Feral Atlas. The More-than-Human Anthropocene

This presentation explores Feral Atlas. The More-than-Human Anthropocene, which is a multimedia environmental humanities project that explores the ecological worlds created when non-human entities become entangled with human-built infrastructure. The project describes “feral” ecologies that have been encouraged by human activity, but which have developed and spread beyond human control. Feral Atlas argues that these infrastructural effects are the Anthropocene. The project goes beyond cataloguing sites of imperial and industrial ruin, with a playful, political and attuned approach to more-than-human histories. Expanding conventional notions of maps and mapping, it uses the relational potential of the digital to offer new ways of understanding the Anthropocene. Alongside acknowledging the dangers of our time, it also demonstrates how in situ observation and transdisciplinary collaboration can cultivate vital responses to environmental challenges.

feralatlas.org

Alder Keleman Saxena is an assistant research professor at Northern Arizona University and a postdoctoral researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute. An environmental anthropologist, her research has examined the relationships linking agrobiodiversity to food culture and political economy in Mexico and Bolivia. 

Lili Carr is an architect with a background in the natural sciences. She is currently in residence at the Bauhaus Dessau, where she is researching histories of environmental activism and dissent tied up with Bauhaus legacies.

Robert Maharajh (moderator) is Editor at Large of the Gropius Bau. He was co-founder and curator of the artist-run east London-based gallery T12 and commissioning editor for "Not Evenly Distributed", an online project reflecting on the themes of the 20th Biennale of Sydney.