The project addresses multispecies ecologies of the Baltic Sea with questions around the politics of space and time – for instance time scales (modern history, natural history), life/death ecologies and ecosystem temporalities, paleoecology and geology – and intragenerational justice and ethics.
The aim of the project is to deepen ecological insights, stimulate cultural imagination, and invite ethical response to the multispecies futures, environmental violence and the queer ecologies of extinction in the Baltic Sea. The project explores questions such as: How can we understand ecologies of extinction in the context of the Baltic Sea with its deep pasts and futures? How can natural-scientific insights, heritage resources, philosophies of extinction and eco- and bioart be mobilised to open up questions of intergenerational justice and care in the context of the Baltic Sea, and, subsequently, to move from environmentally ethical thinking to action?
Theoretically and methodologically, the project contributed to the development of two key conceptual frameworks: environmental strand of the research field of Queer Death Studies (co-founded by M. Radomska), which looks at more-than-human death, crisis imaginaries and eco-grief; and ‘low-trophic theory’ (developed together with Cecilia Åsberg), dealing with the issues of environmental violence, consumption and complicity in the context of marine ecologies.
Furthermore, the project unfolded through collaborations with scholars, artists, cultural practitioners and activists, paying special attention to the power of scientific, artistic and cultural imaginaries as well as storytelling. These collaborations have solidified through networks, such as the Baltic-Nordic State of the Art Network which provided the ground for cultural, artistic and general public exchange and engagement, and The Eco- and Bioart Lab research group and platform focused on art and the environment (founded and headed by M. Radomska). Moreover, these collaborations led to the organisation of several workshops and events open to the general public and focused on communication of transdisciplinary research in the ‘blue humanities’. The events resulted also in building long-term plans for networking and further art-science-humanities collaborations extending beyond the temporal frames of the Seed Box programme.
Research Leader: Marietta Radomska
The project forms part of The Seed Box: A MISTRA-FORMAS Environmental Humanities Collaboratory Phase 2
Date: 1 July 2020 – 31 March 2022
Project page on The Seed Box website.
Publications:
Articles:
Radomska, M. and C. Åsberg. 2021. Fathoming Postnatural Oceans: Towards a Low-Trophic Theory in the Practices of Feminist Posthumanities. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211028542
Radomska, M., M. C. Rojo Gomez, M. Pevere and T. Haapoja. 2021. Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection. In: L. Benítez; E. Berger (eds.) “Arts in the time of pandemic”. Artnodes, no. 27: 1-10. UOC. http://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i27.374989
Chapters:
Radomska, M.& N. Lykke, forthcoming 2022. ‘Queer Death Studies’. In More Posthuman Glossary, edited by R. Braidotti, E. Jones & G. Klumbyte. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 124-125.
Åsberg, C. and M. Radomska, forthcoming 2022. ‘Low Trophic Theory’. In More Posthuman Glossary, edited by R. Braidotti, E. Jones & G. Klumbyte. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 74-76.
Åsberg, C. and M. Radomska. 2021. “Environmental violence and postnatural oceans: Low trophic theory in the registers of feminist posthumanities”. In Gender, Violence and Affect: Interpersonal, Institutional and Ideological Practices, edited by M. Husso, S. Karkulehto, T. Saresma, A. Laitila, J. Eilola and H. Siltala. London: Palgrave, pp. 265-285.
Åsberg, C., J. Holmstedt and M. Radomska. 2020. “Methodologies of Kelp: On Feminist Posthumanities, Transversal Knowledge Production and Multispecies Ethics in an Age of Entanglement” In: The Kelp Congress, edited by H. Mehti, N. Cahoon, and A. Wolfsberger, Svolvær: NNKS Press, pp. 11-23.
Events forming part of the project:
Seaside Arts and Low-trophic Imaginaries at The Community Garden Festival by The Seed Box: A MISTRA-Formas Environmental Humanities Collaboratory, 7-11 February 2022, online.
End of the Sea? Art and Science for Multispecies Futures, 13 December 2021, online.
Seaside Arts and Low-trophic Imaginaries: A State of the Art Network Mid-term Event, 30.09-1.10.2021, Ornö, Stockholm Archipelago, SE and online – collaboration with State of the Art Network.
Other events and activities:
Åsberg, C., K. Larsen, J. Holmstedt, M. Radomska and C. Fredengren, 2022. “Framtider på sin spets: Att värdera det omätbara”. Text accompanying the artwork “Future Island”. Public Art Agency Sweden (Statens konstråd), https://statenskonstrad.se/konst/future-island/.
Radomska, M. 2022. “On Death and Futures”, keynote address at Reclaiming Futures: Storying the Change Vetenskapsfestivalen (Youth Science Festival), 2 Apr 2022, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, SE:
Maggic, M. and M. Radomska, 2021. Panel talk “Queer Ecologies, Art and Science”, Arkivet för Rosa Brus (The Archive of Pink Noises). Online: https://www.rosabrus.nu/2021/12/panel-talk-mary-maggic-marietta-radomska-queer-ecologies-art-and-science/
Radomska, M. 2021.“(Bio)philosophising with (Bio)art: Towards Ecologies of the Non/Living” at the Global Community Biosummit 5.0 Bio Art and Design Track – keynote lecture, 19-21 Nov 2021.
Radomska, M. 2021. “Biophilosophical Investigations: Ecologies of the Non/Living in Contemporary Art”, paper presented at “Biopresence. Art in the Biotechnological World” Conference, 5 November 2021, Academy of Fine Arts Gdansk, PL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWMQ9pW4AU
Radomska, M. 2021. “Mourning the more-than-human: From crisis imaginaries to queer/ing eco-arts”, presented at ‘Crisis, Dying, Apocalypse: Subjectivity, Progress and Ecology in the Light of the Anthropocene’ Symposium, Stockholm University, 26 August 2021.
Radomska, M. 2021. “Vems död räknas?/Whose death matters?“. A short video talk for Reclaiming Futures: Storying Change, an Environmental-Humanities popularising project.
Radomska, M. and C. Åsberg. 2021. “More than survival: weaving vulnerabilities, questioning certainties, mobilising resilience”. Keynote at det gode liv/The Sweetness of Living Symposium, Barents Spektakel Art Festival, Kirkenes, Norway.
Marietta Radomska 