Anthropocene Resonance: Interdisciplinary Approaches

February 8, 2019. Presented by CU Art Museum and the Nature, Environment, Science, Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts, this symposium complements events and exhibitions across the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018-2019 around the theme Documenting Change: Our Climate. Our present geologic era, the Anthropocene, has already mobilized transversal and hybridized research approaches by calling attention to the patchy assemblages of our environmental encounters. This symposium celebrates and encourages disciplinary cross-pollination.

At CU Art Museum:

10:30 a.m. Opening Remarks

Ìý10:45 a.m.—12:15 p.m. Panel: Embodied Approaches to Climate

  • Erin Leckey — Lens on Climate Change: Engaging Diverse Secondary Students in Climate Science through Filmmaking
  • ÌýLisa Barlow: Teaching the Science of Climate Change: Reflections and Strategies
  • Beth Osnes — Drawdown Act Up
  • Julia Klema — Creative Witnessing: Deciphering Environment and Self through Artistic Process

Ìý12:15—1:30 p.m. Lunch Break (lunch on own)

Ìý1:30—3:00 p.m. Panel: Speculative Environmental Futures

  • Laura Devendorf — Designing Technologies to FrustrateÌý
  • Madison Myers — Reworking and Making Kin in Jeff VanderMeer’s ‘Annihilation’
  • Roberta Restaino — Recoding Natural History
  • Minso Kim — Aura of Daylight

Ìý3:00—3:15 p.m. Coffee Break

Ìý3:15—4:45 p.m. Panel: Augmenting Environmental Discourse

  • Joanne Marras Tate, Warren Cook, Emily Loker: Suck the Anthropocene: Plastic Straws, Neoliberal Ideology and Environmental Action
  • Ashley Whipple & Maya Livio — Interdisciplinary Environmental Research: Lessons from the Field
  • Kelsey Simpkins: Art, the Arctic, and the Anthropocene: Effects of Contemporary Art on the Rights, Resources, and Resiliency of Arctic communities
  • Josh Westerman: After Denial: Right Wing Climate Realism and Its Implications

Ìý4:45—6:00 p.m. Dinner Break (dinner on own)

ÌýAt CASE Building Auditorium:

6:00—-7:30 p.m.

Keynote: William L. Fox, Director, Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada.

From the Anthropocene to the Anthroposcenic: Artists have responded to the global changes of the Anthropocene since the 1700s, their artworks evolving from cataloguing the world in painting and photography to interventions through performance and installation meant to counter existential ecological threats. The balance between aesthetics and functionality is key to the success and longevity ofÌý works across all these categories, from images in National Geographic to Land Art projects by Michael Heizer and Patricia Johanson.

The Center for Art + Environment is an internationally recognized research center that supports the practice, study, and awareness of creative interactions between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments. Housed at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Center is home to a focused research library with archive collections from over 1,000 artists and organizations working on all seven continents.

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Documenting Change exhibitions and programming are generously supported by CU Boulder's Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future., NEST (Nature, Environment, Science & Technology) Studio for the Arts, The Center for Western Civilization, Thought and Policy, CU Boulder Student Arts and Cultural Enrichment fees, and CU Art Museum members.