An Opening to Imagine the Present: A Conversation with Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian

An Opening to Imagine the Present: A Conversation with Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian

Planetary changes are happening, every single one of them, from the reduction of the albedo effect in the Arctic (loss of ice-reflectivity) to deluges and heat spells that are increasingly “unprecedented.” These events are occurring somewhere, affecting some person, now. And now, again. One way to comprehend the particular punctuations of the Anthropocene is to magnify these intimacies of event, both theoretically and narratively. As we have been continuing to collect essays and artworks for the Lexicon, I have begun to see it as a pointillist project, little pinholes that light up the Anthropocene from the inside.

Adapting the Umwelt: Art Orienté objet

Adapting the Umwelt: Art Orienté objet

Existence itself is a permanent transformation, a constantly-evolving system. You speak of changes made to the body, but I think grief, for example, shakes up identity much more. My aim is not so much a transformation of my essence, as the wish to respond to an eternal frustration: to finally feel the animal otherness in myself, but also to stop thinking from a purely anthropocentric point of view.

Considering Coexistence: An Interview with Jenni Nurmenniemi

Considering Coexistence: An Interview with Jenni Nurmenniemi

It’s a lot about hosting. It’s a lot about listening and being super sensitive to nuances. We somehow set certain loose parameters, follow what emerges, and then try to tease out meanings. Meanings in plural because I don’t feel it’s possible to construct a coherent or singular narrative around art and ecology.

Nonhuman Solidarities: Katherine Behar and Eben Kirksey Discuss High Hopes (Deux)

Nonhuman Solidarities: Katherine Behar and Eben Kirksey Discuss High Hopes (Deux)

On Roomba list serves, you find people talking about just wanting to watch their first Roomba clean, like proud mamas and papas. Even pets want to play with Roombas. They’re very endearing devices. Yet these transpecies relationships are complicated because we’re mirroring how we interact with humans. We work for them and they work for us, and part of that work involves making ourselves care–for–able, and learning to expect certain kinds of care in return.