Toxic Plastic Politics: Rethinking Plastic Pollution through Art and Activism
Politics of ecology and environmental activism have found increasing resonance in the art world in recent years, giving rise to a wide range of artistic responses to ecological emergencies like climate change and other forms of environmental destruction driven by the violence of contemporary fossil fuels-based capitalism. At the intersection of art and activism a new sphere has evolved, which has become particularly attractive to critical hybrid practitioners, who often have a background in art and activism as well as in science. Artists have become active players in much needed dynamics of socio-ecological transformation
processes towards a more sustainable future by articulating critical frameworks and introducing environmental justice works to art and academia. With the creation of meaningful visual artworks or the fostering of collaborative actions, artists seek to increase community
resilience and inspire individual actions directed towards systemic change while raising awareness about the urgency and complexity of global challenge like plastic pollution.
Ingeborg Reichle is a contemporary art historian and media theorist. In recent years she served as Professor in the Department of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and as founding chair of the Department of Cross-disciplinary Strategies (CDS), designing an integrated BA study programme on applied studies in art, science, philosophy, and global challenges. Her current area of research and teaching is the encounter of the arts with cutting-edge technologies such as biotechnology and synthetic biology, taking also into account artistic responses to systemic risks and global challenges such as climate change and ecological collapse in order to develop a critical understanding of the role of twenty-first century media arts. She is the author of a number of books including Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art, Springer, Vienna 2009 and Plastic Ocean: Art and Science Responses to Marine Pollution, De Gruyter, Berlin, Boston 2021.
Monday 25th of October 17:00 Auditorium – FedLev Building
Gerrit Rietveld Academie Fred. Roeskestraat 961076 ED Amsterdam
We hope to see you there!