Wednesday 9 December 2020
Eco Noir: Dark Day for a Bright Future
13.00–17.45 [CET +1]
Host: Jack Faber, PhD researcher, Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki
Language: English
13:00 Jack Faber: Presentation of Eco Noir Project – Seminar, Book and the ‘Cooking for the Apocalypse’ Exhibition
13:15 Hertog Nadler: Natural Acts – on ethics and aesthetics of interspecies relations in artworks
The manner in which nature with its entire animal kingdom is treated and represented in artworks not only tells us about our own nature, it reveals our evolutionary (hi)story and in some cases validates our hierarchical position in ‘the food chain’. In the lecture-encounter ‘Natural Acts’ we hope to shed light on ethics and aesthetics of interspecies relations. Additionally, we will share some of our own work experience, insights and doubts in the context of including animals in art projects.
Chaja Hertog and Nir Nadler, aka Hertog Nadler, are an award-winning artist-duo, filmmakers based in Amsterdam.
14:15 Break
14:30 Dr. Amir Vudka: Bug Wars - Interspecies relations in the outer reaches - Part I
The lecture and discussion will explore military-industrial-cinematic representations of space insects in sci-fi films. In films such as Independence Day, Aliens and Starship Troopers, alien bugs appear as representations of dehumanized others, concealing colonial fantasies and patriarchal anxieties. Military-cinematic campaigns against imaginary space insects can inform attitudes towards real political minorities, whether foreigners, refugees, or women. The militarized Hollywood blockbuster functions as a martial ritual of purging the abject to secure the integrity of the national body and its borders. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of ‘becoming-animal’ and Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘making kin’ will be offered as alternative approaches. Making kin with bugs in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, or the becoming-insect in District 9, are ways of ‘staying with the trouble’ (as Haraway puts it) in these precarious times.
Dr. Amir Vudka is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is a film programmer at Theater De Nieuwe Regentes (The Hague) and artistic director of Sounds of Silence Festival for silent film and contemporary music.
15:30 Break
15:40 Dr. Amir Vudka: Bug Wars - Interspecies relations in the outer reaches - Part II
16:40 Break
17:00-17:45 Online tour at ‘Cooking for the Apocalypse’ exhibition and discussion about the book ‘Eco Noir: A companion for Precarious Times’ and the project with Jack Faber, Chaja Hertog, Nir Nadler and Amir Vudka.