As the Anthropocene charges ahead with its bewildering array of challenges, and numerous debates on ecology and the environment gather steam, it becomes impossible to think of our contemporary existence without paying attention to the presence and legacies of the natural world. This environmental heritage is not only configured ideologically and politically by human beings, but also habitually and aesthetically. Here, the concept of 'aesthetics' operates much more capaciously and ubiquitously than only conveying ideas of taste and judgement, additonally signalling the sensorial, the embodied and the lived. Thinkers working across the discipines of new materialism, anthropology, sociology, art history, cultural studies, geohumanities, craft studies and environmental humanities have been drawing attention to the dynamic intermingling of natural and cultural spheres, often through the lens of the aesthetic everyday.

This workshop aims to bring together scholars from various areas of interest to deliberate the linkages between ecology, everydayness and aesthetics. Taking the modern period from the 19th century to the present as its broad temporal context, the event intends to shed a critical and creative light on the manifold ways in which the modern world experiments, challenges and accommodates socio-cultural expressions of ecological aesthetics. It is especially interested in exploring how the interaction of the environment and artistic practices (inclusive of all kinds of arts and crafts) shapes local and global connections. The workshop also welcomes reflections on the disconnections and ruptures that an absence or loss of such a relationship might spawn. Ultimately, the discussion should blur the distinctions between nature and culture by emphasizing the mediation of aesthetics.

Please note that the language of the workshop is English. Abstracts (<250 words) with short bio-notes (<150 words) for 25-minute presentations are invited for this in-person event at the global dis:connect research centre in Munich. Please email the workshop convenor, Dr. Siddharth Pandey (a Fellow at the Kate Hamburger Centre) at ecoaesthetics2023gmail.com by 20 March, 2023. For information on the Centre, please visit www.globaldisconnect.org

Decisions will be conveyed before the end of March. The workshop will be held on the premises of global disc:connect, which are equipped with AV facilities. Accommodation and meals during the workshop will be provided. We cordially request presenters to bear their own travel expenses. In rare cases, however, some partial travel expenses may be subsidised, subject to the availability of resources after the selection of presenters.

Contact Info:
Siddharth Pandey
Fellow at Käte Hamburger Centre global dis:connect
Munich, Germany
Email: ecoaesthetics2023gmail.com