*Novel Remediations: Assessing and redressing environmental harm beyond
<br>techno-modernism *
<br>
<br>Workshop & field intervention (Santiago and Tierra Amarilla, Chile)
<br>November 26-28, 2020
<br>
<br>Organizers: Sebastián Ureta (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile), Arn
<br>Keeling (Memorial University, Canada), & Abby Kinchy (Rensselaer
<br>Polytechnic Institute, USA)
<br>
<br>Description:
<br>
<br>Environmental remediation, or the myriad processes and schemes through
<br>which a certain damaged environment is looked to be restored to a more
<br>functional or sustainable state, faces a serious paradox. On the one hand,
<br>in the face of climate change, extensive pollution, and widespread
<br>biodiversity depletion, to enact successful and comprehensive remediation
<br>schemes appears more urgent than ever. On the other hand, actual
<br>remediation schemes regularly fail to achieve their stated aims, causing a
<br>growing sense of skepticism among practitioners and analysts alike about
<br>the capacity of such interventions to truly help to heal damaged landscapes
<br>(or indeed, the planet as a whole). As several analysts have noticed, at
<br>the center of such failures are the common dependence of actual remediation
<br>schemes on techno-modernist frames, usually materializing on plans aiming
<br>at expensive technology-driven interventions, with little consideration for
<br>local knowledges and agencies, human and nonhuman.
<br>
<br>This initiative aims at challenging such state of affairs. Taking
<br>inspiration from current speculative developments on the environmental
<br>sciences and humanities, it looks to explore novel ways to enact
<br>remediation through experimental renderings of both the damaged environment
<br>and the possible paths for its transformation. Explicitly avoiding
<br>techno-modernist dreams of perfect control and environmental purity, such
<br>novel remediations would fully embrace the messy and intermingled character
<br>of life on earth, aiming at enacting remediation as socio-technical
<br>ensembles involving a heterogeneous array of entities – certainly experts
<br>and technical devices, but also multiple publics, heterogeneous knowledges,
<br>and nonhuman agents.
<br>
<br>We invite people interested in participating to send a proposal (400 words)
<br>and a short bio (200 words) via email to the organizers until March 31,
<br>2020. The format of this proposal is open, ranging from conventional paper
<br>abstract to a presentation of a speculative remediation initiative and/or
<br>tools on whose development the candidate has been involved. Accepted
<br>participants will be notified before April 15, 2020.
<br>
<br>Please see more information on the attached CFP. If you have any doubt
<br>please write me (sureta@uahurtado.cl)
<br>
<br>Best regards,
<br>
<br>Sebastian Ureta.
<br>
<br>[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pdf which had a name of Novel remediations CFP 1.1.pdf]
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