GHOST MINES — Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures

»GHOST MINES — Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures« invites participants to explore the haunting legacy of abandoned mines and extractive landscapes, questioning how these sites can inform our understanding of resource-driven histories and speculative futures. The research studio delves into the concept of »ghost mines« — both as literal sites of abandonment and metaphorical markers of environmental trauma and contested futures. Through an interdisciplinary lens that draws from environmental sciences, media theory, and science and technology studies, participants will investigate how the remnants of mining reflect cultural memory, embody political struggles, and reveal global economic transformations. Topics will include the spectral presence of labor and exploitation, the transformation of materials into commodities, and the capacity of scarred environments to inspire new narratives of resilience, reclamation, and sustainability.

The research studio is open to early-career researchers and advanced practitioners whose (research) practice revolves around post-extractive landscapes, digital ecologies, material politics and futures. The program will cover lectures, screenings, and workshops on digital sensing technologies, biogeochemical analysis and artistic data practices, as well as two days of field trips to the Ore Mountains and Lusatia—Germany’s most significant (post-)mining regions. It will result in a common online publication bringing together audiovisual and textual contributions created throughout the week.

For more background on the studio, please find the full call here: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/slk/germanistik/digitalcultures/forschung/research-studio-ghost-mines-sensing-pasts-casting-futures

To participate in the research studio, please send us your CV, portfolio (if applicable) and a short motivation letter (one page) elaborating on your background, research interests and connection to the theme of GHOST MINES—Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures. Documents should be submitted in one PDF file (5 MB max) no later than 31.01.2025 to michaela.buesse [​at​] tu-dresden.de.


GHOST MINES – Sensing Pasts/Casting Futures is run by the Chair of Digital Cultures.
Organizers: Michaela Büsse, Kristiane Fehrs, Özgün Eylül Iscen, Orit Halpern