Swamps and the New Imagination

Swamps and the New Imagination PDF Author: Nomeda Urbonas
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 3956794842
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contributors consider the vital urgency of human cohabitation with other forms of life, beginning a dialogue with possible futures. It is not easy to define a swamp, even in biology. The term is frequently used to characterize marshes, bogs, mires, wetlands, meadows, and other grey zones between land and water. In that sense, “swamp” is a metonym for a variety of transitional ecosystems and functions. This book invokes that concept as a tool to address the vital urgency of human cohabitation with other forms of life, placing the swamp at the crossroad of disciplines and practices. It is more than a biological ecosystem; it is a milieu of manifold sympoietic relationships, a locus of imagination, fostering the dialogue for possible futures. It is also a very particular modality—“an interface of Gaia”—offering a “face,” a certain physiognomy to faceless networks of relations, inviting us to engage in regimes of entanglement. The contributors to this volume expand on swampy notions, probing global and speculative art and architecture, intercalating philosophy and queer theory, and filtering these notions through the lens of posthumanist ecology, informed by the histories and theories of cybernetics, sociology, and the commons. Contributors Lorena Bello and Brent D. Ryan, Nikola Bojić, Chiara Bottici, Jonathan Jae-an Crisman and Newton Harrison, Glorianna Davenport and Gershon Dublon, T.J. Demos, Vittoria Di Palma, Jennifer Gabrys, Tinna Grétarsdóttir and Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson, Stefan Helmreich, Stefanie Hessler, Yuk Hui, Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Caroline A. Jones, Lars Bang Larsen, Bruno Latour, Gintautas Mažeikis, Astrida Neimanis, Kate Orff and Mariel Villeré, Andrew Pickering, Kristina Lee Podesva, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, María Puig de la Bellacasa and Dimitris Papadopoulos, Cristina Ricupero, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Kristupas Sabolius, Saskia Sassen, Caterina Scaramelli, Marco Scotini, Pelin Tan, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Angela Vettese

Swamps and the New Imagination

Swamps and the New Imagination PDF Author: Nomeda Urbonas
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 3956794842
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contributors consider the vital urgency of human cohabitation with other forms of life, beginning a dialogue with possible futures. It is not easy to define a swamp, even in biology. The term is frequently used to characterize marshes, bogs, mires, wetlands, meadows, and other grey zones between land and water. In that sense, “swamp” is a metonym for a variety of transitional ecosystems and functions. This book invokes that concept as a tool to address the vital urgency of human cohabitation with other forms of life, placing the swamp at the crossroad of disciplines and practices. It is more than a biological ecosystem; it is a milieu of manifold sympoietic relationships, a locus of imagination, fostering the dialogue for possible futures. It is also a very particular modality—“an interface of Gaia”—offering a “face,” a certain physiognomy to faceless networks of relations, inviting us to engage in regimes of entanglement. The contributors to this volume expand on swampy notions, probing global and speculative art and architecture, intercalating philosophy and queer theory, and filtering these notions through the lens of posthumanist ecology, informed by the histories and theories of cybernetics, sociology, and the commons. Contributors Lorena Bello and Brent D. Ryan, Nikola Bojić, Chiara Bottici, Jonathan Jae-an Crisman and Newton Harrison, Glorianna Davenport and Gershon Dublon, T.J. Demos, Vittoria Di Palma, Jennifer Gabrys, Tinna Grétarsdóttir and Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson, Stefan Helmreich, Stefanie Hessler, Yuk Hui, Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Caroline A. Jones, Lars Bang Larsen, Bruno Latour, Gintautas Mažeikis, Astrida Neimanis, Kate Orff and Mariel Villeré, Andrew Pickering, Kristina Lee Podesva, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, María Puig de la Bellacasa and Dimitris Papadopoulos, Cristina Ricupero, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Kristupas Sabolius, Saskia Sassen, Caterina Scaramelli, Marco Scotini, Pelin Tan, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Angela Vettese

Stirring the Mud

Stirring the Mud PDF Author: Barbara Hurd
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 082033152X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book Here

Book Description
In these nine evocative essays, Barbara Hurd explores the seductive allure of bogs, swamps, and wetlands. Hurd's forays into the land of carnivorous plants, swamp gas, and bog men provide fertile ground for rich thoughts about mythology, literature, Eastern spirituality, and human longing. In her observations of these muddy environments, she finds ample metaphor for human creativity, imagination, and fear.

Uki and the Swamp Spirit

Uki and the Swamp Spirit PDF Author: Kieran Larwood
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571342841
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
From bestselling author and winner of the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award, Uki and the Swamp Spirit is the fifth title set in the world of Podkin One-Ear. Uki had the sensation of a sickly green light, spreading out through the networks of water. Of tendrils connecting all the creatures of the marsh in a web . . . Linking itself so it could poison it all and destroy it. Uki and his friends have two more spirits to find and capture. After defeating Valkus, they make for Clarice, who is spreading disease through the swamps. Can Uki and his friends outwit him - all whilst they themselves are being chased by the Endwatch and Jori's clan of assassins? 'Storytelling perfection.' Sophie Anderson 'One of my sons very favourite authors.' Romesh Ranganathan 'Superb.' Max Porter 'It's jolly good fun ... expect sequels to breed like... well, rabbits.' SFX on The Legend of Podkin One-Ear

Australian Wetland Cultures

Australian Wetland Cultures PDF Author: John Charles Ryan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498599958
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Among the most productive ecosystems on earth, wetlands are also some of the most vulnerable. Australian Wetland Cultures argues for the cultural value of wetlands. Through a focus on swamps and their conservation, the volume makes a unique contribution to the growing interdisciplinary field of the environmental humanities. The authors investigate the crucial role of swamps in Australian society through the idea of wetland cultures. The broad historical and cultural range of the book spans pre-settlement indigenous Australian cultures, nineteenth-century European colonization, and contemporary Australian engagements with wetland habitats. The contributors situate the Australian emphasis in international cultural and ecological contexts. Case studies from Perth, Western Australia, provide practical examples of the conservation of wetlands as sites of interlinked natural and cultural heritage. The volume will appeal to readers with interests in anthropology, Australian studies, cultural studies, ecological science, environmental studies, and heritage protection.

Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas

Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas PDF Author: Nomeda Urbonas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Get Book Here

Book Description
The artists Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas are representing Lithuania at the 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. This book documents the artistic process of the Villa Lituania project, from its inception in 2006 through to the realization of the first performance event and pavilion exhibition in June 2007. It collects the archival material associated with the challenge of building a pigeon loft in Rome, and a visual and textual artists' diary. Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas have established an international reputation for their socially inter-active and inter-disciplinary practice that engages with the fabric of everyday life, public social space, and even political space, focusing on issues relevant to Lithuania. Generally, their practice is comprised of collective activities - workshops, lectures, debates, television programs, Internet chat-rooms, and public protest actions - that form around a specific social space and a topical issue. The art outcome is often the documentary recording, in a range of media, of the activity: or the collective production of an art work. They also collaborate with experts in different fields of cultural production such as architecture, design, and fashion to produce objects or products that cross disciplinary boundaries. Urbonas's work has evolved hand-in-hand with new media as they experiment with forms of 'access' that impacts upon public/audience reception of exhibition practices. Villa Lituania in Rome is a building associated with the Lithuanian nation: it was the Embassy of the first independent Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940) to Italy. The Embassy operated in the Villa from 1933-1940 but became a possession of the USSR after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. The keys to the property, which had been in safe keeping, were handed by Italian authorities to Soviet officials in step with the alliance of powers signaled by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939). Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1990-91 and the formation of the Republic of Lithuania the Villa has remained the property of Russia; operating as the Russian Consulate in Rome. It is considered the last occupied territory of Lithuania, and successive Lithuanian governments have lobbied internationally for its restitution. Now two of the Lithuania's leading artists are taking up its cause. Their approach - qua the anarchitects Acconci, Matta-Clark, and Smithson - belongs to the symbolical field and will unfold in Venice, Vilnius, and Rome in the coming months. More than a catalogue, the publication contains specially commissioned essays by four leading international writers, and a curatorial essay by the project commissioner. David Carrier writes a brief history of avian symbolism in art, Boris Kagarlitsky traces the collapse of the USSR and its impact on contemporary life in Russia, Viktor Misiano delivers a personal view of historical ties between the Italian Communist Party and its Soviet counterpart, and Julian Stallabrass deconstructs the deployment of Marxist critique within the field of contemporary art. Villa Lituania is a truly cross-disciplinary reader; of Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas' project; and the post-soviet condition from a contemporary Lithuanian perspective. Recent international projects by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas include: the Pro-test Lab Archive currently on show in "Monuments of our Discontent" a special-project for the Second Moscow Biennale; the archive was first displayed in "Fever Variations" at the Gwangju Biennale 2006. The archive developed from the Pro-test Lab project commissioned for the multi-venue touring exhibition Populism, 2005. Their Ruta Remake project (2003-05) evolved in exhibitions staged in Stuttgart, Oslo, Vienna, Berlin, and Vilnius. And Urbonas's multi-platform work Transaction was exhibited in Documenta XI and Manifesta 4 in 2002. The project Villa Lituania, principally funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, is being organized by the Contemporary Art Centre and lead by CAC curator Simon Rees Contributors David Carrier, Boris Kagarlitsky, Viktor Misiano, Julian Stallabrass

Swamp

Swamp PDF Author: Anthony Wilson
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780238916
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout history, swamps have been idealized and demonized, purged and protected. Today, they are simultaneously considered metaphorical places of evil, pestilence, and death, and treasured as diverse biological ecosystems teeming with life. Covering not only swamps and bogs but also marshes and wetlands, Swamp ventures into the cultural and ecological histories of these mysterious, mythologized, and misunderstood landscapes. Anthony Wilson takes readers into swamps across the globe, from the freshwater marshes of Botswana’s tremendous Okavango delta, to the notable swamps between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, to the peat bogs in Russia, the British Isles, and Scandinavia, which have been used as energy sources for centuries. It explores ideas and representations of wetlands across centuries, cultures, and continents, considering legend and folklore, mythology, literature, film, and natural and cultural history. As it plumbs the murky depths of swamps from the distant past to an uncertain future, Swamps provides an engaging, accessible, informative, and lavishly illustrated journey into these fascinating landscapes.

How to Make a Wetland

How to Make a Wetland PDF Author: Caterina Scaramelli
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503615413
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Get Book Here

Book Description
How to Make A Wetland tells the story of two Turkish coastal areas, both shaped by ecological change and political uncertainty. On the Black Sea coast and the shores of the Aegean, farmers, scientists, fishermen, and families grapple with livelihoods in transition, as their environment is bound up in national and international conservation projects. Bridges and drainage canals, apartment buildings and highways—as well as the birds, water buffalo, and various animals of the regions—all inform a moral ecology in the making. Drawing on six years of fieldwork in wetlands and deltas, Caterina Scaramelli offers an anthropological understanding of sweeping environmental and infrastructural change, and the moral claims made on livability and materiality in Turkey, and beyond. Beginning from a moral ecological position, she takes into account the notion that politics is not simply projected onto animals, plants, soil, water, sediments, rocks, and other non-human beings and materials. Rather, people make politics through them. With this book, she highlights the aspirations, moral relations, and care practices in constant play in contestations and alliances over environmental change.

Heat Waves in a Swamp

Heat Waves in a Swamp PDF Author: Charles Burchfield
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art, American
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comprehensive overview of the artist's work focuses on Burchfield's expressive watercolors and includes drawing from his 1917 sketchbook, camouflage designs from his tour in the army, and wallpaper designs from the 1920s.

Public Space? Lost and Found

Public Space? Lost and Found PDF Author: Gediminas Urbonas
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0998117005
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Reflections on the rapidly changing formulations of public space in the age of digital media, vast ecological crises, and civic uprisings. “Public space” is a potent and contentious topic among artists, architects, and cultural producers. Public Space? Lost and Found considers the role of aesthetic practices within the construction, identification, and critique of shared territories, and how artists or architects—the “antennae of the race”—can heighten our awareness of rapidly changing formulations of public space in the age of digital media, vast ecological crises, and civic uprisings. Public Space? Lost and Found combines significant recent projects in art and architecture with writings by historians and theorists. Contributors investigate strategies for responding to underrepresented communities and areas of conflict through the work of Marjetica Potrč in Johannesburg and Teddy Cruz on the Mexico-U.S. border, among others. They explore our collective stakes in ecological catastrophe through artistic research such as atelier d'architecture autogérée's hubs for community action and recycling in Colombes, France, and Brian Holmes's theoretical investigation of new forms of aesthetic perception in the age of the Anthropocene. Inspired by artist and MIT professor Antoni Muntadas' early coining of the term “media landscape,” contributors also look ahead, casting a critical eye on the fraught impact of digital media and the internet on public space. This book is the first in a new series of volumes produced by the MIT School of Architecture and Planning's Program in Art, Culture and Technology. Contributors atelier d'architecture autogérée, Dennis Adams, Bik Van Der Pol, Adrian Blackwell, Ina Blom, Christoph Brunner with Gerald Raunig, Néstor García Canclini, Colby Chamberlain, Beatriz Colomina, Teddy Cruz with Fonna Forman, Jodi Dean, Juan Herreros, Brian Holmes, Andrés Jaque, Caroline Jones, Coryn Kempster with Julia Jamrozik, György Kepes, Rikke Luther, Matthew Mazzotta, Metahaven, Timothy Morton, Antoni Muntadas, Otto Piene, Marjetica Potrč, Nader Tehrani, Troy Therrien, Gedminas and Nomeda Urbonas, Angela Vettese, Mariel Villeré, Mark Wigley, Krzysztof Wodiczko With section openings from Ana María León, T. J. Demos, Doris Sommer, and Catherine D'Ignazio

Roots of the Swamp Thing

Roots of the Swamp Thing PDF Author: Len Wein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book Here

Book Description