Category: Uncategorized

The talk ‘Artistic approaches to the echoes of fossil fuels’

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Fossil fuel use is essential to the anthropocene. In this presentation artist Kat Austen will discuss two artworks that address the topic of fossil fuel legacies. In the context of the climate crisis, Stranger to the Trees looks at microplastic, themselves a product of fossil fuel-intensive industrial processes, and their coexistence with trees in forests as carbon sinks. This Land is not Mine looks at the postextractive landscape of Lusatia as the region transitions from brown coal mining towards sustainability. Leveraging diverse methods including DIY science, acoustic ecologies and new material studies, Austen creates multimedia works that develop aesthetics of sustainability.

25 May 2021
17:00 – 18:30 CEST
The event is free

Register to the event

Organiser:
UCL Anthropocene
anthropocene@ucl.ac.uk

Picture credit: Roger Pimenta

Watch the recording:

Article ‘Microplastics and Trees’ in MAZ newspaper

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Last year we co-operated with the village of Bork, Kyritz in Brandenburg to prolong our Stranger to the Trees experiment on the effect of microplastic on birch tree growth. Bork have provided the Studio Austen birches with a home that allows us to continue to collect scientifically valid data in a long-term experiment. We would like to thank Bernhard Bosecker and the mayor Matthias Strauß for the kind support and oppourtunity.

Newspaper Märkische Allgemeine (MAZ) has published an article explaining ‘Stranger to the Trees’ and the long-term experiment we have started in Kyritz. Read the article “Mikroplastik und Bäume: Langzeitexperiment in Kyritz gestartet” or download it in pdf format (in German).

Contemporary Art in the Anthropocene

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Kat performing The Matter of the Soul at MORE WORLD / ZkU Berlin, 2019
Photo: Norman Posselt | berlinergazette.de | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Tuesday 17th November, online

Kat will present a selection of her work as part of the UCL Anthropocene Initiative’s Symposium “Contemporary Art in the Anthropocene” 17th November, 15:30-17:30 CET.

Register here (free of charge).

More info:

Expanding the focus on scientific data which is common to discourse on the subject, UCL Anthropocene emphasises the causal links between the conditions of human experience and escalating ecological collapse. In this vein, this seminar will explore the potential of contemporary art practice in addressing the problems that the Anthropocene poses for our collective future.

Given the scope of the subject at hand, the format will be expansive and discursive. Each of the seven contributing UCL artists will give a short presentation (10-15 minutes) to introduce the significance of the notion of the Anthropocene within their practice and point towards ways in which contemporary art might effectively address the environmental crisis. Afterwards, these perspectives will be brought into dialogue through a 30-minute round table discussion, which will also be an opportunity to welcome questions from the audience. 

Contributing artists: 

Conference “Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science”

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Kat will present her artistic work at the fourth international conference “Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science”, November 26–28, 2020.

Kat’s talk “The transgression of boundaries through transdisciplinary research relevant to the climate crisis” draws on her portfolio of projects interrogating the boundary between the self and other(s) in the context of ecological crises.

“Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science”, exclusively online as TTT2020 Vienna/Online, an umbilical cord between what would be and what it is. Including theoretical and art practice presentations, TTT2020 continues to focus (a) on questions about the nature of the forbidden and aesthetics of liminality as expressed in art that uses or is inspired by technology and science, and (b) on the opening of spaces for creative transformation in the merging of science and art.

For more information visit TTT2020 website.

Audio Walk: Listening to the Distant Clamours at Perceiving Academy 686, Cyprus

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Between 25th October and 5th November 2019, the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Art will be running Perceiving Academy 686, an exploration of the Cyprus ecosystem.

“Distant clamours break on the timeless towers like the sea.”

From Aphrodite by Howard Mumford Jones

Kat Austen will provide to participants a site-specific audio walk “Listening to the Distant Clamours” and DIY hydrophones, to facilitate an sound-based research into the political and physical landscape of the Cyprus coastline.