Theoretically grounded in queer death studies and environmental humanities, thisarticle has a twofold aim. Firstly, it explores the somatechnics of environmentalviolence in the context of Northern and Eastern Europe, while paying attention toongoing ecocide inflicted by Russia on Ukraine, and to the post-WW2 chemicalweapon dumps in the Baltic Sea. Secondly, the article examines the concept of eco-grief in its close relation to artistic narratives on ecocide. By bridging the discussionon environmental violence and artistic renderings of eco-grief, the article hopes tocontribute to a better understanding of the socio-cultural responses to more-than-human death and loss, and their accompanying ethical imaginaries and affordances.

What does resurrection mean in the digital era and beyond religious associations or sentimentality? The virtual and the physical are more entangled than they may seem, blurring the boundaries between the living and the non-living, or further: the dead. The environmental cost of generative AI might be one example. But digital worlds also play a special role in the context of the question of death as such. Around 20 years into the existence of Myspace, Facebook, and other social media platforms, these spaces have been populated by profiles of people long gone. On the other hand, digitalized venues of remembrance multiply: from digital ‘tombstones’ in China, through various memorial websites (commemorating humans and their nonhuman companions alike), to digital transformation of photography in the practices of remembering, like in the case of “New Dimensions of Testimony” by the Shoah Foundation, which enables interaction with holograms of Holocaust survivors. Yet, human (mass) death is not the only one that ‘materializes’ digitally. The Anthropocene necropolitics is being fleshed out in many ways: the sixth mass species extinction, extractivist capitalism- and war-induced ecocide, pollution, toxicity, and slaughter for the sake of slaughter. The more-than-human worlds are dying. While finding new ways of staying with and caring for ‘terminally ill’ environments – to paraphrase queer-ecocritical scholar Sarah Ensor – is a must, there is also a need for cultural and affective ways of working with the actual or potential loss, for communities to partake in. This is where the digital meets the physical, once again. Following this intuition, the present talk will zoom in on new-media artworks, design projects, or digital sound archives that venture into the living/non-living interface by bringing back to ‘life’ – even if for a brief moment – that which in one way or another has been marked as ‘extinct.’ Some of the examples include: Tanja Vujinovic’s “Carboflora,” a virtual environment populated by the plants of the Carboniferous period; C-Lab’s “The Living Dead: On the Trail of a Female,” which uses a drone with a multispectral camera to search for a potential last remaining female specimen of the “Encephalartos woodii” cycad – a plant species that does not exist in the wild; or Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s “The Substitute,” dealing with the extinction of the northern white rhinoceros. What do such projects tell us about practices of remembrance? How are they linked to the de-extinction movement? What do they tell us about our relation to that (more-than-human) which is gone? And perhaps, even more importantly, to that (more-than-human) which is not gone yet? Where does the boundary between the living and non-living run – if there is still one? Who is at the center of digitalized resurrections? These are some of the questions this talk aims to tackle.

While the notion of bereavement linked to the death of a human or to the loss of that which hasalready passed are societally accepted or even expected, the mourning of nonhuman death andecological loss has a rather different status. It is frequently described as ‘disenfranchised grief’(Doka 1989): not openly accepted or acknowledged in society. Simultaneously, in the presentanthropocenic context, where planetary environmental destruction generates unliveable spacesand amplifies ‘more-than-human’ vulnerabilities, the killing of nonhuman populations, annihilationof entire ecosystems and species extinction catalyse discussions among scientists, legal experts,activists and general society. Yet, it is not only natural-scientific and legal, but also philosophical,artistic and cultural understandings of death and eco-grief that are urgently needed. Grounded inQDS, this talk zooms in on the imaginaries and engagements with more-than-human death, as theyare interwoven through the tissues of select contemporary artworks, where ecological ontologyof death is being exposed and where ethical territories of eco-grief and mourning the more-thanhuman unfold.

In the present condition of planetary environmental crises, violence, and war, entire ecosystems are annihilated, habitats turn into unliveable spaces, and shared “more-than-human” vulnerabilities get amplified. Here and now, death and loss become urgent environmental concerns, while the Anthropocene-induced anxiety, anger, and grief are manifested in popular-scientific narratives, art, culture, and activism.Grounded in the theoretical framework of queer death studies, this article explores present grief imaginaries and engagements with more-than-human death, dying, and extinction, as they are interwoven through contemporary art. It is there where an ecological ontology of death is being exposed and ethical territories of eco-grief unfold.

In the times of climate change and planetary environmental disruption that turn certain habitats into unliveable spaces and contribute to socio-economic inequalities and vulnerabilities, (more-than-human) death and loss become urgent environmental concerns. As climate scientists indicate, in order to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), a much more radical transformative action is needed from governments, the private sector, communities and individuals (Höhne et al. 2020).  Simultaneously, unsustainable living conditions contributing to the mortality of human and nonhuman individuals, destruction of entire ecosystems, loss of biodiversity and the sixth mass extinction evoke feelings of anxiety, anger and grief, manifested globally in popular-scientific narratives, cultural expressions, and environmental activism.  

In this paper I explore crisis imaginaries linked to more-than-human death, dying and extinction (material and figurative), as well as questions of eco-grief, which the former are inherently entwined with. After unpacking the genealogy of the concept of eco-grief and its interlinked notions, I briefly sketch out the theoretical framework of Queer Death Studies, which this talk is embedded in, and subsequently I look at several examples of contemporary bio-, eco-and media art that mobilise and – at times – subvert the notions of and mourning the more-than-human. 

BOOK SERIES More Than Human Humanities

The More-Than-Human Humanities focus series aims to attend to human differences entangled with environmental justice, information technologies, AI, synthetic biology, surveillance systems, species extinction, and drastic ecological change. It draws attention not only to the creativity and potentiality of this reinvention of arts and humanities, but also to that which limits or wounds conditions of life on earth. It addresses the question of how we may learn to live with those wounds and limitations in everyday practice. The titles in the series provide insight into the state-of-the art humanities research in a changing world.

First book of this series, Extracting Reconciliation (out Sep 2023), is written by Myra Hird and Hillary Predco.

Extracting Reconciliation: Indigenous Lands, (In)human Wastes, and Colonial Reckoning (full title of book 1 in this series) argues that reconciliation constitutes a critical contemporary mechanism through which colonialism is seeking to ensure continuing access to Indigenous lands and resources.

Series Editors: Cecilia Åsberg and Marietta Radomska, Linköping University, Sweden 

“(…) the ability to mourn for the loss of other species is, in this sense, an expression of our sense of participation in and responsibility for the whole fabric of life of which we are a part.”(Burton-Christie 2011)

In the Anthropocene, death and loss become pressing environmental concerns. Destruction of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, war, the Covid-19 pandemic and slow environmental violence evoke feelings of anxiety and grief, manifested in science and popular-scientific communication, art, theory and environmental activism. Recognising commonly unacknowledged grief and asking ourselves what it is that we mourn may help us understand our relations to the environment, and what we choose to value, preserve or revive.

Theoretically grounded in the transdisciplinary field of Queer Death Studies, this talk explores crisis imaginaries linked to more-than-human death, dying and extinction (both material and figurative), as well as questions of eco-grief, which the former are inherently entwined with. This is done through a close dialogue with select contemporary bio-, eco-and media artworks that mobilise and – at times – subvert the notions of and mourning the more-than-human. 

How to participate proactively in a process of change and transformation, to shape our path within an uncertain future? With this publication, the State Of The Art Network marks a waypost on a journey which started in 2018, when like-minded Nordic and Baltic art organisations and professionals initiated this network as a multidisciplinary collaboration facing the Anthropocene. Over five years, ten organisations and around 80 practitioners from different disciplines, like the arts, natural sciences and humanities came together, online and in person, for workshops, seminars and discussions. The aim was to find ways to create resilience and concrete actions on how to live through the change in culture, economy and the environment and to find concrete, hands-on methods to deal with the Anthropocene and the environmental crisis. As an outcome of this process, this publication takes a closer look at how we as practising artists, researchers and cultural actors can create elements for critical thinking and doing which can assist us in navigating the complexities of the present.