visualcultureconference2019-blog - Tumblr blog

[visualcultureconference2019-blog]

Day 3: March 21

Landfill as Landscape (Adam Westman)

In my presentation I will investigate how the visual montages in Jennifer Scapettone book The Republic of Exit 46 allows us to think the on going ecological disaster in relation to the landfill. And how they make visible humans relationship to environment and consumption. Scapettones montages incorporates both photographic imagery and textual fragments.  I will understand the book in the context of site-specific art and argue that it allows for different understanding of the environment. Specifically I will focus on the representation of the relationship between humans to landscape and environment.  By way of a semiotic method I will show how Scapettone book by incorporating both text and visual elements in her montages allows for a new and different relation to the environment. I will connect my methodological findings to a Marxist theory of value to further shed light on the relation of the visual montages and their connection to questions concerning human relationship to the environment.  The republic of exit 46 is a site specific book which through the means of poetry, theatre, visual montage and found source texts investigates and approaches the landfill as a site for archaeology.

Pushing the boundaries of nature and art: A semiotic analysis of Olafur Eliasson’s installations based on Yuri Lotman’s theories (Cecilia Muszta)

The concept of nature was featured throughout the history of art both in Europe and outside of it. After the renaissance however nature started to become represented not as a symbolic space, but something worthy of depiction without any added symbolic value. This created an image of nature which is seemingly independent of human culture, an image which is problematic. In this conference I am going to talk about the installations of Olafur Eliasson which problematize the image introduced above, such as Riverbed or Lava Floor. In these works, the artist pushes the boundaries between art, institution and nature trough featuring natural materials and constructed landscapes in environments where these appear anachronistic. Eliasson does invoke aesthetic qualities attached to the image of nature such as the serene or sublime, yet the institutional environment keeps disorienting the visitor, making them aware of the constructed nature of these environments. In a sense, the question what nature is being asked by mixing radically different environments. Furthermore, I am going to provide a semiotic analysis of the problems highlighted above. Using the theories of Yuri Lotman I aim to connect the concepts of nature and art world to Lotman’s “semiosphere” idea and liken Eliasson’s artistic work to the philosopher’s notion of boundary concept.

The New Landscape: Music stage constructions on water surfaces (Laine Medniece)

Music festivals and events are entering the immense rivalry phase when differentiation is necessary in order to attract more visitors. Unlike festivals in cities and public spaces, events taking place in deserts, forest, by the beach or abandoned castle ruins, besides artist line-up, include a remarkable aesthetical experience due to the unusual landscape. These particular and unique locations also include events, where the stage is constructed on a lake, particularly to directly experience the specifically chosen landscape.

This conference paper explores the correlation between the stage, landscape and music, and how these aspects are being used in order to signify the landscape and aesthetics. It will be argued how the specific location of the stage on water, the placing of an audience and the visuals of the stage itself can affect the perception of a landscape, as well as how the stage is being perceived as an artificial object within a landscape. Additionally, music emphasizes the experience of a landscape and vice versa, thus creating a constant correlation between the three figures – the stage, landscape and music, - where the slightest change in one aspect can affect the importance of another.

I will refer to music events in the Baltic States and Austria, within techno, ambient and classical music genres, which will be explored based on the ideas within environmental aesthetics.

 Architecture in Cinema: The history of constructing an environment (Christopher Fletcher Sanderjoo)

The role of studio and set designs have always played an important role in cinema. From enhancing the story through architectural choices, to advancing the technologies used within filmmaking. Early works of set and studio designs have mainly been lost to history, within film studies, as to who created them and the thought processes behind these works. The focus points of this paper will handle how studios and sets are built and portrayed to replicate, create and control the environment but also the narrative structures behind architectural choices in cinema. I will look at these focus points mainly through a historical perspective where most of this paper will be about the early history. The films that I will mainly talk about will be The cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and In Bruges (2008). I will go about this through qualitative research and will delve into trends and thought processes to give us a greater insight in the works of sets and studio designs.

 The fetishisation of the Arctic ice caps in the age of the Anthropocene (Linnéa Lindgren Havsfjord)

The Arctic territory was of interest already in the Middle Ages: its harsh climate made it unwelcoming territory until European explorers in the early nineteenth century saw its ice caps as a symbol of the Arctic’s awesome natural power, to be tamed and colonised. Historically, visual representations of the Arctic and its glaciers have been renegotiated from Caspar David Friedrich’s romantic depiction ‘Sea of Ice’ (1823-1824) to Olafur Eliasson’s distressing ‘Ice Watch’ (2014-). This renegotiation reveals an interesting shift in the perception of glaciers, from a powerful unconquered natural space to victim of manmade forces. However, taking their perspective from ‘the anthropocene’, contemporary visual depictions of the Arctic ice caps are in danger of fetishising our current ecological crisis, and without stepping outside of the hegemonic Western perspective. My presentation will problematise the theoretical approach of the anthropocene by looking at this tendency to fetishise the arctic glaciers and ice caps. I will ask whether visual representations of the ice caps via the anthropocentric lens amount to a form of fetishising our own destruction?

  How do Environmental Institutions in South Florida Create Different Representations of Our  Oceans? An Interpretation of Conservation Science and Social Community Engagement  (Marisol Diaz Turkowsky)

The description of our marine world is not only cultural, but also based on social and political influence from the scientific experts and environmental institutions supervising and framing appropriate marine conservation conduct.

This master thesis investigates the common and unique roles that each institution portrays in the making of today’s oceans and science regulations for the general public. South Floridians are known to be active participants in coastal and marine activities, commonly organized by environmental organizations, private research laboratories and federal agencies. In addition, local zoos and aquariums have also attracted tourists and locals to portray conservation issues and goals regarding Florida’s waters.

In this study, nine different environmental institutions in Florida were interviewed regarding their roles as educational portals of conservation and outreach communicators. The results show that the institutions’ political agenda and social relationships with their target public were reflected differently on their conservation motives and values. Varying animal species were also used and displayed based on what messages these institutions wanted to communicate. This study argues that to understand where the vision of ocean conservation is going, we need to understand how environmental institutions connect humans to the making of their ocean ecologies.

 Before Terraforming? The aesthetics and ethics of terraforming landscape on the Ascension Island  (Chenglan Jin)

Ascension Island is located in the South Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between South America and Africa. Scientists from the 19th century had built the planet's first artificial ecosystem here by planting the non-native tree to this volcanic/Mars-like island also known as the Green Mountain.

While much has been written about this island's scientific value on changing the island's soil, rainfall and increasing its plant diversity, less has been said about how this human- made landscape critiques our perspective of terraforming through aesthetics and ethics.

In this paper, I plan to draw upon some Phenomenology theory and Postcolonial theory, combining them with the field of aesthetics and ethics in order to explore the questions of How does the experience like when are we appreciating the terraforming landscape aesthetically? How does it re-shape our view of the relationship between landscape (on the surface level) and human activity?

It will be argued that different approaches such as semiotic and phenomenology will vary our interpretation of the artificial and natural that comes from the terraforming landscape. Also, it will be further analysed that terraforming landscape is a representation of the Anthropocentrism in which human took away the islands' ability to define its original landscape.

Through this biocentrism point of view, Ascension Island invites us to reinterpret our perception with the past (terraforming earth) and the future (terraforming Mars).

Ecologies of Masculinity and Melancholia in the Natural Landscapes of Video Games (Emma Shachat)

During the Romanticism movement of the 19th century, natural landscapes were conceptualised as the domain of the modern man. By claiming nature as a realm of masculine identity, one could reclaim a masculinity that was supposedly lost to Industrialisation. Today, a similar process of constructing masculinity through nature takes root in the virtual realm, specifically in video games that emphasise the exploration of their digitally-rendered, “natural” environments. These multiplayer virtual spaces are sought out for a sense of community and self-actualisation, spaces where new lands can be discovered and new identities created. The expansive, mystical landscapes of community-oriented fantasy games such as World of Warcraft serve as spaces where many players hope to assert--and mourn--a “lost” masculine identity. While these online community spaces often become dominated by toxic masculinity and misogyny, such virtual microclimates can also cultivate communities in which masculine-melancholia can be collectively expressed.

In this paper, I will be looking at images of the landscapes of these virtual worlds as well as analysing how users relate to these landscapes and to each other. By applying Judith Butler’s notion of “melancholy gender” as a theoretical framework and by looking at primary sources from the gaming world, I will attempt to discuss and problematise the relationship between contemporary masculinities, melancholia, and virtual natural landscapes.

[visualcultureconference2019-blog]

Day 2: March 20

Conservation and surveillance: the protection through images (Laura Löbl López)

Since the 20th century, the interest in wildlife conservation started to arise. Overexploitation and destruction of the environment became noticeable for the masses. To protect those landcapes for the following generations, surveillance systems were installed to control both nature and humans.

This paper explores the eco-aesthetics brought to us after the established net of surveillance systems, brought together to shield endangered species. The problem of this field begins when the conservationism movement is seen throughout animals’ visuality. It will further be argued that the division of humans and animals becomes blurry, as animals turn anthropomorphic as they are watched. It also shows the switch of intent of this technology, watching only animals to humans again in protected spaces such as national parks or reservoirs.

Recordings of movement, digitalization and propaganda are of special interest as they are captured for the sole purpose of protecting and informing globally. The focus will be on images from protected parks and environmentally-aware institutions in Europe.

The wide range of photographs will be reduced to a smaller fraction of images, accessible digitally and publically. To summarize, the argument will involve how culture, society and mass media interacts with the visuality of natural sciences.

Reclaiming the Autonomy: A Contemporary shift of Gazing at Animals in the Eastern Asian Urban Context  (Yuying Zhao) 

While the ecological aesthetics of the East Asian landscape have been constructed for hundreds of years through literature and paintings, how human gaze at animals in the same cultural context remains blurred and controversial. This paper will examine a contemporary reflection of the visual arts regarding animals emerging from this region, which rebels against the powerful zoomorphic and colonial perspectives of the past. I begin with a short review of traditional ideologies regarding the human-animal relationship, and how these ideas are intertwined with the capitalism since the 18th century. Then I introduce several artworks which depict animals in today’s urban environment and conduct a detailed analysis of the interdisciplinary art project Institute of Critical Zoologists (since 2007) from Singapore and the independent film An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) from China. Through combining environmental aesthetics with Judith Butler's theory of precarious life, I will claim that this deliberation of animal’s autonomy rooted in the urban everyday life is not only crucial to start a conversation between our own time’s conditions with ancient local ecologic aesthetics as Taoism, but also to shape a more nutritious human-animal, and even human-human relationship.

The question of the dog - Neither human nor animal (Roxana Kaboli)

What lies in between the animal and the human? By using visual examples from the film The Lobster (2015) by Yorgos Lanthimos and the monument statue of Balto the dog in New York City, this paper will examine the grey zone of the animal/human dichotomy with focus on the domesticated pet, more specifically, the dog and what we can learn about our being in this process. The pet dog in modern societies has been removed from their natural habitats and being integrated into to human society not only as pets but as movie stars, heroes, working in various jobs like police dogs, therapy dogs, and service dogs but also having various humans working for them like dog groomers and dog sitters. When altering toward human ideals both aesthetically and in behavior, has the dog been altered away from nature and other animals?

Theories discussing the human/animal relations from Martin Heidegger to Jacques Derrida with the comments and criticism from Matthew Calarco will be used as points of departures to understand the philosophical discourses on the nature of humanity and animality. Writings from Gilles Deleuze will also be used in this paper to lead a discussion on what we as humans can learn and take from the discussion about a creature that is not yet human but no longer animal.

 “Everyone in me is a bird. I am beating all my wings” Grieving, remembering, and visualizing extinct species. (Christina Tente)

The writer of this paper is interested in the story of Martha, a passenger pigeon, the last of her species, who passed away in 1914. Martha died in a zoo, her body was dissected and studied by scientists. Martha lived on through the stories, the poems, the artworks that were created for her. Martha is visible in Cincinnati, on her memorial statue, but Martha is invisible to the rest of the world. Martha’s death was ritualized during the Memorial Day of the Lost Species in 2014, but the impact of her death is long forgotten. We remember and “see” and mourn Martha, because Martha has a name and a face and a back-story. But what about all the other species that have become extinct or are becoming extinct every year? How do we, humans, decide which animals are grievable, which animals are worth remembering, whose death has an impact and whose life is simply bare? Focusing on Martha, this paper attempts to explore these questions, with the help of Judith Butler’s writings on grievability and precarity, as well as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of becoming-animal. The writer will problematize the anthropomorphization of endangered and extinct species, and she will explore various ways of creative and ritualistic demonstrations that facilitate grief and catharsis.

 Temple of no walls: Outdoor churches and experience of divine nature (Karolina Curova)

“When I am seeking you, I seek whole-heartedly,

When I am encountering you, I encounter whole-bodily.

So I walk into the wild, I breath and walk, breath and walk,

And then in the middle of it, a shrine, peace, the creation of yours, and there

I find you, in the silence,

In the whispers of the green trees, through the crack of the branches, the sunrays caress my skin…”

(KMC, 2019)

This presentation aims to intertwine the feeling one gets when encountering the nature in the whole essence and feeling one gets when encountering spiritual place. My case study will be the outdoor churches - churches without walls inside of the forests and nature reservoirs. Churches that are not limited by walls, but by trees.

Looking at history, early Christians did not attempt to build churches, they solely gathered and praised - first church building was built approximately around year 233 - 256. This case study aims to come back to the early traditions and rituals.

Theories used in this presentation will problematize and discuss this topic with texts by Weinryb’s

“Living Matter: Materiality, Maker, and Ornament in the Middle Ages” and Kavaler’ s “Nature and the Chapel Vaults at Ingolstadt: Structuralist and Other Perspectives.” together with the theories on ‘sublime’ (Burke, Kant, Schopenhauer,..) and ‘divine’.

Additional aspects such as communication and art will be added.

In this creative/academic presentation, one is encouraged to step inside and find inner peace, while encountering these places, as hypothesis is made in the field of community and improvement of the society that stems from the initial idea of reconnecting with ourselves in these spaces.

 Cruising Musings: A Queer Ecology and the re/deterritorialisation of Nature and Environments (Lee Mann)

Eco-feminists and environmental justice advocates have long argued no environment, natural or urban, exists outside of socio-political systems including, gender, class and race. Historically, gender has informed our experience of and interaction with nature and environments and continues to do so today. A very clear example of this is the formation of American National Parks in the twentieth century, which served as a domain for men to act out hyper-masculine activity in response to the increasing presence of women in the labour market. 

A queer ecology is another lens through which natural environments can be read; we can conceptualise nature through queer eyes. Cruising is a practice whereby primarily but not exclusively homosexual men seek out sex in public spaces--toilets, parks, and parking lots. I intend frame cruising as a socio-political act that re-territorialisatises public spaces traditionally reserved for heteronormative recreation. Gay men and queers, with the night as their disguise, lend public parks to live out desires and liberate sexualities. In doing so, a territory is mapped out through both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ pollution: the excretion of sexual bodily fluids and the trampling of ‘desire paths’. Seeping through natural and urban infrastructures, these sexual acts intercept heteronormative spaces, planting seeds for the flourishing of a queer ecology. Cruising is a gesticulation that quietly dismantles a space formed without the consideration of the other.

 Can’t We Just Get Oolong? Tasseography and Biocentrism in the Western World (Wibecka Oliver)

Despite being one of the oldest practices in the world, divination is widely ignored by many scholars and theologians, dismissed as ‘mumbo jumbo’ or overlooked due to a perceived lack of scientific value (Silver, 2018). Tasseography in particular remains a practice that has persisted from Ancient Greece into the modern world, though is largely neglected by academics. Better understood today as tea-leaf reading, prognostication through tasseography focuses on interpreting patterns in residual organic materials such as tea, coffee or wine.

Rather than rejecting tasseography as a nonsensical practice, this presentation reexamines this form of divination through an environmental lens. Acknowledging the mythic nature of tasseography while still appreciating its value as a complex ecologically rooted process is essential. Removing inherent skepticism surrounding the possibility of divination and focusing instead on the larger symbolic relationships presented between the natural and divine, humanity and nature, new insight can be formed regarding this type of communication.

In particular this presentation explores how the ethical concept of biocentrism, in which value and significance extend to all living things, is represented through tasseographical predictions. Furthermore, it will be argued that tasseography can be understood as an involved visual (and bodily) experience grounded in biocentric values.

 At War with Ourselves: Of Man and Nature in a Film (Karen Kristjansdottir)

There is no doubt that environmental issues have surfaced with increased force in the last years, months and even weeks. People seem to be waking up to, what some refer to as, the biggest challenges of our times. Today we can see flocks of children fighting for nature and climate causes all around the world, insisting on end to human’s bad treatment of the earth and climate. Theorists have for a long time contemplated on the relationship of man and nature and pop culture has been no exception in that. Last year, the Icelandic film Woman at War was premiered and it deals with this discourse, in a story of one woman’s warfare for the conservation of the environment. This study aims to briefly explore the relationship between man and nature, in the light of the film Woman at War (2018) by Benedikt Erlingsson and identify the reasons that drive the main character to onset a war and become an environmental activist, - or terrorist. It looks into the ways in which the visual representation and narrative can be connected to theories of appropriation and mourning. A couple of visual examples, frames from the film, are shown and analysed to support how these influences surface.

 Appropriating Asterisms: Reexamining the Natural Contract Through Detritus (Austin LaGrone)

The use of trash as an artistic medium has a long and celebrated history going at least all the way back to the so-called degenerate artist Kurt Schwitters. Not surprisingly, contemporary artists continue to work with these found materials and in ways that often speak to biotic issues that arise in, and are explored through, Eco-Philosophy. This presentation will investigate Michel Serres’ demand for a “Natural Contract” and suggest that Gabriel Orozco’s art installation “Asterisms” at the Guggenheim can be read as isomorphic to the key ideas developed in Serres’ essay. Furthermore, this presentation will examine humanity’s appropriation of the world through lost or abandoned objects and argue that steering a course into the future must take into account and directly address the dynamics of both hard and soft pollution.

 Perceiving the earth as a dynamic actor (Hanna Urich)

In this speech I discuss embodied perception through ‘attention economics’, approaching human attention as a resource. With the development of screen technology and social media, human  attention is becoming more valuable and consequently more exploited. Michel Serres calls semiotic  methods, such as adverts, of exploiting human attention ‘soft pollution’. When being exposed to clear advertising messages we are more likely to filter out the bodily impressions of the sensory world. Using eco-phenomenological theory I will argue how embodied perception can help us to reach an understanding for the earth as a dynamic actor as opposed to a silent and static backdrop. Our senses alone teach us that the earth is neither still nor mute; birdsong, thunderstorms and the smell of rain has the agency of affecting the human mind. By speaking about human attention as a limited resource I hope to highlight how adverts and algorithms can cause us to budget our attention and therefore limit our understanding of the sensory surroundings.

[visualcultureconference2019-blog]

Abstracts: Day 1, March 19

Seeds of Knowledge: The Power of Beautiful Animation (Mimosa Wittenfelt) 

In order to create a constructive discourse about nature from one generation to the next, I believe that one must first enable an understanding of nature itself. One of the ways to do so is through the media that children consume. Animation has unique possibilities in how it expresses its core messages to its audience. It can and has been utilised as a pathway to encourage the younger generation’s innate curiosity and strive to learn through their entertainment. In my paper, I will explore how the film My Neighbour Totoro uses the beauty of animation to encourage children to learn about nature. Rooted in Japanese Shintoism, the portrayal of nature in My Neighbour Totoro is one of spirituality and mystery, beauty and comfort. By using aesthetic theory and analysing what the fan anime community has dubbed “sakuga” (here meaning “beautiful animation”) as well as Célestin Freinet’s pedagogical ideals, I will show how My Neighbour Totoro gives a template for how to encourage its younger demographic to learn by giving them an example that plays into the wondrous imagination of children, while still being planted in reality.

Visualizing Space: Visual Investigation from Saturn to the Moon (Emily Hsiang)

Modern science such as physics and math are becoming progressively abstruse, in this array of studies, one field stands out for its abundant visual images - space exploration. With growing numbers of unmanned spacecrafts exploring the Solar system, astronomical images captured by spacecrafts become not only important tools to visualize scientific concepts, but also as proof for successful discoveries. Could these images be a new type of landscape? Could they be the force of communication between the widening gap of abstract political and scientific discourse? What does the commodification of space images mean for humanity’s view of the Universe? Using images from unmanned spacecraft Cassini-Huygens mission and images taken from the Moon, I attempt to address these questions using WJT Mitchell and Verschaffel’s theories on landscape, as well as Arendt’s “The Conquest of Space and the Stature of Man”.

 Analyzing Visual Representations of Climate Change on Social Media (Victoria Grant) 

Visual communication across social media platforms is a critical but frequently underestimated contributor to the social and cultural life of environmental issues. My presentation hopes to use content and discourse analysis to examine visual representations of climate change on social media within the US. The US is currently one of the leading polluters, whilst simultaneously having a large population of climate change sceptics. I will examine images that appear on social media in distinction to 3 areas - science, politics and society. My presentation, which focuses on image- language interactions, leads me to determine that climate change is being inconsistently narrated to Americans through social media platforms. Although research suggests that social media can be an agent of positive impact by encouraging greater knowledge, enabling the mobilization of activists and providing an online forum for discussion through visual communication, it rarely galvanises sceptics into becoming agents of change for the environment. To combat this, I suggest that a modification of visual imagery in one area alone can positively impact science-society-policy interactions in regards to climate change.

Art, Ecology & Science (Kerstin Jakobsson and Jasmine Cederqvist)

ARNA is the only organization in the world to develop the Cultural Dimension of Sustainability as a tool for storytelling about a changing world.

They connect all their work to The Avian Kingdom, now the planned core for a new UNESCO biosphere reserve in Sweden, called Vombsjösänkan. The area is a rural valley, rich in history and ecological values. Rooted in this specific landscape ARNA's projects explore subjects in connection to Man and Nature with the aim to support a sustainable development. Their vision for Vombsjösänkan is for it to become the world's first UNESCO biosphere reserve to include the Culture Dimension of Sustainability from start.

With the starting point of Vombsjösänkan, the ARNA-project Art, Ecology & Science explored the connecting points, if there are any, between two different worlds; the nature in a biosphere reserve and the high-tech science facilities for material studies at Brunnshög just outside Lund. The project involved artists, natural scientists and children through the theme Perspective through details. The outcome is a rich variety of art works, photos and reflections through films and texts. All adding their story to Art, Ecology & Science.

HIDDEN LIFE AND DEATH (Ninette Koning)

As an artist nature is of great interest for me. I become aware of the subtle stuff which lies outside the focus of attention. For me it is a way to develop intuition, the unknown. My main field of art is within site-specific installations, which means that I take location and cultural history into account while planning and creating my artworks.

At ARNA I went out in the countryside with my gardening tools, bucket, gloves, bags for collecting materials and making photos. My way of thinking and exploring is through my hands. Thinking about a topic = thinking in material = thinking with my hands. I worked in the forest and made physical sketches on the beach of Vomb with materials as leafs, twigs, stones, sand, fish scales and fish bones.

The outcome of this artist in residence is the connection that I have made between life and death in Skåne; the burial sites, the presence of the army in the landscape, the birds in the Avian Kingdom, the use of colours in science technology, ancient Skåne-weaving and astronomical photography. Hidden life in the ground, in the sky and in the material at MAX IV.

  From mystery to mastery: a human perspective of nature through photography (Ana Laura Bezzi)

The need for images began with the simple fear of the unknown. Before any photographic image, the unknown nature was sacred. Mountains and oceans were here when we arrived on this planet - and they will most definitely see us leave. Even with all its greatness, humans tend to see Earth as a subject - to be lived on, to be discovered, to be exposed. Photography came as a proof of that. Somehow, the visual knowledge of nature makes us feel like we are conquering - instead of belonging. Landscapes end up connecting us to ourselves, rather than to nature. Jean Baudrillard used to say that “between reality and its image, there is an impossible exchange” - meaning that we are never actually in the real presence of an object. Because the more images we have, the more the idea of landscape becomes a cultural construction. Perhaps the only absolute truth in nature is seen through vivid experience. Therefore, if art is made by humans to humans, photography should not be seen as a solid form, but as a value.  

Living with Nature – A dichotomy between the wild and the tamed within eco-aesthetics (Fannie Baden)

In the past few years there has been in increasing trend incorporating plants and other green vegetation as home décor. The rise of eco aesthetics can not only be measured by the greenery in the home but also in the popularity of rustic furniture and other natural elements in the home. The act of including these ‘genuine’ ‘raw’ materials perfectly represents of the sublime through environmental materiality can be conquered. This power dynamic, in regard to physical ownership, is especially depicted by the ‘showing off’ culture on Instagram. This presentation will question the power relation between man and natural elements in the living space. It asks key questions to determine how the visual scheme corresponds with the environment: Do natural-based material goods really increase nature’s aesthetic value or does it decrease by shallow nature appreciation? With the use of aesthetic theory, the presentation looks at the subject form a contemporary point of view. With the use Instagram for visual evidence and notions from historical sources, the presentation enlightens the dichotomy between the wild and the tamed ecoaesthetics. What happens to our homes when we bring in nature, asking what kind of knowledge we need to appreciate nature as is or at home? 

Rootless Trees will Fall A brief history of Skåne (Loek van Vliet)

In the past ten years I’ve been exploring landscapes as a visual artist through the medium of photography. How we experience specific landscapes (Sacred Grounds), how through visual representation we identify with landscapes (Natural Climatebuffers), how the landscape is being experienced differently in different eras (Earthly Windows), and in this most recent body of work (Rootless Trees will Fall) our experience of an area through details, distance, perspectives and abstractions. The short stories created in this body of work are an exploration of what happens within the landscape. Landscapes, either in the experience of walking, or in the form of painting and photography, have always fascinated me. In many ways they show how we as a society see and use the world. These ‘stories’ are created as part of a one-month Artist-in-Residence in Harlösa, Sweden. As part of the project Art Ecology and Science. While being guided through the area, and meeting different experts in the field of science, physical geology and archeology a research question arose. How can a photographic approach give a new perspective on the Skåne landscape?

[visualcultureconference2019-blog]

The schedule is out! Here you can find the schedule of talks for the conference, or simply go to the “schedule” page to see more.