Against the Anthropocene Visual Culture and Environment Today (Paperback)

Thomas J. Demos

ISBN 10: 3956792106 / ISBN 13: 9783956792106

Published by Sternberg Press, New York, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. A critique of the discourse on the Anthropocene and the creative alternatives to it to be found through the arts, sciences, and humanities.Addressing the current upswing of attention in the sciences, arts, and humanities to the new proposal that we are in a human-driven epoch called the Anthropocene, this book critically surveys that thesis and points to its limitations. It analyzes contemporary visual culture-popular science websites, remote sensing and SatNav imagery, eco-activist mobilizations, and experimental artistic projects-to consider how the term proposes more than merely a description of objective geological periodization. This book argues that the Anthropocene terminology works ideologically in support of a neoliberal financialization of nature, anthropocentric political economy, and endorsement of geoengineering as the preferred-but likely disastrous-method of approaching climate change. To democratize decisions about the world's near future, we urgently need to subject the Anthropocene thesis to critical scrutiny and develop creative alternatives in the present. A critique of the discourse on the Anthropocene and the creative alternatives to it to be found through the arts, sciences, and humanities. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9783956792106

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Against the Anthropocene Visual Culture and Environment Today (Paperback)
• Publisher: Sternberg Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3956792106
• ISBN 13: 9783956792106
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A critique of the discourse on the Anthropocene and the creative alternatives to it to be found through the arts, sciences, and humanities.

Addressing the current upswing of attention in the sciences, arts, and humanities to the new proposal that we are in a human-driven epoch called the Anthropocene, this book critically surveys that thesis and points to its limitations. It analyzes contemporary visual culture—popular science websites, remote sensing and SatNav imagery, eco-activist mobilizations, and experimental artistic projects—to consider how the term proposes more than merely a description of objective geological periodization. This book argues that the Anthropocene terminology works ideologically in support of a neoliberal financialization of nature, anthropocentric political economy, and endorsement of geoengineering as the preferred—but likely disastrous—method of approaching climate change. To democratize decisions about the world's near future, we urgently need to subject the Anthropocene thesis to critical scrutiny and develop creative alternatives in the present.

About the Author

T. J. Demos, an award-winning writer, is Professor of Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. He writes widely about contemporary art, global politics, and ecology, and is the author, most recently, of Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today (Sternberg Press).