SWAMP: AESTHETIC ECOLOGIES ON MOVING GROUND

Seminar for MA students, Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, 2021

Swamps are places of decay and decomposition and at the same time thriving ecosystems. Swamps have no solid ground and preserve the longue duree. They speak of alternative temporalities, are places of withdrawal and resistance, and are considered a haven of solitude, melancholy and the occult. Swamps are sediments of organic material, they are fluid, without clear boundaries and order, processive and liminal zones that cannot be clearly mapped and escape the dichotomy between solid and liquid, between land and sea. Based on these considerations, the seminar aimed to address various thematic areas:

—Critical ecologies from (eco- and hydro-)feminist and decolonial perspectives, ecosophy, new materialism and process philosophy

—Critical examination of an anthropocentric and (neo-)colonial view of land and concepts of the Anthropocene; Ecosystems as a resource or territory (extractivism, geoengineering)

—Temporality of conservation, decay, deep time

—Discussions of care and maintenance in material worlds

—Cultural history of the occult | mysticism

—On-location research on the specific ecology of swamps

—Concepts of land art and site-specificity, situated knowledge in artistic practice

Swamp: Aesthetic Ecologies on Moving Ground took place in spring semester 2021 at Zurich University of the Arts and its surrounding swamp environments. Co-organized with Lukas Sander (Zurich University of the Arts) and Joshua Wicke (Gessnerallee Zurich), with students in MA stage design, dramaturgy, directing, performance.

Images: Rahel Kesselring