Border Ecology: Art and Environmental Crisis at the Margins

This book explores how contemporary visual art can depict environmental crises by employing Karen Barads' "agential realism" approach, which recognizes the interconnections of various factors and their entanglement. It analyzes digital eco art to demonstrate how a border ecology, an approach from the margins, gaps, and liminal zones, can evoke the idea of an ecotone, combining new materialist and decolonized approaches to understand the nonhuman factors shaping ecological crises while addressing human inequality and subjugation encoded in the environment.

Format: Hardback
Length: 227 pages
Publication date: 11 March 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This captivating book delves into the realm of contemporary visual art, exploring its potential to depict the pressing environmental crisis. By employing Karen Barads' innovative approach of "agential realism," which recognizes the interconnectedness of diverse factors and their "entangled" nature, the author sheds light on the intricate interplay between new materialist and decolonized perspectives in shaping ecological crises. Through a comprehensive analysis of digital eco art, the book unveils how these approaches account for the nonhuman factors contributing to these crises while simultaneously acknowledging the historical legacies of human inequality and subjugation embedded within the environment. The result is a groundbreaking synthesis, coined by the author as a border ecology, a unique approach to eco art that emerges from the margins, gaps, and liminal zones. This approach purposefully evokes the concept of an ecotone, aiming to foster a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between humans and the natural world. While this book is primarily intended for scholarly audiences within art history, criticism, and practice, its insights extend far beyond these boundaries. It resonates with disciplines such as the environmental humanities, media studies, border studies, and literary eco-criticism, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. By unraveling the visual representations of environmental crisis, this book offers valuable perspectives and methodologies for addressing the urgent challenges of our time.

Weight: 437g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031259524
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023