary Depth to Surface Measure, or How to Read the Future from an Image.” In Deep Mediations: Thinking Space in Cinema and Digital Cultures, edited by Karen Redrobe and Jeff Scheible, 286-303. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021. 
13. Riofrancos, Thea. “What Green Costs.” Logic 9, December 7, 2019. https://logicmag.io/nature/what-green-costs/
14. Riofrancos, Thea. “Extractivism and Extractivismo.” Global South Studies: A Collective Publication with the Global South. November 11, 2020.
15. Nicole Starosielski, Thermocultures of Geological Media, Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016: 293-309.
16. Wilson, Emma, and Florian Stammler. “Beyond extractivism and alternative cosmologies: Arctic communities and extractive industries in uncertain times.” The Extractive Industries and Society 3, no. 1 (2016): 1-8.
17. Yusoff, Kathryn. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. University of Minnesota Press, 2018.