Biodiversity and the Cultural Landscape

A Symposium organized by Contemporary Matters

Opening and Film Screening: Tuesday, January 14, 2020, 7pm

mumok cinema (Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna)

Symposium: Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 10am to 8pm

Aula am Campus der Universität Wien (Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna)

Click here for the full program of the symposium!

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?

In the realm of today’s sciences, the arts and humanities are not usually privileged as an authority or approved source of knowledge when reflecting on issues concerning biodiversity. Yet, this separation of the arts and hard sciences only emerged in the late-nineteenth century with the rise of new technological advancements, precipitating an epistemic shift in knowledge production. After the exposure of the conceptions of nature and biology as social constructs developed across generations, there is an urge to renegotiate these terms and update them for the 21st century. In order to do so, we are turning toward contemporary cultural and activist practices that steadily make biodiversity a subject of discussion. Merging approaches from life sciences and cultural studies through the deconstruction of the binary opposition of nature and cultures equates to embracing the complex and large-scale hybridity of biodiversity. For this symposium, we invite researchers, scholars, artists, activists, and politicians to come together on a public forum at the University of Vienna to discuss new approaches for human and non-human co-existence.

We believe that biodiversity constitutes a multifaceted challenge on a global scale. The endangerment thereof impacts all classes, groups, professions and nations, thus highlighting the entanglement of human and non-human agents in our contemporary world and the necessity to put these various affected actors in conversation with one another. In fact, by facilitating an exchange between rather uncustomary combinations of perspectives on the subject of biodiversity, we can perform (bio)diversity in the very structure of the conference.

Some of the questions we are hoping to discuss include: How may human intervention increase biodiversity? Can there be such a thing as peaceful co-existence between humans and the environment, especially in late capitalism? Can we even assume that the loss of biodiversity has a negative impact on the environment? How can we re-evaluate the colonial background of the life sciences? How can we include indigenous voices and incorporate their knowledge as a source for combating the loss of biodiversity? What kind of artistic positions may help us grasp the magnitude of the global environmental crisis?

Tuesday, January 14, 2020, 7pm

mumok cinema (Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna)

Film screening of Water Makes Us Wet - An Ecosexual Adventure by Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle followed by a panel discussion with Brishty Alam, Simeon Gazivoda and Magdalena Stöger moderated by Fanny Hauser

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Aula am Campus (Hof 1.11, Campus der Universität Wien, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna)

10:00 - 10:15 Opening

Moderation: Sophie Publig

10:15 - 10:45 Eva Horn: “Biodiversity in the Anthropocene”

10:50 - 11:20 Fahim Amir: “The End of Nature (As We Knew It)”

11:20 - 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 - 12:00 Ingeborg Reichle: “Endangered Species: On the Loss of Biodiversity in Contemporary Art”

12:00 - 12:45 Public discussion with Eva Horn, Fahim Amir and Ingeborg Reichle

12:45 - 14:00 Lunch break

Moderation: Mihály Németh

14:00 - 14:30 Roswitha Schuller: “Re-reading Victor Gruen: The Cultural Landscape Between Arcadia and Habitat”