Pre-Columbian Geoengineering Meets 21st-Century Paleofuturism: Apprehending Environmental Crises through Art, Science, and Technology

Please join the Material+Visual Worlds TAE for a lecture by Karen Holmberg (Clinical Assistant Professor and Scientific Director of the Gallatin Wetlab, New York University) on "Pre-Columbian Geoengineering Meets 21st-Century Paleofuturism: Apprehending Environmental Crises through Art, Science, and Technology," Thursday 20 March at 6:00 PM in Fine Arts 258.
This presentation utilizes "variantology" - a playful and critical mashup of archaeology, art, technology, and media - as a lens to consider paleofuturism as a predictive force. Volcanic lightning, a little frog, and various sizes and versions of cephalopods are all active agents in this context, binding pre-Columbian chiefdoms facing severe drought or violent eruptions and contemporary residents of New York City experiencing sea-level rise in real time. Through wide ranges of times and places, humans have faced environmental crises with the best technology at their disposal to image and imagine environmental pasts and futures. We currently have advanced technology and data capabilities to image the paleogeology of a much younger Earth, the atmospheric conditions of a post-1.5 degree Celsius near-future planet, or a terraformed Mars. What are the impacts and responsibilities of this ability to envision different time frames upon those of us currently alive?

File Attachments: Holmberg_2

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