A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting (State: As of Bonn Climate Change Conference, October 2014) is a collection of items contributed from places that may disappear owing to the combined physical, political, and economic impacts of climate change, … Continue reading “A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting”
An analysis of postcolonial ecologies requires engaging with the everyday dynamics of ruination and resistance.
o “Cotton is in our clothes, in banknotes, cattle feed, gauze, toothpaste, and film rolls. All the while, cotton is traded more unfairly than any other commodity, and its reputation as a natural product is easily exposed as an illusion: cotton uses up more pesticides than any other plant, devastates entire regions such as the Aral Sea due to its excessive thirst, acts as the Trojan horse of genetic engineering, and drives the global industrialization of agriculture.”
The World of Matter is an “international art and media project [whose collective works critique] the global ecologies of resource exploitation and circulation.” WoM artists take to task such instances of exploitation as Monsanto’s “white gold revolution” — a … Continue reading “Representing India’s “Suicide Economy””
Where James Lovelock’s Gaia meets Pachamama, at the confluence of indigenous knowledge, modern environmental activism, and ecological/climate sciences, the politics of the Rights of Nature were gradually forged in Ecuador.
The global politics of resource scarcity is a chief theme of World of Matter’s practice, but another scarcity is evident too: a scarcity of representations by Indigenous and subaltern people, whose resources have been most exploited, first by colonialism … Continue reading “Refusing the Settler-Colonial Gaze”
“Already we are seeing the excesses of speculative urbanism, which leaves behind acres of crumbling, uninhabited concrete monuments. Indeed, it seems that the urban boom not only consumes vast amounts of land and resources in the process of construction, but also might in fact use up even more in the moment of dissolution.”
Oh Mister Hatfield, you’ve been good to us: You’ve made it rain in ways promiscuous! From Saugus down to San Diego’s Bay They bless you for the rains of yesterday. But Mister Hatfield, listen now; Make us this vow: … Continue reading “Geo-engineering: Climates of Control”
Responding to our “Postcolonial Ecologies” panel at September’s “Radical Materialisms” conference held at CUNY Graduate Center, World of Matter author Peter Mörtenböck identified two distinct, but interconnected questions animating our discussion. First: How do we align politically, theoretically, and … Continue reading “Provincializing Humanism: Reflections on World of Matter”
The People’s Climate March (PCM) in New York City last September drew nearly 400,000 people, making it the largest environmental rally ever. On the eve of the march, however, critics began to hurl stones. One critic pointed out that … Continue reading “The Environmental Dance”
Species extinctions are not new. Scientists say that evolution is relentless and ecology is incredibly dynamic: species have always been disappearing and emerging across multiple scales of time and place. Mass extinctions (i.e., cataclysms that wipe out three-quarters of … Continue reading “The World is Dead. Long Live the World.”
India’s strong man Narendra Modi embraces President Barak Obama. The photograph was taken during President Obama’s second visit to India, in January 2015. Obama has made two visits to India, more than any other US president in office. Source: … Continue reading “Indian Democracy and Hindu Populism: The Modi Regime”
Above, a volunteer for the Election Commission carrying Electronic Voting Machines calls for directions to a polling centre that he was to help set up and man in Hajipur, Bihar as it goes to polls in the second to … Continue reading “Modi Will Be Put to the Test”
After casting his vote quite early in the day, Yangala Chittiah (pictured above), a resident of Pydipalli in West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, spent the afternoon waving at voters heading to the polling station dressed as former chief minister YS … Continue reading “Regional parties are dead? Long live the regional parties!”
Indian resident Maqbool Alam Siddiqui watches a bank of televisions featuring images of Narendra Modi taking his oath as India’s Prime Minister in New Delhi at a multi brand electronic showroom in Mumbai on on May 26, 2014. New … Continue reading “Modi's Media”
