14 – 15 Mar 2024
Disembodying Data
Video in English
Format: mp4Length: 00:36:18
First published on: https://www.ici-berlin.org/events/shifting-natures/
Rights: © ICI Berlin
Part of the Section
Artificial Intelligence
Part of the Symposium
Shifting Natures
The very concept of nature has been the subject of thorough critique for quite a while. From a Western deconstructive perspective, nature is a signifier standing for naive immediacy or reactionary normativity. Poststructuralist and queer paradigms have shifted from an idea of nature as a being and of the natural as a given to a conception of them as the effects of discursive, performative practices. These critiques marked a turning point in the centuries-long debate on the concept of nature, pluralizing and de-essentializing it — hence, shifting natures.
While these advancements are paramount, such a deconstructive frame has also meant overemphasizing the discursive element at the expense of the materiality of power relations and embodied experiences. As Stacy Alaimo argues, ‘one of the most unfortunate legacies of poststructuralist and postmodern feminism has been the accelerated “flight from nature” fueled by rigid commitments to social constructionism.’ Within the semantic constellation of nature, which terms and concepts facilitate a connection with the material dimension, without replicating essentialist, normative, ultimately reactionary positions? What can be the epistemological, political, and affective investment in retrieving references to nature, after its deconstruction? The symposium Shifting Natures addresses these questions in three interlocked areas: Environment; Artificial Intelligence; and Gender.
Venue
ICI Berlin(Click for further documentation)
With
David Bastidas-BolañosFrank Carber
Carlotta Cossutta
Jessie Hock
Özgün Eylül İşcen
Nathaniel LaCelle-Peterson
Maria Rosaria Marella
Gabriel Menotti
Chiara Montalti
Pietro Omodeo
Alice Parrinello
Kyriaki (Korina) Pavlidou
Luca Lou Pinelli
Charlotte Ross
Samuele Sartori
Myriam Sauer
Alison Sperling
Constantinos Taliotis
Cristina Voto
Ben Woodard
Silvano Zipoli Caiani
Organized by
Federica BuongiornoAlberica Bazzoni
Xenia Chiaramonte