08.09 -13.10.20
Digital platforms
DARK ECOLOGY AND HYPEROBJECTS
A series of encounters in which we delve into the study of Timothy Morton's philosophical ideas, which bring together a variety of topics, including ontology, textual criticism, ecology, and even economic theory. I believe that this thinker proposes methods of thought that are valuable for thinking about art in relation to other disciplines, by proposing novel terms, questions and ideas that are in dialogue with the contemporary world of the Anthropocene, in which questions about science, technology and the role of art are fundamental for imagining a living future. Focusing on a particular thinker allows us to build a genealogy of the ideas he or she formulates, while at the same time approaching other imaginaries from a perspective that intertwines and contextualizes them.
The human species, in its kaleidoscopic variety, finds itself in an unprecedented historical moment. Every day the vision with which we observe the reality we inhabit sharpens, and we can perceive more clearly the causal framework of which we are inevitably components: we know ourselves to be part, every day more clearly, of a global system or structure that in one way or another affects the planet we inhabit, and which is directly what keeps us alive. We have seen ourselves from space, a blue sphere floating in the void. We have seen the diffuse past from which emerges a cosmic web of gas, gravity and darkness that swirls into orbs of fire or rock, and billions of arid years in which suddenly from the ebullient water come liquid masses that replicate themselves. And consequently, in what are only moments for the universal scale, flesh and eyes and gray matter evolve, until we find ourselves, dazzled, in the present: primates and computers and suddenly that enormous event that is climate change. We are a global-scale event that, in magnitudes far greater than those of the individual, is transforming the face of the planet. We are a catastrophe - we are threatening the livelihoods of the creatures that inhabit the ecosystems, including ourselves. And this requires us to think about it. It is imperative that we devise ways of thinking about this present, that we imagine what the future that emerges from this moment might look like, and that we use our creativity to imagine how we might design this future. This is no easy task. But at the same time, it is an unavoidable task, because the future rushes upon us, without hesitation, and we have no choice but to manage the pain and the rupture that comes with it. To this end, during the last months of 2020, I proposed the study group "Dark Ecology", based on the book of the same name by the British thinker Timothy Morton, within the framework of Suratómica's "Non-Existent Frontiers" cycle. In this group we analyzed and talked about this text, seeking to understand its central ideas and think about its proposals.
Participants
Ana Maytik Avirama
Diego Perez
Edison Aldana Acevedo
Rafael Duarte-Uriza
Sebastian Garciaherreros Carrera
Proposed by:
Simón Ortega
II Cycle of Creation Groups
Suratómica Network
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