Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection
The ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 has exposed SARS-CoV-2 as a potent non-human actant that resists the joint scientific, public health and socio-political efforts to contain and understand both the virus and the illness. Yet, such a narrative appears to conceal more than it reveals. The seemin...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Catalan |
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Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Artnodes |
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| Online Access: | https://raco.cat/index.php/Artnodes/article/view/374989 |
| _version_ | 1818461438873698304 |
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| author | Marietta Radomska Mayra Citlalli Rojo Gómez Margherita Pevere Terike Haapoja |
| author_facet | Marietta Radomska Mayra Citlalli Rojo Gómez Margherita Pevere Terike Haapoja |
| author_sort | Marietta Radomska |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 has exposed SARS-CoV-2 as a potent non-human actant that resists the joint scientific, public health and socio-political efforts to contain and understand both the virus and the illness. Yet, such a narrative appears to conceal more than it reveals. The seeming agentiality of the novel coronavirus is itself but one manifestation of the continuous destruction of biodiversity, climate change, socio-economic inequalities, neocolonialism, overconsumption and the anthropogenic degradation of nature. Furthermore, focusing on the virus – an entity that holds an ambiguous status between the ‘living’ and ‘non-living’ – brings into question the issue of the agentiality of non/living matter. While the story of viral potency seems to get centre stage, overshadowing the complex and perverse entanglement of processes and phenomena which activated these potentials in the first place, the Covid-19 pandemic also becomes a prism that sheds light on the issues of environmental violence; social and environmental injustices; more-than-human agentiality; and ethico-political responses that the present situation may mobilise.
This article serves as a written record of joint conversations between artists and researchers in the working group ‘Non/Living Queerings’ that formed part of the online series of events ‘Braiding Friction’ organised by the research project Biofriction. The article strives to capture the collective effort of braiding and weaving a variety of situated perspectives, theoretical toolboxes, knowledges and experiences against the background of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, the text focuses on the issues of crisis, ‘amplification effect’, viral agency and the changing notions of humanity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T23:46:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-20a51399a88c4bcf8edd0e520c62e8d3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1695-5951 |
| language | Catalan |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T23:46:09Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Artnodes |
| spelling | doaj.art-20a51399a88c4bcf8edd0e520c62e8d32022-12-21T22:43:22ZcatUniversitat Oberta de CatalunyaArtnodes1695-59512021-01-012710.7238/a.v0i27.374989Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective ReflectionMarietta Radomska0Mayra Citlalli Rojo Gómez1Margherita Pevere2Terike Haapoja3Linköping University, SwedenIndependent artist-researcherAalto University, HelsinkiParsons Fine Arts and NYU, New YorkThe ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 has exposed SARS-CoV-2 as a potent non-human actant that resists the joint scientific, public health and socio-political efforts to contain and understand both the virus and the illness. Yet, such a narrative appears to conceal more than it reveals. The seeming agentiality of the novel coronavirus is itself but one manifestation of the continuous destruction of biodiversity, climate change, socio-economic inequalities, neocolonialism, overconsumption and the anthropogenic degradation of nature. Furthermore, focusing on the virus – an entity that holds an ambiguous status between the ‘living’ and ‘non-living’ – brings into question the issue of the agentiality of non/living matter. While the story of viral potency seems to get centre stage, overshadowing the complex and perverse entanglement of processes and phenomena which activated these potentials in the first place, the Covid-19 pandemic also becomes a prism that sheds light on the issues of environmental violence; social and environmental injustices; more-than-human agentiality; and ethico-political responses that the present situation may mobilise. This article serves as a written record of joint conversations between artists and researchers in the working group ‘Non/Living Queerings’ that formed part of the online series of events ‘Braiding Friction’ organised by the research project Biofriction. The article strives to capture the collective effort of braiding and weaving a variety of situated perspectives, theoretical toolboxes, knowledges and experiences against the background of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, the text focuses on the issues of crisis, ‘amplification effect’, viral agency and the changing notions of humanity.https://raco.cat/index.php/Artnodes/article/view/374989the non/livingqueeringCovid-19 pandemicartvulnerabilityamplification |
| spellingShingle | Marietta Radomska Mayra Citlalli Rojo Gómez Margherita Pevere Terike Haapoja Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection Artnodes the non/living queering Covid-19 pandemic art vulnerability amplification |
| title | Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection |
| title_full | Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection |
| title_fullStr | Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection |
| title_short | Non/Living Queerings, Undoing Certainties, and Braiding Vulnerabilities: A Collective Reflection |
| title_sort | non living queerings undoing certainties and braiding vulnerabilities a collective reflection |
| topic | the non/living queering Covid-19 pandemic art vulnerability amplification |
| url | https://raco.cat/index.php/Artnodes/article/view/374989 |
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