Biodiversity. However, since Earth has undergone at least five mass extinctions, why should we act now? And if we do, we need to ask: how should we act?

in: Improper Dose No. 3 by Improper Walls, 23.04. 2020

© Yulia Kopr

Arts and humanities are equally important tools as the natural sciences.

- Interview with Sophie and Paul from Contemporary Matters, by Elisabeth Hinkel (Improper Walls Curator)

Contemporary Matters, a Vienna-based platform with the urgency to disrupt. “The Contemporary” is not only the present, but how we conceive art history from the present. Contemporary Matters acts as a platform for individual voices to be heard, centering its efforts on the empowering effect of inclusion and participation. In January 2020 the platform oranized a symposium casting light on the topic of biodiversity from cultural, artistic, and activist positions. Front and Center was the question:

In recent years, the loss of biodiversity has increased at an alarming rate. It has also led to the formation of interstate organizations such as IPBES focusing on conserving the variety of species. However, since Earth has undergone at least five mass extinctions, why should we act now? And if we do, we need to ask: how should we act?

E: What was Biodiversity and the Cultural Landscape?

“Biodiversity and the Cultural Landscape was a two-day event organised by Contemporary Matters discussing non-scientific positions incorporating different societal perspectives on biodiversity. The opening was a screening at mumok kino of Water Makes Us Wet, a film by ecosexual artist duo Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. The main part was a symposium at the University of Vienna featuring lectures and public discussions by cultural agents, artists, activists, social scientists, and philosophers. Moreover, while planning the conference, we wanted to keep the ecological footprint as small as possible. Therefore we had a strict non-flight policy, and instead focused on our local community or asked speakers to submit video lectures if they were not able to come to Vienna via train or bus. However, we realised quickly that the academic infrastructure prefers business flights, hotel chains, and disposable cups and dishes. In the end, we hope that by getting more and more people excited to engage with ecological issues, we will be able to enjoy many more sustainable academic events in the future.”

E: Why were you interested in artistic and cultural approaches to biodiversity?

“We felt that most of the time, non-STEM approaches to biodiversity are being neglected structurally in public discourse, which is also true for all other ecological issues. However, since these are problems of planetary scale, we don’t believe that we will be able to deal with them if we limit our solution strategies to the fields of ecology and biology. Of course, this does not mean that we do not value scientific facts demonstrating the magnitude of the loss of biodiversity or the littering of the oceans. But we believe that the shift into the geological era of the Anthropocene presupposes a change of mind on a social scale, and in order to do so, the arts and humanities are equally important tools as the natural sciences, especially in the age of interdisciplinary research. Also, it is our utmost belief that combining various fields of expertise can shed new light onto a subject - that is the reason why we also invited Extinction Rebellion to share their expertise. Only when we start closing the ranks between our different fields can we overcome this perceived authority of the natural sciences. As we don’t consider the problems of the Anthropocene as merely restricted to the academic realm, we need to include other voices as well.  ”

E: Why is it difficult to talk about the Anthropocene?

“The idea of the Anthropocene is that humans have interfered so much with their environment that they have become a geological force. However, this is only partly true, since humanity is not the problem, but the specific conditions of Capitalism that led to the extraction of resources and the compulsive need to create surplus value. In this way, Capitalist thinking and action considers our planet as a natural resource, there to be exploited, no questions asked. It is this ignorance and greed for profit (always under the disguise of progress) which form the problem of human actions on the planet. Talking about the Anthropocene means identifying the structure of human Capitalist behaviour. Maybe talking about the Anthropocene is not so difficult, but moving beyond mere talking and taking action is when it becomes more complicated, as here the approaches and the readiness to make changes differ vastly. ”

E: Did you discuss artistic positions that may help us grasp the magnitude of the global environmental crisis?

“At the conference, we talked about many artists like Brandon Ballengée, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg or even Victor Gruen that have worked on the loss of biodiversity and questions relating to the Anthropocene. What is surprising is that the traditional understanding of nature as opposed to culture is still very strong. With that comes a nostalgic desire to preserve what can be lost, i.e. a species or a habitat. Or on the other hand, the urge for new innovations, and the potential to find new ways to tackle the climate crisis at the crossing of technology and design, constitutes the core of bio art. Bio artists like Pinar Yoldas focus more on the fusion of the natural and the artificial, thus highlighting the long-term entanglement of these alleged opposites. However, what unites all of these diverging positions is a critical understanding of nature as an ever-changing environment that is directly responding to the actions of its inhabitants. We believe that any artistic engagement with ecological issues can lead to more awareness of those and ultimately lead us to take action.”