The Anthropocene and the Aesthetics of Planetary Abstraction
ISSN
9788822268716
Type
book section
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Andreas Metzner-szigeth
Abstract
The introduction to the public of the notion of the Anthropocene in the year 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and ecologist Eugene Stormer represented the culmination of a vast and diverse body of scientific research on the Earth system. The planetary change associated with the notion of the Anthropocene was conceived as the combination of key phenomena affecting the Earth, such as the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and alteration of biogeochemical cycles; deforestation and mass extinction events; human exploitation of natural resources and anthropogenic climate change. The notion of the Anthropocene presupposed since its initial formulations the possibility to represent planetary anthropogenic environmental change through methods of data collection, and through imaging techniques of satellite reconnaissance, remote sensing and data mining, computer simulations and modeling. The emergence of the Anthropocene paradigm has prompted researchers working within the earth system sciences, climatology, geology, and within the international scientific bodies to evolve and improve existing forms of visual communication and public outreach initiatives. The contemporary art world has reacted quickly to the Anthropocene thesis and has responded to the popularization of climate and stratigraphic visualizations by establishing partnerships with scientific institutions and interrogating this concept through several important art projects and a series of ambitious exhibits that have tested further the sensory and aesthetic dimension of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene has thus become the object of a productive visual exploration as well as of multiple, and often competing, images and narratives of global change and future socio-ecological scenarios. The reception of the Anthropocene paradigm by visual artists, art institutions, natural history museums, design studios and a variety of other cultural and aesthetic practices has generated–and is continuing to produce–a large and diverse corpus of arts-based and research-oriented visualizations of climate change. In the proposed chapter, the author will introduce the subject of geo-scientific Anthropocene visualizations, and will define a working corpus of the most relevant artistic projects that have expanded or called into question the socio-ecological visualizations originating in the geo-sciences. In particular, the essay will focus on recent works by American painter Diane Burko (Seeing Climate Change, 2021) and by Japanese experimental audio-visual artist Ryoji Ikeda (Data-Verse, 2019). While creatively incorporating the technological and data-driven aesthetics of climate change science, these artists ask us also to reflect on how the ubiquitousness and pervasiveness of climate data and satellite imagery are effectively re-configuring the way we see the planet and the environmental crises today.
Language
English
Keywords
contemporary art
climate visualizations
aesthetics
anthropocene
climate modeling
Refereed
Yes
Book title
On the Interplay of Images Imaginaries and Imagination in Science Communication
Publisher
Olschki
Publisher place
Florence
Subject(s)
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
The_Anthropocene_and_the_Aesthetics_of_P.pdf
Size
305.68 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ee92c6550d50d9b626b2e3c130643a64