Den här krönikan skriven för organisationen Genus i Museers hemsida uppmärksammar museers relation till havet och havsekologier. Med fokus på bildkonst diskuterar krönikan hur feministiska teoripraktiker inom havs- och posthumaniora kan skapa nya världsbilder och förhållningssätt där sambanden mellan natur och kultur, land och hav, vattenkropp och människokropp, fantasi och vetenskap blir till centrala delar i museers medvetande.  

Whilst the effects of climate change have become increasingly clear, a growing number of visual artists have turned towards watery concepts and materials linking ocean and human lives as one, instead of turning to humanistic explanations of separation. Consequently, several exhibitions that engage with water have opened during later years that in diverse ways relate to ecology, aquaculture, migration, futurism, extinction, embodiment, etc. This book chapter approaches five artworks on display at Nordic contemporary art museums autumn 2022, that acknowledge the ocean, and more particularly the coastline. These artworks can be described as intermedial, immersive or even multisensory which means that thay embrace a mix of medias and sensory experiences in relation to the coastline. As such the artworks emerge in-between the fields of art, theatre, music, film and architecture. 

More-than-human feminisms across arts and sciences

Feminist theories have long been concerned with the violent impact of (normative) Universal Man on society and nature, aconsequence of a modern phantasy divide between Nature and Culture. In this planetary era some call the Anthropocene, it isclearer to us how the environment is in us, and we humans are fully in the environment. The modern Nature/Culture divideimplodes violently on itself. For too long those regarded as less cultured, less-than-human and particularly nonhumans,like the very ecologies that sustains us, have been approached as mere resours or background for Universal Man. What canbe done - in practice, in thinking and in scholarship in such a situation?The present postnatural situation disrupts modern figurations of thought and scholarly practice, and begs new ones. Withclimate change, oceanic disturbance, habitat loss and rampant species extinction on the one hand, and new syntheticbiologies, technobodies and algorithms we live by on the other, it asks feminist sciences and arts for extradisciplinaryresponses, for new designs of practice.No longer can a division of academic labour be sustained, where technoscience does naked facts, use/abuse nonhumans andextract raw nature while artistic research, humanities and social science does culture, ethics and politics. Spurred by morethan-human feminisms, thicker forms of situated knowing have already emerged, for instance as practices of critical, creativeand feminist posthumanities.Such more-than-human humanities come in response to the pressing need to a) alter and decolonize such dividing knowledgeforms and to b) change the very ways we think, eat, and live with nonhumans in society. Sharing a Darwinian feeling forhow everything is connected, critically and creatively, with a relational ethics of care and concern, more-than-humanfeminisms and postdisciplinary disciplines, have paved way for environmental humanities and other more-than-human formsof the posthumanities. What are the stakes and challenges in these transformations? Why do we need them? And whatfeminist genealogies gets recognized?

G22 Round-table panel, convened by Cecilia Åsberg and The Posthumanities Hub.

Participants:

Cecilia Åsberg1 , Marietta Radomska2 , Christina Fredengren3 , Jesse Peterson4 , Janna Holmstedt5 , Caroline KlingborgElgh 6  and Martin Avila7

1)Professor, Docent, Professor, Tema: Tema Genus, Linköpings Universitet

2) Fil Dr, Biträdande Lektor, Tema: Tema Genus, Linköpings Universitet

3) Professor Konstvetenskapliga Institutionen: Kulturvård, Uppsala Universitet

4) Fil Dr, Postdoktor, Tema Genus, Linköpings universitet and postdok Ekologi, Statens Lantbruksuniversitet

5) Fil Dr, Forskare, Forskningsavdelningen, Statens Historiska Muséer

6) MA, Doktorand, Tema: Tema Genus, Linköpings Universitet

7) Professor, Dr, Professor, Design, Konstfack

Feminist theories have long been concerned with the violent impact of (normative) Universal Man on society and nature, aconsequence of a modern phantasy divide between Nature and Culture. In this planetary era some call the Anthropocene, it isclearer to us how the environment is in us, and we humans are fully in the environment. The modern Nature/Culture divideimplodes violently on itself. For too long those regarded as less cultured, less-than-human and particularly nonhumans,like the very ecologies that sustains us, have been approached as mere resours or background for Universal Man. What canbe done - in practice, in thinking and in scholarship in such a situation?The present postnatural situation disrupts modern figurations of thought and scholarly practice, and begs new ones. Withclimate change, oceanic disturbance, habitat loss and rampant species extinction on the one hand, and new syntheticbiologies, technobodies and algorithms we live by on the other, it asks feminist sciences and arts for extradisciplinaryresponses, for new designs of practice.No longer can a division of academic labour be sustained, where technoscience does naked facts, use/abuse nonhumans andextract raw nature while artistic research, humanities and social science does culture, ethics and politics. Spurred by morethan-human feminisms, thicker forms of situated knowing have already emerged, for instance as practices of critical, creativeand feminist posthumanities.Such more-than-human humanities come in response to the pressing need to a) alter and decolonize such dividing knowledgeforms and to b) change the very ways we think, eat, and live with nonhumans in society. Sharing a Darwinian feeling forhow everything is connected, critically and creatively, with a relational ethics of care and concern, more-than-humanfeminisms and postdisciplinary disciplines, have paved way for environmental humanities and other more-than-human formsof the posthumanities. What are the stakes and challenges in these transformations? Why do we need them? And whatfeminist genealogies gets recognized?This lively round-table talk brings diverse scholars together for a spirited conversation on the usefulness and potential impactof feminist theorizing on sustainability, design, and on how to bring art and science to the social humanities, and insights tothe people living in a more-than-human world. It will be fun, but deadly serious.