ABSTRACT
Art and design have become platforms for discussing the long-term implications of technology and modernity, most recently in relation to ecological crisis and the Anthropocene. While artists, designers and curators seek to raise awareness of the Anthropocene, it is important to remain critical of the narratives these practitioners develop. This paper provides a brief critique of how these issues are being addressed in the cultural sphere, suggesting that works of critical, conceptual and speculative design may be best suited to addressing the Anthropocene as they foster critical thinking about how we relate to technology and science, how we organize ourselves politically and socially, and how we define ourselves in the broader ecological assemblage. Artists and designers discussed include Marina Zurkow, Una Chaudhuri, Oliver Kellhammer, Fritz Ertl and Sarah Rothberg; Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby; and Jae Rhim Lee.
Supplemental Material
- Ian Sample, "Anthropocene: Is this the new epoch of humans?" The Guardian, 16 October 2014.Google Scholar
- Joseph Stromberg, "What Is the Anthropocene and Are We in It?" Smithsonian Magazine, January 2013.Google Scholar
- Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010) p. 2.Google Scholar
- Joanna Zylinska, Minimal Ethics for the Anthropocene (Michigan: Open Humanities Press, 2014) pp. 19, 125.Google Scholar
- Zylinska {4} p. 19.Google Scholar
- Zylinska {4} pp. 14, 108.Google Scholar
- Zylinska {4} p. 20.Google Scholar
- Rory Rowan, "Art, The Anthropocene and the iPhone 3G," GeoCritique, 31 May 2014.Google Scholar
- "Adrián Villar Rojas: Today We Reboot the Planet," <www.serpentinegalleries.org>; "Yes Naturally," <www.gemeentemuseum.nl>.Google Scholar
- Morton {3} p. 16.Google Scholar
- Morton {3}.Google Scholar
- Jae Rhim Lee, "My Mushroom Burial Suit," TED Global, July 2011.Google Scholar
- Lee {12}.Google Scholar
- Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013) p. 43.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {14}.Google Scholar
- Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, "Critical Design FAQ," 2007.Google Scholar
- Marina Zurkow, Una Chaudhuri, Oliver Kellhammer, Fritz Ertl and Sarah Rothberg, "Dear Climate," <www.dearclimate.net>.Google Scholar
- Zurkow {17}.Google Scholar
- Zylinska {4} pp. 129--130.Google Scholar
- Rowan {8}.Google Scholar
- Benjamin Bratton, "Some Trace Effects of the Post-Anthropocene: On Accelerationist Geopolitical Aesthetics," E-Flux Journal, #46, June 2013.Google Scholar
- "Dunne & Raby," Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, <www.dunneandraby.co.uk>.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {22}.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {22}.Google Scholar
- Bratton {21}.Google Scholar
- Bratton {21}.Google Scholar
- Anthony Dunne, "Radical New Communities," Royal College of Art Sustain Talks 2013--14, <http://sustain.rca.ac.uk>.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {22}.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {22}.Google Scholar
- Dunne and Raby {22}.Google Scholar
- Jae Rhim Lee, "Infinity Burial Project," <http://infinityburialproject.com>.Google Scholar
- Joshua E. Keating, "The 10 TED Talks They Should Have Censored," Foreign Policy, 17 May 2012.Google Scholar
- Natalie Jeremijenjko, "Farmacy," <http://environmentalhealthclinic.net>.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Ethics, ecology, and the future: art and design face the anthropocene
Recommendations
Moral luck and computer ethics: Gauguin in cyberspace
I argue that the problem of `moral luck' is an unjustly neglected topic within Computer Ethics. This is unfortunate given that the very nature of computer technology, its `logical malleability', leads to ever greater levels of complexity, unreliability ...
From ethics washing to ethics bashing: a view on tech ethics from within moral philosophy
FAT* '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and TransparencyThe word 'ethics' is under siege in technology policy circles. Weaponized in support of deregulation, self-regulation or handsoff governance, "ethics" is increasingly identified with technology companies' self-regulatory efforts and with shallow ...
Flourishing Ethics
This essay describes a new ethical theory that has begun to coalesce from the works of several scholars in the international computer ethics community. I call the new theory Flourishing Ethics' because of its Aristotelian roots, though it also includes ...
Comments