We are seeking expressions of interest from writers, artists, and others interested in participating in a workshop exploring the vocabulary of ecology. We will be developing short texts ‘dedefining’ some words, taking Georges Bataille’s Critical Dictionary as our starting point. We will set words off on irreverent adventures and explore subversive approaches to lexicons, dictionaries, taxonomies, and glossaries.
We will be developing discursive, de-definitions of terms which might include: frontier, carbon, energy, garbology, water, retreat, nonhuman, mycelium, affect, entanglement, symbiosis, mutualism, skill, boundary, interface, proximity, instrument, technology, spider, spit, universe, weave, mess, material, remote, algae, dust, dough, space, mouth, museum, rock, taxonomy, toxicity. Other terms for de-definition will emerge in the workshop.
We will aim to take iconoclastic, oblique, and awry approaches to the language of ecology and climate in order to move past impasses, hackneyed ideas, and vacant terminology. Polyphonic associations of ideas, objects, fragments of thoughts, unexpected juxtapositions, might displace exhausted and impotent ways of thinking about ecology and climate. We will be aiming to get beyond ingrained binaries and systems of knowledge and understanding to an anti-taxonomic vision, chiselling at words as a sculptor works with stone, or casting, caressing and sounding words.
Workshop Leader:
Tracey Warr is a writer who has worked with installed text and published books and essays on contemporary art. Her novels are published by Impress Books. Her recent future fiction writing is published by Meanda Books. She recently edited Remote Performances in Nature and Architecture published by Routledge. She is an artist in the Frontiers in Retreat project led by HIAP.
https://traceywarrwriting.com https://meanda.net http://www.zooetics.net
Workshop Contributors:
Jenni Nurmenniemi is a curator with HIAP – Helsinki International Artists Programme, Finland, and the curator of Frontiers in Retreat project (2013–2018). Recent curatorial projects include ‘Excavations’ (2015), ‘Deep Time Séance I & II’ (2015), Wolf Von Kries: ‘Weaving around the Void’ (2016), Lene Baadsvig Ørmen: ‘Soliloquy’ (2016), and ‘Edge Effects: Active Earth’ (2017, upcoming). In her practice she combines Critical theory, queer and intersectional feminism, and a focus on ecosystemic entanglements. Currently she lives and works across Helsinki, Seoul and New York.
Jussi Parikka is a new media theorist and Professor in Technological Culture and Aesthetics at Winchester School of Art, UK. He also teaches at Turku University of Art, Finland. His books include A Geology of Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), Insect Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), Digital Contagions (Peter Lang, 2007).
https://jussiparikka.net
Antti Salminen is a philosopher, poet, fiction writer and literary critic and Associate Professor at University of Tampere. His publications include Future University, with Juha Suoranta and Tere Vaden (Cooperative Edge of the Bold, 2010) and Energy and Experience with Tere Vaden (so & so books, 2013).
Selected texts from the workshop will be included in a Frontiers in Retreat book to be published in 2018.
There will be a maximum of 12 participants in the workshop. You must be able to participate fully on both days. Please email your expression of interest consisting of a one paragraph biography and another paragraph on why you are interested in participating to: traceykwarr [at] gmail.com and jenni [at] hiap.fi by 31 May.
Lunch on both days and dinner on the first day will be provided by HIAP. The accommodation and travel costs to/from Helsinki are at participants’ own cost. HIAP can support the travel costs of 1–2 workshop participants from outside of Helsinki (within Finland), please e-mail jenni [at] hiap.fi for more information.
HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme /
Frontiers in Retreat project (2013–18)
HIAP Gallery Augusta & Project Space Suomenlinna
Helsinki Sat 8 – Sun 9 July 2017, 10 am–6 pm
Free