multimedia anthropocene hub
Through the Multimedia Anthropocene Hub, the MAL collective uses multimedia approaches to examine the human, more-than-human, and posthuman entanglements present in the context of the ‘Anthropocene’ – a concept which has been both commended and critiqued since its adoption across academic disciplines. Through theoretical and practical sessions, the MAL collective seeks to rethink the relationships between nature/culture and representation/reality in the context of the ‘Anthropocene’.
At the turn of the millennium, Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer controversially proposed to usher in a new epoch of geological time: the Anthropocene. This post-Holocene phase was to be defined by globally significant alterations to planetary eco-systems which were anthropogenic in origin, and stratigraphically visible. Fast forward to today, although these claims are still hotly contested within the earth sciences, the concept has been adopted by a vast range of disciplines, and has thus transformed into a catchall term, encompassing all human interactions, correspondences, and impacts on the planet, from indigenous kincentric ecologies, to industrialisation and climate change. However, despite its perceived popularity, and its status as a mega-category within the Euro-Western academy, the Anthropocene as a concept has been heavily critiqued. Most notably for its position as an academic ‘black-hole’, absorbing competing narratives and dominating research spaces, as well as for its inherent anthropocentrism, and the universalising species paradigm it undeniably creates. The interdisciplinary transformation and subsequent critiques of the Anthropocene have led to unique approaches and collaborations in examining human/more-than-human/posthuman relationships and entanglements, and has prompted, among many things, much anthropological discourse. The interdisciplinarity of the topic itself makes multimedia approaches not merely useful, but necessary. Thus, in Multimedia Anthropocene, we will critically explore the Anthropocene, rethinking knowledge beyond nature/culture, representation/reality dualisms, in a radical redesign of the ways in which we interact with and interpret it via our own multimedia encounters.