Dr Joshua Wodak (Western Sydney University)
July 13, 2023 | 17.45 – 19.15 | Auerbach Bibliothek, Wienand Haus, Weyertal 59, 3. OG
Due to the library's seating capacity, please register via e-mail: smaasse3
uni-koeln.de
A rupture of life on Earth is currently unfolding. The consequences of this Sixth Mass Extinction have no parallel in the history of life on this planet. What then does this rupture mean for the human individual; not only in terms of being alive during such an upheaval, but actually being alive to upheaval itself? This presentation will sketch one response to being alive during and to this rupture, by reframing the current human-induced ecological crisis in the context of just how volatile life on this planet actually is. Drawing on exerts from my forthcoming book, Petrified: Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth, the presentation explores how our comprehension of the rupture is formulated through two prisms: being petrified, the everyday feeling of being alive to the rupture; and becoming petrified, the fossilisation of species becoming extinct due to the rupture. Bringing these two prisms into dialogue with one another, Petrified responds to the current crisis with an expansive view of life that embraces – rather than braces for – impact, and puts humanity in its humble place as just another fleeting catastrophe. This is a worldview that reframes human social and biophysical life as an emergent property always at the behest of radical asymmetry and radical contingency. Lyrical, playful, and deadly serious, Petrified aims to provide a new philosophy for a new world coming, through a fable about fidelity to the vicissitudes of the cosmos and what such fidelity can offer us, as endlings. Wherein, the presentation asks: if desperate times call for desperate measures, how can the reply be measured against its only true correlate – the cosmos?
Dr Joshua Wodak is a researcher, writer, and artist who works at the intersection of the Environmental Humanities and Science & Technology Studies. His research addresses the socio-cultural dimensions of the climate crisis and the Anthropocene, with a focus on the ethics and efficacy of conservation through technoscience, including Synthetic Biology, Assisted Evolution, and Climate Engineering. He holds a BA (Honours) in Anthropology (Sydney University, 2002), a PhD in Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research (Australian National University, 2011) and has exhibited his media art, sculpture, and interactive installations in art galleries, museums and festivals across Australia and internationally. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and a Chief Investigator at the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Synthetic Biology. https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/people/researchers/josh_wodak