Registration ended on 17.4.2026

The question of representation of the Anthropocene – or however to call the anthropogenic ruptures in the New Climatic Regime (Latour 2017) – is a pressing one in science communication as well as in critical positions of art and design (Arènes et al. 2018; Davis and Turpin 2015; Demos 2017; Dürbeck 2018; Holloway 2022). This is particularly true if not only awareness of the planetary predicament is to be raised, but also if alternative modes of inhabiting a common planet are to be conceived to realize viable climate futures. However, due to the multifarious causes and effects of the hyperobject climate change (Morton 2013), strategies of representation or depiction struggle with tensions between reductionism and overcomplexity: On the one hand we encounter, e.g., the seemingly clear-cut Nature-Culture dualism and the hierarchical universalisms it has produced throughout European Modernity; on the other we find hybrids (Latour 1993) challenging such a dichotomy, as well as complex climate science data and the vast temporal and spatial scales they encompass (Clarke 2020; Haraway 2018; Latour 2020; Margulis 1998).

The aim of this seminar is to map these challenges and to analyze conceptual, artistic, and design approaches towards making these tensions graspable. We want to identify ways in which artists, designers, and “the public” – from exhibition visitors to popular science journal readers to climate activists – can critically engage with the complexities of the anthropogenic forcings and their effects on human and more-than-human communities. As Bruno Latour (2020, 19) has put it while describing his exhibition “Critical Zones – Observatories for Earthly Politics” at the ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe (Germany): “Changes in cosmology cannot be registered without changes in representation – in all tenors of the word.” The seminar themes and approaches are based on the course teacher’s collaboration with Bruno Latour at the ZKM and the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe, where they conducted a two-year research seminar with postgraduates, artists, designers, and curators to conceptually prepare the exhibition “Critical Zones”.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of this course, participants are invited to integrate their individual PhD or related topics, if they align (in the widest sense) with the themes described above. As for the concrete course outcome or exam, participants can choose between two alternative formats, (1) a curatorial concept or (2) a glossary entry. Option (1) entails the development of an own (conceptionally and operatively sound) concept for a fictional exhibition (in art, science, or design) around themes touched up on in our course and, ideally, connected to the individual PhD project. For those participants who seek to expand their publication portfolio, option (2) provides the possibility to contribute an entry to the glossary “Environmental Humanities – Emergent Key Terms.” This ongoing online publication project at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Humanities is edited by the course teacher in cooperation with Ulrik Ekman: https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/art-and-earth/environmental-humanities-glossary/. Participants choosing this option can select a glossary term – aligning with the themes of the course and their individual PhD topic – to develop as a glossary entry. An editorial review process will support text editing and eventually decide if entries are accepted for publication.

The course is open to all PhD students. Requirements are active participation, willingness to read and discuss texts in English, and an intrinsic, research- and/or practice-based interest in theoretical positions (i.e., environmental humanities, posthumanism, curatorial and art studies, science and technology studies), artistic and curatorial practice, climate change communication, or related fields. However, an expansive existing knowledge of these fields is not required.

Further information on teaching evaluation: https://www.leuphana.de/en/teaching/quality-management/evaluation/course-evaluation.html