Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

On the 16th of November 2016, ‘Post-truth’ was officially declared 'word of the year' by Oxford Dictionaries. Following closely on the unexpected results of the US election, the adjective relates to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals. As a concept, post-truth enables a heightened fluidity between fiction and non-fiction, empiricism and mythology, factual and alternative — it problematically inserts itself in past and present histories of 'truth-making', problematizing epistemology whilst posing urgent questions about the essence of knowledge production and consumption in today’s cultural economies.
Thus far, its cultural pervasiveness has been fueled by the rise of social media and by a growing distrust in governmental bodies. Its impact on climate-science denial is currently unfolding and the extent to which post-truth politics are rapidly producing a normalization of institutional deceit is extremely likely to cause irreparable environmental damage.
While apocalyptic visions of the Anthropocene appear closer than ever before, we might ask ‘what is the role played by visual media, art, and communication in supporting, informing, and driving creative forms of viable resistance?’ ‘How is the complicated relationship between art and science impacted by these cultural turns?’ And ‘how might contested notions of truth shape essential research questions and methodologies?’

Topics considered:

Past and Present Histories of Truth
Data and Post-truth
Meta-sublime
Human non-human collectivities and Climate change
Climate change and representation
Nuclear Cultures
Dark Ecology
Hyperobjects
Curating Climate Change
Postmodernism or Posthumanism as Groundless Ground
Representation, spectacle, and politics
We have never been modern
Animals and cosmopolitics
Animal welfare and online information

Academic essays = length 6000-10000 words

Artists’ portfolio = 5/6 images along with 1000 words max statement/commentary

Interviews = maximum length 8000 words

Fiction = maximum length 8000 words

Deadlines:

Abstracts: 1st of May 2017 (Please submit a 350 words abstract along with a CV)

Selection process is finalized and feedback sent: 15th of June

Final Submissions: 1st of November 2017

Please email any questions to: Giovanni Aloi: Editor in Chief of 'Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture' antennarpojectgmail.com (www.antennae.org.uk)