Product
A Bestiary of the Anthropocene
An illustrated field guide on plastiglomerates, robot dogs, antenna trees and other hybrid creatures (and objects) of our time
Published: 2021, Onomatopee
Details: 256 pages, 148 x 210 mm, softcover, silver ink on ultra-black paper
ISBN: 978-94-93148-44-4
Editors: Nicolas Nova & DISNOVATION.ORG
Illustrations & Design: Maria Roszkowska
Contributors: Geoffrey C. Bowker, Benjamin Bratton, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Aliens in Green, and others
$35 USD
Equally inspired by medieval bestiaries and observations of our damaged planet, A Bestiary of the Anthropocene is a compilation of hybrid creatures of our time. Edited by researcher Nicolas Nova and artist collective DISNOVATION.ORG, this post-natural field guide helps us observe, navigate, and orientate into the increasingly artificial fabric of the world. Plastiglomerates, surveillance robot dogs, fordite, artificial grass, antenna trees, Sars-Covid-2, decapitated mountains, drone-fighting eagles, standardised bananas… each of these specimens are symptomatic of the rapidly transforming “post-natural” era we live in. Often without us even noticing them, these creatures exponentially spread and co-exist with us.
“A Bestiary of the Anthropocene seeks to capture this precise moment when the biosphere and technosphere merge and mesh into one new hybrid body. What happens when technologies and their unintended consequences become so ubiquitous that it is difficult to define what is “natural” or not? What does it mean to live in a hybrid environment made of organic and synthetic matter? What new specimens are currently populating our planet at the beginning of the 21st century?”
Contributors:
Aliens in Green
Geoffrey C. Bowker
Benjamin H. Bratton
Pauline Briand
Pierre-Olivier Dittmar
Matthieu Duperrex
Michel Lussault
Alexandre Monnin
Nicolas Maigret
Nicolas Nova
Center for Genomic Gastronomy
Anna Tsing
Chapters:
Forewords
Kingdom of Minerals
Kingdom of Animals
Kingdom of Plants
Kingdom of Misc.
On Recombinant Commons
On Temporalities
On Artificiality
On Ferality
On Bestiaries
On Classification
On Life With Non-Living
On Negative Commons
On Planetary Indigestion
On Anthropogenic Landscapes
A Bestiary of the Anthropocene includes more than 100 original collages and handmade pointillist illustrations, 60 written observations on selected hybrid specimens & creatures, 11 long-form contributions, and original critical essays by leading experts.
Interested in more anthropocentric readings related to DISNOVATION.ORG? Check out Life … After the Crash, HOLO’s dossier on the artist collective’s “Post Growth” exhibition and research project. In it, writer and critic Chloe Stead delves into production, energy, and kinship futures of the world after fossil fuels and zombie capitalism.
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