With every superstorm, flood, drought, or heatwave, the uneven effects of climate change are made clear. Coastal communities in the poorer nations are displaced from their homelands while wealthy nations move to tighten border restrictions. Private fire services are hired to … Continue reading “Red Natural History: An Introduction”
The ways we tell big stories of social change are born of the perspectives gained by hindsight, and this story exemplifies such hindsight. The Paradigm Shift that occurred during the twenty-first century emerged from relentless struggles for justice conjoined with … Continue reading “A Possible Decolonized, Indigenized Future”
World of Matter defines a cutting-edge mode of collective artistic and interdisciplinary research, mediated through constellations of texts, images, and videos, which shares the imperative to explore how the world matters — how it enters into both materialization and conflicted forms of valuation.
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”
Governments make disaster plans. Between municipal, state, and federal level agencies, the amount of planning for potential disasters is enormous. But during Hurricane Sandy, plans that took several years and millions of dollars to produce were thrown out almost … Continue reading “The Fantasy of Disaster Response: Governance and Social Action During Hurricane Sandy”
The memories are very clear. I remember the transformer exploding. A flash of white. Purple, green and a neon pink. Then the lights go out. Cut. I am on Rockaway Beach, beloved title of The Ramones for the … Continue reading “After Sandy”
Photographer Erica Lansner traveled by bicycle from her home in Morningside Heights to Staten Island the week after Hurricane Sandy hit New York. During the course of a week, she visited and photographed the people and neighborhoods near New … Continue reading “Photography on Sandy: Erica Lansner”
Anne McClintock is the Simone de Beauvoir Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been the recipient of many awards, including two MacArthur-SSRC Fellowships. She is the author of Imperial Leather: Race, … Continue reading “Photography on Sandy: Anne McClintock”
As we wound down this dossier on Hurricane Sandy and NYC, Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck the Philippines a devastating blow. The still-unfolding tragedy is a stark reminder of the fact that climate change is not experienced evenly. While Hurricane Sandy … Continue reading “Combined and Uneven Disaster”
After the opening shot of a dilapidated house, Beasts of the Southern Wild begins mise-en-scène with a tight close-up of the house’s interior, the screen filled with small brown crossed legs, a cluttered dirty floor, and a small brown hand holding a … Continue reading “Beasts of the Southern Wild – The Romance of Precarity I”
This film should have been a choice text for me; I love post-apocalyptic stories that end badly. But the heaps of critical praise the film has garnered don’t even seem to notice it as a dystopia. “This movie is a … Continue reading “Beasts of the Southern Wild – The Romance of Precarity II”
An excerpt from Andrew Ross’s Bird on Fire talk, delivered at the CUNY Grad Center on October 28, 2011. Untitled from Social Text on Vimeo.
Sunday, December 4 Winnie Overbeck, Coordinator of the World Rainforest Movement, begins this presentation on Fake Forests. He was introduced by Wally Menne of Timberwatch. Winnie, he told us, is going to explain why we oppose industrial tree monocultures. My … Continue reading “Fake Forests”
Saturday, December 3 Today was the Global Day of Action against the UN COP17. Here in Durban, a large and very spirited crowd wound through the city towards the site of COP17 negotiations. Here are photos of the day, all … Continue reading “Global Day of Action”
Friday, December 2 REDD stands for the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries. The idea is that forest-dwelling peoples around the world will be paid not to cut down their habitats. … Continue reading “REDD Teach-In”
