Audiovisual Works

In her book, “Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene” (2016), Donna Haraway invites the readers to reconsider the ways they address trouble in urgent times, as well as the ways of living and relating to others under these conditions. Haraway’s proposition to stay with the trouble is based on facing, and not ignoring the difficulties of the present moment, acknowledging the complexities of a world that is damaged but not stagnant.

Taking a lead from Haraway’s ideas about rethinking our relationship to the world by considering its complexities and our differences, this short screening program forms a platform to get a glimpse of what she calls the “thick, ongoing, presence.” In a planet heavily affected by climate change, with human and non-human beings experiencing major changes in their living conditions, what stories can be narrated to describe the current state of the world? What cultural histories about nature and the environment are weaved and by whom?

Accompanying the themes of the conference, the audiovisual works present stories and histories of landscapes, places, and communities, speculations about the present and future, as well as instants of dystopia and hope. The program incorporates works, that through different approaches create a net of narratives about the environment, human practices and imaginaries. Through ideas about the climate and activism of the 1970s, contemporary critique of environmental politics and economics, as well as through science fiction and storytelling, the works reflect on conditions of crisis, on the human presence and absence. The textures, colors and sounds of nature and the physical space, complement the audiovisual experience, expanding the attention to non-human and spatial narratives.

The program of online screenings and audio works also responds to the networked conditions that were augmented due to the global pandemic of Covid-19. It poses questions about how cultural organizations acknowledge the network not just as a marketing channel or a communication device but also as a space for exhibiting art for a wider audience. Of course, immersing oneself in a computer screen is not the same as entering the physical space of a museum, a gallery, or a cinema. However, the pandemic made cultural organizations consider how to do things differently, using the technologies that they already have, in different ways; addressing the spaces that audiences already inhabit. Besides, the network is itself an ecosystem that has its own histories and multiplicity of agents that call for our attention.

If possible, we highly recommend that you view the video works in full-screen mode and listen to the audio works with headphones for the best experience.