Critical Times. Part I: Multiple Matter
Workshop with Contributions by T. J. Demos, Sandra Jasper, Kiran Pereira & David Weber-Krebs
Time has become an increasingly critical factor and concept in the wake of Anthropocene debates. With the workshop »Critical Times. Part I: Multiple Matter«, which took place at »Matters of Activity« on November 17 and 18, the organizers asked, what times and temporalities shape the pressing crises of the present but also what temporalities allow for a critical response to a homogenizing crisis of such a present. The focus of the workshop resided in the conjunctions between speculative practices and narratives, other-than-scientific modes of sense-making as well as enchanting, violent, or haunting counter-/temporalities unfolding through eco-artistic practices. Around twenty-five multidisciplinary workshop participants engaged in discussions together with our invited guests — T.J. Demos, Sandra Jasper, Kiran Pereira and David Weber-Krebs. The workshop facilitated experimental situations in order to take time and practice together and hosted unconventional, playful and non-hierarchical formats, which aimed to undermine classic forms of representation and knowledge consumption.
»Critical Times« was organized by Christoph Brunner (Erasmus School of Philosophy, Rotterdam University), Rahel Kesselring, Claudia Mareis and Robert Stock (MoA / Cultural History and Theory, HU) supported by Jann Mausen (Cultural History and Theory, HU).
A second workshop part will take place in 2024 at Rotterdam University, from April 11 to 13.
Bios
T. J. Demos is an writer on contemporary art, global politics, and ecology. He is Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture, at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Founder and Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. He writes widely on the intersection of contemporary art, global politics, and ecology, and his essays have appeared in magazines, journals, and catalogues worldwide. His published work centers broadly on the conjunction of art and politics, examining the ability of artistic practice to invent innovative and experimental strategies that challenge dominant social, political, and economic conventions.
Sandra Jasper is Assistant Professor for Geography of Gender in Human-Environment-Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Deputy Director of the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Her research interests are urban nature, soundscapes, and feminist theory. She is co-editor of The Botanical City (jovis, 2020) and co-author and producer of the documentary film Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin (UK/GER, 72min). She is currently writing a monograph about the wastelands of West Berlin for which she received a Graham Foundation Award. Her new collaborative research project "Re-Scaling Global Health. Human Health and Multispecies Cohabitation on an Urban Planet" (2023-2026), investigates the multiple links between health, biodiversity, and pollution in urban spaces.
Kiran Pereira is a PhD Candidate at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. Her research focuses on risks and opportunities of sand for global sustainability. She is the author of the book »Sand Stories: Surprising Truths about the Global Sand Crisis and the Quest for Sustainable Solutions« and the Founder of SandStories.org. Her work has previously been featured in the award-winning documentary Sand Wars and media such as The Economist, BBC Radio5, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, ZDF Magazin Royale, CNBC digital among others.
David Weber-Krebs is an artist and a researcher based in Brussels and Ghent. He studied at the University of Fribourg (CH) and the Amsterdam School of the Arts. David Weber-Krebs explores various contexts as a basis for an experimental process, which questions the traditional relationship between the work of art and its public. David is the curator of the series of performative conferences On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors (with Jeroen Peeters) in which they address this question: how are the arts (its questions, forms, research and discourses) challenged by climate change? He is affiliated as a doctoral artistic researcher to KASK & Conservatory / School of Arts.
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