The Nonhuman Turn: Media, Aesthetics, and the Anthropocene

In 2000, Paul J. Crutzen, recipient of the Nobel prize for chemistry and the biologist Eugene Stoermer have published ”The ”Anthropocene,” an article now famous for its theorization and dissemination of the notion of the same name. The term designates the current geological epoch, one in which human activities have taken a central role in geology and ecology. The success of the notion is both a symptom of a nonhuman Turn in the humanities and a driving force behind it: in media studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies or art history, the acknowledgment of the human impact on the planetary equilibrium has ignited an interest for nonhuman perspectives, spurring research into the agency of nonhumans, such as elements, trees, insects, mushrooms or ice. But what exactly are ”nonhuman media” (Peters)? What does an expression such as ”nonhuman cinema” refer to (Stine)? How can we attune to the semiotics of forests (Kohn)? In familiarizing ourselves with theories of nonhuman agency, we begin to grasp a cultural shift in the way Western societies, in particular, perceive and understand the world under the unprecedented pressure of global warming. In this seminar, we will examine the impact that the nonhuman Turn has had and can still have in the way we define and understand both media and mediality more broadly. To do so, we will read theoretical texts, discuss the important concepts that this Turn has inspired, and watch films and video artworks that echo and manifest them.