No Oikos for the Cyborg by Navaya Vishnoi

Publication Information Navaya Vishnoi Bachelor of Architecture Thesis, 2019-20 Thesis Advisor: Doug Jackson Copyright ÂŠ 2020, Navaya Vishnoi California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo All Right Reserved No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the copyright owners. At the time of publishing, all content by author is believed to be either public domain or used appropriately according to the standard of fair use and attribution. Inaccuracies may be directed to the attention of the author and will be corrected in subsequent editions. Contact: Navaya Vishnoi (author) navayavishnoi@gmail.com Doug Jackson (advisor) dojackso@calpoly.edu First Edition, 2020

I dedicate this book to all those who stood by me and supported me through this endeavour. To my Mom, Everything I am and everything I have achieved is because of you. You showed me by example what it means to dream big and fight to make those dreams come true. You were the voice of reason when I was too tired to think, a source of love when I felt alone, the epitome of strength when I felt weak, and my moral compass all my life. Thank you for everything you have sacrificed for me. Every day I work hard to make you proud and be the person you raised me to be. I love you more than you could ever know. To Leo Cailles, Thank you for supporting me and believing in me these last three years. You were there for every achievement, every anxiety-driven breakdown, every high and every low. You are the most driven, passionate, hard-working and talented person I know, and your persistent curiosity to learn more inspires me every day. I love you and I am so privileged that you are a part of my life. To Doug Jackson, I went into my fifth year, unsure of where I wanted my life to go, but thanks to your guidance and your unfaltering support, I found a passion in research and I fell in love with my thesis topic. Thank you for giving me the space to discover my passion and motivating me when I felt like giving up, I will forever appreciate it. To my beautiful friends who supported me through this year and all others: Sydney Nguyen, Megan Nguyen, Esteban Lugo and Maddie Feron, I love you all so much and you are incredible people that I feel blessed to know. Thank you for being in my life and being the bright rays of sunshine that you are. To Dr. Padma Maitland and Dr. Anna Rios-Rojas, Thank you for being so supportive through this process and helping me when I needed your guidance and your expertise. This thesis is multi-disciplinary and it is so because you helped me every moment that I asked it of you. I will always appreciate it. Thank you for teaching me to dream of beautiful futures filled with love.

Table of Contents 0 Abstract i 1. The Anthropocene 1 i. The Uncanny Anthropocene 1 ii. Dating the Anthropocene 5 The Three Dominant Theories of the Anthropocene iii. The Play of Domination 9 The Date of 1452 and Epistemic Violence

2. Othering 11 i. Where does the Othered Subaltern Belong? 11 Alekhander Ikhideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collages ii. Othering Weaponized 13 Protests in India iii. Eugenics and Modernism 17 Le Corbusier and the Standard Human

3. Technologies and Agency 19 i. Who are Technologies Designed for 19 Umwelt and Oikos ii. Birth Control Technologies and Agency 21 Were they Ever Meant to Provide Agency? iii. Technologies of the Precarious Modernity 23 Police Brutality and the Weaponization of Technology iv. Origin Stories of Technologies 25 Sentinelese Tribe

4. Normative Determinism 27 5. The Cyborg 29 i. Donna Haraway and the Cyborg Manifesto 29 ii. Who is a Cyborg? 31

6. Queered Science Fiction and Storytelling

7. No Oikos for the Cyborg

i. Queer(ed) Speculations, Radicalized Imaginations 35 ii. Afrofuturism storytelling 37

i. Thesis Statement 39 ii. Blurring_Section 41 iii. Queer World-Making 43

8. Technology as a Shape-Shifter 51 i. Diffusionism and Reading the Shape-Shifter 51 ii. Design Experiment 53 iii. Jugaad: Queering Technology 55 iv. Jugaad: Method of Mimicry 57 v. Vellum: Visphot 59

9. Affordances and Multiplicities 67

i. Design Experiment 67 ii. Queer Aesthetics 69 Shifting Perceptions of Binaries

10. Aesthetics and Perception 75 i. Decolonizing Nature in a Post Capitalist World 75 ii. Place-Thought 77 iii. Affordances and Ecological Perception 79 iv. Design Experiment 81 v. Patchiness and Multispecies Collaboration 83 vi. Temporalities of Perception 85

11. Conclusion 87 12. Bibliography 89

“I do not wish to render a picture of a utopia that is prescriptive. I want instead to connote an ideality—a desire for a thing, or a way, that is not here but is nonetheless desirable, something worth striving for. This desire does not lead to practical politics or even a practical critical practice, because pragmatism has only ever failed us.” José Esteban Muñoz

Abstract This thesis is a rejection of the universalist connotations of the term Anthropocene, and it critically analyzes the discourse that aims to mark the beginning of said epoch. It believes the designation of this origin story to be a political act, and establishes colonial and capitalist agents and the inherent discourse of modernity and progress as the catalysts of the destructive Anthropocene. It analyzes the othering processes that have been a consequence of the epoch but have largely been ignored in the discussion of the origin story and the global impact. This thesis identifies the binary social and technological categories established by the discourse of modernity to keep power structures intact, and aims to blur these categories through speculative world-making techniques. By identifying the Anthropocene as an aesthetic event, this thesis calls for a shift in biological and sensorial perceptions in the process of imagining alternative futures. It rejects normative determinism, and achieves this shift in perception through the process of queering. It calls for de-centering of the standardized human subject. This de-centering requires a reimagination of everything that would have previously been encompassed in an oikosâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a home, to begin with. Speculated in a post-Capitalist world that is achieved through global Revolution, this thesis creates a world where humans are scavengers. Focusing on the technological tools that the Anthropocene has used to preserve the standard anthropocentric space, this thesis queers the need for original instrumentality. The scavengers find these technological artifacts, but are deprived of the standard anthropocentric and anthroponormative narratives that defined their original instrumentality. This defamiliarization of technology would create a multitude of new subjectivities that would blur the boundaries between human and non-human, standard and the other. This would result in a flat ontology of consciousness that would reveal new ways of collaborative, revolutionary living.

world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. he world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axi tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the w world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. he world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axi tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the w world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on1its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on it ld has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its ax

ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has is. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilte world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on i ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has is. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilte world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on i ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt ts axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has xis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilted on its axis. the world has tilt

global deforestration

“

global ecological footprint

The ‘Anthropocene’ is a term widely used since its coining by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to denote the present geological time interval, in which many conditions and processes on Earth are profoundly altered by human impact. This impact has intensified significantly since the onset of industrialization, taking us out of the Earth System state typical of the Holocene Epoch that post-dates the last glaciation1

Anthropocene global carbon corridors

IMAGE SOURCE: GLOBAIA.ORG

global light pollution

The uncanny

The Anthropocene has been a contended issue for decades. While it first appeared in the article by Crutzen and Stoermer in 2000, its use began in conversations in 1880s.2 While not an official geologic term, it is widely used in the disourse and is used to describe the dominant nature of human impact on the planet’s geology and ecology. The word “Anthropocene” stems from the Greek word anthropos which translates to man or human being. This root renders anthropocentrism as the framework that enables the manifestation of a distinct human space upon the planet. If this framework is to be believed then with increased domestication of the planet, the actual contingency and abstraction of this anthropocentric space has become obscured, and instead it has become the dominant epistemological framework through which the world is perceived, and according to which human actions are undertaken. However, the Anthropocene presents a condition within which the certainty of this human space has been called into question. It has revealed that human actions are entangled with non-human entities and forces, and produce effects within spatial and temporal dimensions that fall outside of the human frame of reference. This dimensional estrangement is visible in the images used to

comprehend the concept. The images above are from Globeaïa, which uses satellite imagery and remote-sensing technology to create global visualizations mapping human activity. Human impact at a planetary scale cannot be visualized in a two or even three dimensional image, and therefore exceeds human perception.3 The recent, drastic climatological disasters directly affecting human life, reveal that the very technology deployed to secure human space has also been instrumental in placing that space in crisis—resulting in unpredictable climatological effects separated in time and space from their initial causes. The Anthropocene has made humanity uncanny to itself. 1. “Results of Binding Vote by AWG Released 21st May 2019,” Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, May 21, 2019, http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/ working-groups/anthropocene/. 2. “Welcome to the Anthropocene.” Globaïa. Accessed May 26, 2020. https://globaia.org/anthropocene. 3. T.J, Demos, “Welcome to the Anthropocene! - Still Searching.” Fotomuseum Winterthur. Accessed May 25, 2020. https://www.fotomuseum.ch/en/ explore/still-searching/articles/27011_welcome_to_ the anthropocene.

I G B P

N E W S L E T T E R

4 1

Will Steffen

References

IGBP Secretariat, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, S104 05 Stockholm, SWEDEN E-mail: will@igbp.kva.se

Mann, M.E., Bradley, R.S. and Hughes, M.K. (1998) Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries. Nature 392: 779-787 Petit, J.R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N.I., Barnola, J.-M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Davis, M., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotlyakov, V.M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V.Y., Lorius, C., Pepin, L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E. and Stievenard, M. (1999) Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399: 429-436.

May 2000

No. 41 The International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme (IGBP): A Study of Global Change of the International Council for Science (ICSU)

Thelife“Anthropocene” Sustaining Earth’s support systems – the challenge for the next decade and beyond by Paul J.byCrutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer Berrien Moore III, Chair, IGBP

Integration, interdiscplinarity, and a sys• A focus on three cross-cutting tems approach mark the emerging ethos issues where advances in our in IGBP as the Programme evolves rapscientific understanding are idly into its second decade of international required to help human global change research. societies develop in ways that Life Finally, mechanized human preThe name Holocene (“Recent Whole”)for groves. panied e.g. by a growth in cattleSustaining popu- Earth’s In late February in Cuernavaca, sustain the global life support Support Systems ........... 1 Mexico, the Scientific Committee of the the post-glacial geological epoch of the lation tosystem. 1400 million (6) (about one cow dation (“fisheries”) removes more than IGBP held a landmark meeting in which research will be undertaken in the conit was decided that theseems strength and mapast ten to twelve thousand years 25% of...the per The average size family). Urbanisation The Waikiki Principles 3 primary production of the turity of the Programme would allow an text of an expanding and strengthening to have been proposed foremphasis the first oceans in the upwelling regions and 35% has collaboration even increased tenfold with the International Hu-in the past increased on thetime systemic chalman Dimensions Programme on Global lenges of Global by Sir Charles Lyell in 1833, andEnvironmental adoptedChange. the temperate continental shelf recentury. In a few generations mankind Earth-Systemin Models The strength has been made particularly Environmental Change (IHDP) and the of Intermediate World Climate the Research Programme by the International Geological Congress is exhausting fossil fuels that were gions (10). Anthropogenic effects are also apparent in the developing Core Project (WCRP). The new challenge is to build, syntheses. Complexity .................... 4 in Bologna in 1885 (1). During the generated well illustrated by the history of biotic over several hundred million This strength and capability of the on our collective scientific foundation, an international programme ofSO Earth ,System at this pointgradually in time is extraordinarglobally about Holocene mankind’sIGBP activities communities that leave remains in lake years. The release of 2 a comThe Flying Leap ............ 7 ily valuable since the SC-IGBP also rec- Science. This effort will be driven by 160 mon Tg/year to the atmosphere by coal sediments. The effects documented ingrew into a significant geological, mormission and common questions, ognised that the challenges of Global Enemploying visionary and creative scienChange demandon a treatment and oil burning, is at least two times clude phological force, as vironmental recognised early Understanding Earth’smodification of the geochemical tific approaches, and based on an everof the full Earth System. It is simply a recloser collaboration across disciplines, relarger than the sum of all natural emis- ................... by a number of scientists. Thus, G.P. of the cycle in large freshwater systems and ocMetabolism 9 ality that a scientific understanding search themes, programmes, nations, and Earth System is required to help human Marsh already in 1864 published a book sions, occurring mainly as marine dime- cur in systems remote from primary societies develop in ways that sustain the regions. Highlights Driving thefrom new structures and ap- (7); support system. the oceans from of GAIM’s with the title “Man global andlifeNature”, more thyl-sulfide sources (11-13). The core of the IGBP Programme for proaches are two critical messages that First Phase ................... 11 we learn that 30-50% Vitousek et al. (8) recently reprinted asthe “The Earth as ModiConsidering these and many other have become ever clearer through the past next decade will be built around three decade plus of global change research. interlocking complementary of the land surface hasasbeen transformed fied by Human Action” (2). and Stoppani in strucmajor...... and still growing impacts of huFirst, the Earth functions a system, The “Anthropocene” 17 tures: with properties and behaviour are action; more that nitrogen is now man activities on earth and atmosphere, 1873 rated mankind’s activities as a “new by human • Core projects that focus on key characteristic of the system as a whole. synthetically and applied as ferti- Dataand at all, including global, scales, it telluric force which in power and Regional These include critical thresholds, ‘switch’ processes willunivercontinue to be fixed or ‘control’ points, strong than nonlinearities, the foundation for the IGBP; Bundles ........................ in agriculture fixed naturally sality may be compared to the greater lizers seems to18us more than appropriate to teleconnections, and unresolvable uncer• A formalClark integrated(3)]. study of in all terrestrial ecosystems; forces of earth” [quoted from emphasize the central role of mankind tainties. Understanding components of the the escape the Earth System as a whole, in is critically important, but is theSystem atmosphere of NOthefromPeople fossil Stoppani already spoke of andthe intoEarth and events ........ 19 and ecology by proposing to in geology its full functional insufficient on its own to understand of the Earth System as a geographical complexity and biomass combustion likewise use the term “anthropocene” for the curanthropozoic era. Mankind has now in- over fuelfunctioning whole. time, and

Contents

habited or visited almost all places on Earth; he has even set foot on the moon. The great Russian geologist V.I.Vernadsky (4) in 1926 recognized the increasing power of mankind as part of the biosphere with the following excerpt “... the direction in which the processes of evolution must proceed, namely towards increasing consciousness and thought, and forms having greater and greater influence on their surroundings”. He, the French Jesuit P. Teilhard de Chardin and E. Le Roy in 1924 coined the term “noösphere”, the world of thought, to mark the growing role played by mankind’s brainpower and technological talents in shaping its own future and environment. The expansion of mankind, both in numbers and per capita exploitation of Earth’s resources has been astounding (5). To give a few examples: During the past 3 centuries human population increased tenfold to 6000 million, accom-

is larger than the natural inputs, giving rise to photochemical ozone (“smog”) formation in extensive regions of the world; more than half of all accessible fresh water is used by mankind; human activity has increased the species extinction rate by thousand to ten thousand fold in the tropical rain forests (9) and several climatically important “greenhouse” gases have substantially increased in the atmosphere: CO2 by more than 30% and CH4 by even more than 100%. Furthermore, mankind releases many toxic substances in the environment and even some, the chlorofluorocarbon gases, which are not toxic at all, but which nevertheless have led to the Antarctic “ozone hole” and which would have destroyed much of the ozone layer if no international regulatory measures to end their production had been taken. Coastal wetlands are also affected by humans, having resulted in the loss of 50% of the world’s man-

rent geological epoch. The impacts of current human activities will continue over long periods. According to a study 1 by Berger and Loutre (14), because of the anthropogenic emissions of CO2, climate may depart significantly from natural behaviour over the next 50,000 years. To assign a more specific date to the onset of the “anthropocene” seems somewhat arbitrary, but we propose the latter part of the 18th century, although we are aware that alternative proposals can be made (some may even want to include the entire holocene). However, we choose this date because, during the past two centuries, the global effects of human activities have become clearly noticeable. This is the period when data retrieved from glacial ice cores show the beginning of a growth in the atmospheric concentrations of several “greenhouse gases”, in particular CO2 and CH4 (7). Such a starting date also coincides with James Watt´s invention of the steam

4. The original article where Paul Crutzen coined the term “Anthropocene.”

marking the beginning of the

marking the beginning of the The phenomenon of the Anthropocene has been a topic for much contemplation. Equally debated is the determination of the date when geologic time passed the Holocene and entered the Anthropocene. The Holocene has been ongoing for the last 11,700 years,and, while we are still living in the Meghalayan Age of the Holocene Epoch, we are informally in the Anthropocene.5 The International Commission on Stratigraphy tasked the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) with determining the beginning of Anthropocene. After presenting their findings to the 35th International Geological Congress in South Africa in 2016, they conducted a binding vote and released the information in May 2019. This result has been passed on to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, who will cast the final vote. They voted on what consitutes a Golden Spike i.e. a significant shift in dominant geological forces.6 At this time, the scientific community is primarily talking about three possible origin stories: 1.The Columbian “Exchange” and the Orbis Spike (1610) 2.The Industrial Revolution and the Steam Engine (1800s) 3.The Great Acceleration, World War II and the Nuclear attack by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (mid 20th century)7

Additionally, the debate of the Anthropocene is rooted in geology, and the theories that refer to the Industrial Revolution and World War II, render geology as a neutral topic. While the 1610 theory has its own shortcomings of not acknowledging the slave trade that had already been established by Columbus by that point and making the date about white conquest and exchange in flora and fauna as goods, at least it addresses the genocide of 50 million Indigenous bodies in the Americas and chattel slavery. The Industrial Revolution theory is guilty of keeping the term anthropos central as it creates a narrative of rising carbon levels hiding behind “modernity” and “progress.”10 It moves the Anthropocene discourse to the Global North by focusing on capitalist modes of production rather than the exploitation of black, brown and indigenous bodies to achieve those modes of production. After Britain emancipated slaves in 1833, a large portion of the £20 million taxpayer payout that was given as “compensation” to slave owners was invested in building railroads, mines and Britain’s colonial enterprises. But the Anthropocene discourse chooses to focus on the “technological development” of the time, rendering the Anthropocene “inevitable” in the face of capitalist “growth.”11

“

The last two have more traction, and in the final binding vote of 2019, 29 out of 33 members voted for the origin story of the Anthropocene to be placed in the mid-twentieth century, during the Great Acceleration and World War II.8 All of these theories are technically correct, as in they are based on scientific evidence. But dating the Anthropocene is not purely a scientific act, it is a political one as well.9 The most popular theories rest on one crucial word–anthropos. The definition of the Anthropocene centralizes “human impact,” thereby making the argument essentialist and universalist. It begins to define an inherent-ness to human behavior that makes the Anthropocene seem inevitable.

So the explorer as hero (Columbus) is replaced by the inventor as hero (Watt and his engine) in the progress narrative of Man as the agentic center and authority of power, cut with some European genius myth to rarefying the white male subject and his imperial intellectualism. 12 Kathryn Yussoff

5. Globeaia.org 6. Kathryn, Yussoff. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. 24. 7. Yussoff, 24. 8. Anthropocene Working Group’s Report of the Results of Vote, May 21st 2019. 9. Demos 2015 10. Yussoff, 39. 11. Legacies of British Slave-ownership, accessed June 1, 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/. 12. Yussoff, 39.

anthropocene is a political act

anthropocene is a political act. They ignore not only the bodies bought and sold and stripped of personhood and the subsequent investments in colonial practices from emancipation “compensation” to slave owners, but then they also move forward with the universalist argument for the Anthropocene. Black and brown people were stripped of their homes, families, lives and freedom and 200 years later, the “we” in the Anthropocene discourse incriminates them as well. The Great Acceleration theory also attempts to separate geology from biology as done by the 1800s theory. It refers to the nuclear radio-isotope residue from the testing in Alamogrodo, New Mexico on July 16th, 1945 as the beginning of a stratigraphic change. It does so because Plutonium absorbs into clay and its traces will be found in the sedimentary data for the next 100,000 years.13 While it addresses the geopolitical consequences of this date by relating it to World War II and the global economic and technological prowess it represents, it chooses to ignore the biopolitical connections. All humans now have trace of strontium90 in their bodies and scientists now use this presence to date human remains.14 As Kathryn Yussof discusses in A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, nuclear testing also marks the displacement and intensified exposure to radiation of Indigneous people of the Pacific Islands and the Aboriginal people in Australia.15 For example, the Indigenous peoples in Bikini atoll were subjected to 30 years of radiation exposure, during which they were displaced to uninhabitable islands. Some of them returned to the atoll islands despite radiation poisoning in the water, because they were dying of famine on the islands they were relaocated to. “Islanders on Rongelap and Utrok exposed by the Bravo detonation (six islands were vaporized and fourteen left uninhabitable) were subject to immediate radiation from the blasts and suffered visible burns, causing both immediate and lasting epidemiological legacies and toxic intimacies with leukemia, neoplasms, and thyroid cancers. The white powder of irradiated coral dust that fell throughout the Atolls was dangerously radioactive. Not recognizing this new material substance, children played in it.” 16

“Tree let your naked arms fall nor extend vain entreaties to the radiant ball. This is no gallant monsoon’s flash, no dashing trade wind’s blast, The fading green of your magic emanations shall not make pure again these polluted skies . . . for this is no ordinary sun.” HONE TUWHARE This is a poem by Maori poet Hone Tuwhare, who talks of the radioactive dust coating the trees, food, water and killing their way of life.17 This is the legacy of the “Anthropocene.” Every theory discussed uses the universalist argument, when the Anthopocene has disproportionately affected black and brown bodies and has normalized systems of oppression which cater to the needs of white cis-hetero-patriarchal capitalism. 13. Yussoff, 44. 14. Ibid, 44. 15. Ibid, 45. 16. Ibid, 45. 17. Conrad Heine, “Hone Tuwhare: Maori Poet Whose ‘No Ordinary Sun’ Catapulted Him to Celebrity,” The Independent (Independent Digital News and Media, October 23, 2011), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ hone-tuwhare-maori-poet-whose-no-ordinary-sun- catapulted-him-to-celebrity-771415.html.

At fifteen I decide to do my history project on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands time to learn my own history

History Project Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

I weave through book after article after website all on how the U.S. military once used my island home for nuclear testing I sift through political jargon tables of nuclear weapons with names like Operation Bravo Crossroads and Ivy quotes from american leaders like 90,000 people are out there. Who gives a damn? I’m not mad I already knew all of this I glance at a photograph of a boy, peeled skin arms legs suspended a puppet next to a lab coat lost in his clipboard I read firsthand accounts of what we call jelly babies tiny beings with no bones skin—red as tomatoes the miscarriages gone unspoken the broken translations I never told my husband I thought it was my fault I thought there must be something wrong inside me

images source: Environmental Justice Atlas https://ejatlas.org/conflict/nuclear-colonialism-in-marshall-islands 18. Emelihter Kihleng.“Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.” The Contemporary Pacific 30, no. 1 (2018): 258+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed June 5, 2020).

I flip through snapshots of american marines and nurses branded white with bloated grins sucking beers and tossing beach balls along our shores and my islander ancestors, cross-legged before a general listening to his fairy tale about how it’s for the good of mankind to hand over our islands let them blast radioactive energy into our sleepy coconut trees

our sagging breadfruit trees our busy fishes that sparkle like new sun into our coral reefs brilliant as an aurora borealis woven beneath a glassy sea God will thank you they told us yea as if God Himself ordained those powdered flakes to drift onto our skin hair eyes to seep into our bones We mistook radioactive fallout for snow

God will thank you they told us

like God’s just been waiting for my people to vomit all of humanity’s sins onto impeccable white shores gleaming like the cross burned into our open scarred palms at one point in my research I stumble on a photograph of goats tied to american ships bored and munching on tubs of grass At the bottom a caption read Goats and pigs were left on naval ships as test subjects. Thousands of letters flew in from america protesting animal abuse. At 15 I want radioactive energy megatons of tnt and a fancy degree anything and everything I could ever need to send ripples of death through a people who put goats before human beings so their skin can shrivel

beneath the glare of hospital room lights three generations later as they watch their grandfather/aunty/ cousin’s life drip across that same black screen knots of knuckles tied to steel beds cold and absent of any breath But I’m only 15 so I finish my project graph my people’s death by cancer on flow charts in 3-D gluestick my ancestors’ voice onto a posterboard I bought from office max staple tables screaming the millions of dollars stuffed into our mouths generation after generation after generation and at the top I spray painted in bold stenciled yellow FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND and entered it in the school districtwide competition called History Day my parents were quietly proud and so was my teacher and when the three balding white judges finally came around to my project one of them looked at it and said Yea . . . but it wasn’t really for the good of mankind, though was it? and I lost.18

Domination

The Project of

Sylvia Wynter in her 900 page unpublished manuscript, Black Metamorphosis:New Natives in a New World proposes the beginning of the New World in 1452, when slaves were forced to work in sugar plantations on the Portugese island of Madeira.19 She discusses how this was the first time there was a systemic replantation of ecologies and forced displacement of people. It was the first time that there is record of “reduction of Man to Labour and Nature to Land under the impulsion of the Market economy.”20

This event began the construction of a social Standard-where whiteness represents “full humanity” and blackness reflects a lack of.21 This event can be seen as the first time that race was applied as a social construct to dehumanize black and brown bodies, where, as Yussoff mentions, the black body is “transformed from the human subject of his own culture into the inhuman object of the European culture.”22Anibal Quijano, in the paper Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America mentions, “The new historical identities produced around the foundation of the idea of race in the new global structure of the control of labor were associated with

The Question of the Anthropocene

Capitalocene Eurocene Plantationocene Petrocene Extractionocene Oppressionocene

social roles and geohistorical places. In this way, both race and the division of labor remained structurally linked and mutually reinforcing, in spite of the fact that neither of them were necessarily dependent on the other in order to exist or change.”23 By establishing race as a biological categorization, Europeans established themselves as superior, and the colonized others as inferior. This allowed them to create epistemologies that represented modernity and positioned the Global North as the Subject. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak calls this “subjugated knowledge” based on established racial hierarchy “epistemic violence” and voices how this placed Europe as the production center of knowledge and the creator of historical narrative.24 The creation of the colonial other allowed Europeans to paint themselves as the harbingers of modernity to the savages and

“In its brief tenure, the Anthropocene has metamorphosed. It has been taken up in the world, purposed, and put to work as a conceptual grab, materialist history, and cautionary tale of planetary predicament. Equally, this planetary analytic has failed to do the work to properly identify its own histories of colonial earth- writing, to name the masters of broken earths, and to redress the legacy of racialized subjects that geology leaves in its wake.”27

Kathryn Yussoff

and these colonial activities were deemed necessary to civilize the savages. It becomes necessary to question the words modernity and civilization themselves at this point, especially within the discourse of the Anthropocene. If modernity is meant to represent technological advancements or secular thought or philosophy, then these fields were already being discussed in civilizations in India, China, Egypt and other “hubs” before Europe’s settler conquests. If modernity is meant to mean “new” then the civilizing agenda of Europeans should have been rendered obsolete. Anibal Quijano answers this question by claiming that for Europeans, modernity represented coloniality of power.25 Luiza Prado de O. Martins while discussing Anibal Quijano breaks down his concept of coloniality of power as constituted by three fundamental processes–domination, exploitation, conflict–which implicate what he believes are the four major areas of social existence: labour, sexuality, authority and subjectivity.26 Coloniality of power then represents global, total subjugation. It is an attempt to surpass the nature of localized pre-colonial “hubs” and extend European superiority over an interconnected network of colonized others. This global domination imperialist agenda makes the name “Anthropocene” highly problematic, since Eurocentriccis-hetero-patriarchal capitalism has been established as the cause of this phenomenon. It is a product of the curation of the white settler man as the Subject and the black, brown and/ or indigenous person as Object with the aim to globally trade Objects through capitalist means of production. The anthropos then, not only ignores the processes of oppression, extraction and exploitation, but also incriminates the othered colonized for their own dehumanization. Donna Haraway suggests the name Capitalocene–which places the systems of Capitalism and the interconnected white-cis-hetero patriarchy as the destructive catalysts of this age, that render humans, nonhumans and the resources of the planet as resources to be exploited.27

19.Yussoff, 33. 20.Ibid, 34. 21. Ibid, 35. 22.Ibid, 37 23. Anibal Quijano, and Michael Ennis. “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America.” Nepantla: Views from South 1, no. 3 (2000): 533-580. 536. 24. Rosalind C. Morris and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea (New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010). 25.Quijano, 537. 26. Luiza Prado De O. Martins, “Technoecologies of Birth Control: Biopolitics by Design,” LUIZA PRADO DE O. MARTINS, April 2017, https://www.luiza-prado.com/technoecologies. 27. Donna Jeanne Haraway. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016) 28. Yussoff, 2.

WHERE does the othered subaltern belong?

Alexander Ikhide’s collages potray images of rocks and minerals overlaid on seemingly “normal” photographs, representing the commodification of Black bodies on the African continent by colonial and neo-colonial powers.29 As previously mentioned, geology is not neutral and is instrinsic to biopolitics. Colonial and neo-colonial powers assign(ed) value to human life in terms of the exploited geology, thereby making personhood subjective. The subaltern did not fit the white cishetero-male standard and their dehumanization was rendered “normal.” With their agency stripped, the subaltern became possessions: belonging to the oppressor, but not allowed to feel any belonging. Coloniality of power used and uses forced mobility as a tool to deprive the subaltern of belonging, thereby affecting the four social existences mentioned by Quijano- labour, sexuality, authority and subjectivity.30 Whether in history as chattel slavery and the displacement of Indigenous and Aboriginal Pacific Islanders for nuclear testing, or in the present as neo-colonial support of governments in civil wars leading to the refugee crisis, othered identities are marginalized by forced mobility that estranges their perception of belonging. This estrangement is weaponized by the oppressors to target their agency as humans, and their identity is policed on every front. This policing of the othered identity manifests itself in complex ways today—religion, citizenship, nationalism are all methods through which the colonial standard is upheld in the “modern” world. The only way to understand the extents of oppression, therefore, is to look at identities intersectionally. Intersectionality, as defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, postulates that every person has layered identities and each of those layered identities face a different kind of oppression or privilege. Understanding oppression intersectionally allows an analysis of estrangement of belonging to occur specifically for individuals rather than in groups which results in pre-conceived notions attributed to those groups.31 Images source: alexanderikhide.com 29. www.alexanderikhide.com 30 Quijano, 557. 31 Kimberle Crenshaw,“Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.

othering

weaponized

Image 1 source_Hindustan Times Image 2 source_BBC World News

With a rise in nationalism globally, studying forced displacement and its intent to estrange personhood from belonging becomes necessary. This is a case study of this othering in India, perpetuated by a right-wing Hindu nationalist government in charge, acting like an internal neocolonial power against marginalized identities. 13

The first image shows a group of police officers, in riot gear, standing in front of a wall that has posters torn down and discarded on the floor. One poster remains, and it reads “Save India Together.” The image is taken in Shaheen Bagh, a locality in Delhi that held a sit-in protest for over a hundred days and is now abandoned due to a COVID-19 lockdown. The women- and minority-led protest was an outcry against recently passed bills—Citizenship Amendment Act that allows fast-tracked citizenship to people of all religions, except Islam, facing religious persecution in neighboring countries, and the National Register of Citizens, which requires documents from all Indians to prove their citizenship through the migration details of their ancestors.32 Together, these two bills make Indian Muslims second class citizens and puts lower caste folx at risk for the same. The second image focuses on one man, holding a gun, looking angry, and pointing it off the camera. There is a group of police officers standing off in the distance looking at the man nonchalantly. One of the officers is seen standing with his arms crossed as if witnessing an everyday event. The gun is pointed towards protestors rallying against the CAA and NRC bills on the streets of Delhi. Both the images are taken about a month or so apart, around the same area.

The most recent example of this silencing has been the arrests of student activists of Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi where, in February the police broke in and harassed students and shot at them for participating in political protests against the Islamophobic bills.34 These students, along with journalists have been charged under the Unlawful Actions Prevention Act—which was passed in 2019, a few days before the Indian Government put Kashmir under a lockdown and eradicated its autonomous status.35 Since then, journalists have been banned from entering Kashmir, but the news that manages to sneak out paints a bleak picture: the army burning houses, raping, murdering and the rest of India calling the action a heroic feat by Prime Minister Modi. The UAPA gives the government and the police force the power to render an individual as a “terrorist.” If the person poses a “threat” to the well-being of the nation, they could be charged. While never explicitly spoken, the timing of the UAPA coinciding with the Kashmir lockdown insinuates a silencing—it renders voicing dissent an act of terrorism, instantly creating a stranger that poses a threat to the well-being of the nation. The stranger is produced through the fear of the word “terrorist” which creates an image based on pre-conceived notions, and more often than not, that image is of a Muslim.

The poster still visible that the police officer is attempting to remove in image 1 says “Save India Together from Communal Ideology.” This poster was used in protests in the last few months, along with an amalgamation of poetry, graffiti, performance art and music as arsenal in dissent. But using COVID-19 as a cover, ruling party, BJP, is painting over all the graffiti on the walls of educational institutes around the country.33 The question arises: why, in a pandemic, are resources being used to paint over walls? The answer is not a surprise—the ruling party has been silencing minority and all dissenting voices ever since it came to power in 2014.

Sara Ahmed, in her paper Strange Encounters talks about the projection of danger on those who are already rendered as strangers by prevalent notions. She mentions “The discourse of

stranger danger not only allows the abdication of any social and political responsibility for the violence that takes place within legitimated spaces, and which is sanctioned through Law, but also becomes a mechanism for the justification of acts of violence against those who are already recognized as strangers.”36

32. Maria Abi-habib and Sameer Yasir, “As Modi Pushes Hindu Agenda, a Secular India Fights Back,” The New York Times (The New York Times, December 20, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/world/asia/india-muslims-citizenship.html 33. Fatima Khan, “Art Installations at Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Removed by Delhi Police, Graffiti Painted White,” ThePrint, March 24, 2020, https://theprint.in/india/ art-installations-at-shaheen-bagh- jamia-removed-by-delhi-police-graffiti-painted-white/387086/. 34. “Jamia Millia: Indian Student Injured as Man Fires at University Protest.” BBC News. BBC, January 30, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asiaindia-51308376. 35. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51308376. 36. Sara Ahmed, “Recognizing Strangers,” in Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality (London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2009). 36.

The UAPA in this sense is, therefore, considered a legitimate and justifiable law, and the arrests made under this law are what Ahmed says “a mechanism for the enforcement of boundary lines that almost secure the home nation as safe haven”37 While Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims have been living in tension ever since the Partition of India and Pakistan, the communal violence and the narrative of us versus them has become more prevalent since 2014—when BJP came into power with a nationalist agenda. This right-wing movement to establish a Hindu nation suddenly made Indian Muslims “unrecognizable” in the vision of an India with religious homogeneity and that stranger-ness justified the lockdown on Kashmir, the CAA, the NRC and the arrests of all those voicing concerns about the nationalist actions. This projection of danger becomes evident in the images. The police casually stands behind the Hindu man brandishing a gun and subsequently firing it at protestors, because his Hindu privilege renders him familiar and his actions are considered patriotic—he is just protecting his home from those who pose a danger to it. On the other hand, the first image insinuates fear—the police officers are wearing riot gear, and there is a hoard of them, just for the simple action of tearing down posters. The fear emerges from what the posters represent. The poster reads “Save India Together.” But the understanding of the word “together” is read very differently by those who put it up and by those who are tearing it down. This difference is acknowledged by the police and this strangeness instills fear. They are not able to process dissent because they believe in the nationalist discourse that they are surrounded by. They believe in the dream it promises because their privilege would allow them to benefit from that dream. But the posters pose a threat to that dream, and therefore, with whatever force necessary, it needs to be silenced.

One of the students arrested on April 13, 2020 was Safoora Zargar, a 27 year old research scholar pursuing an M.Phil from Jamia Milia Islamia University—a predominantly Muslim University in Delhi.38 She organized and protested in multiple rallies in the months leading up to the COVID-19 lockdown. She was arrested from her home and charged with a non-bailable offence under UAPA for inciting violence during the Muslim pogrom (which was repeatedly called a communal riot to place blame) that took place in Delhi in February. A few weeks in, she fell ill and during a check-up it was revealed that she was pregnant and in her second trimester.39 In the last month, an online smear campaign has emerged, with people slut-shaming her and calling her “morality” into question. Their slut-shaming is based on the presumption that she is not married and photoshopped images and videos of her have been circulating the internet. Twitter and Instagram are filled with people mocking her role at the protests and belittling her efforts by claiming that she was “busy getting pregnant at Shaheen Bagh.” While Safoora is indeed married, and her family released pictures of her wedding day to appease the cruelty of the online trolls, the point to note her is the relationship drawn to her sexuality with her right to dissent. Her voice is being silenced by maligning her sexuality because she poses a threat to the idea of a “pure” India that is promised by Modi. Siobhan B. Sommerville, in the book Queer Migrations, discussed the 1952 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, and while noting the introduction of homosexuality and adultery as categories to determine naturalization, discusses the use of these categories as a bar to “finding of ‘good moral character’ necessary to qualify for naturalization.”40 In the case of the 1952 INA, these categorizations were made because there was an established normative view of what a family could be-dictated by patriarchal, heteronormative social conditions.

37. Ahmed, 37. 38. Mustafa. “Jamia: Rampant Student Arrests, But No Action Over Police Brutality?” Live Wire, May 1, 2020. https://livewire.thewire.in/campus/jamiarampant-student-arrests-but-no-action-against-police/. 39. Mustafa, 2020. 40. Siobhan B. Sommerville, “Sexualized Aliens and the Racialized State: A Queer Reading of the 1952 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act,” in Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2007). 76.

Strange-ness was projected onto those who posed a disruption into those norms and since this established notion of “family” was considered “moral,” those falling outside of it were rendered “immoral” and not fit to be a part of their society. Safoora Zargar faces this projected “immorality” on two fronts— her identity as a Muslim, and her pregnancy out of wedlock (which, again, is not true). Even though her family released her wedding photos, it becomes easier for nationalists to label her an outsider if they are able to attack one part of her identity, her faith, through another, her “morality.” This intersectional analysis is important, because it paints a larger and more comprehensive picture of othering that is occurring in India right now. If we go back to the images, keeping Safoora in mind, we begin to see distinct lines, or boundaries visible in them. In the first image, the police officers form one end, the wall becomes the boundary, and the people who put up those posters and painted all the graffiti become the other side. The police and BJP, along with their supporters, tried to paint the revolution as inherently Muslim, and they were proven wrong because Indians of all ages, religions, castes and social classes came together against them. It made it difficult to make it us versus them, when some of those they considered us, saw through the fascism. The Modi government tried to get other religions on their side by naming Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and other major religions in the Citizenship Amendment Act, but they still showed up to protest in solidarity. They tried to launch Women Empowerment schemes, but women led the protests against the government. So their tactic to project a threat to the nation onto individuals changed. They rendered dissent as anti-national and everyone who dissented had to be silenced. So that wall of

41. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51308376.

posters represents a population that came together to fight fascism, and their efforts were silenced simply by ripping the posters during a lockdown. If no one could see dissent visibly, they would continue believing in the dream. In the second image, the police again form one line, the man with the gun forms the boundary and everything off camera becomes the other. The situation is uncanny because the police is meant to protect, and their position should be between the shooter and those off camera, but this image shows that only some identities are protected and the others are made to stare at the barrel of the gun that “protects” the “morality” and “law” of the nation. The irony of what is danger becomes apparent from these images and displays the power of belief in a promised dream. Things that are inherently dangerous, like a hate-filled man shooting a gun at peaceful protestors, is rendered a hero and a saviour of “homeland,” while a pregnant woman practicing her right to dissent is in prison, charged as a “terrorist.” Danger as a concept is convoluted and changes from person to person. But privilege is able to distinguish what is really dangerous, compared to what is rendered to be perceived as dangerous as a tool of oppression. The shooter, whose identity has been protected by the Delhi police posed an actual threat—he shot a person. The Delhi police poses an actual threat— they participated in the pogrom against Muslims in North-East Delhi and none of those participating officers have been named or suspended.41 Safoora Zargar, on the other hand has real and photoshopped images and fabricated porn clips circulating across the country. So, the next time anyone in the country has to imagine what a terrorist looks like, they are going to have a name and image associated with— it was fed to them by those who are hiding behind their privilege, and doing the work of terrorizing.

eugenics and modernism While the relationship between biopolitics and geology has been largely ignored when considering the Anthropocene, biology has been weaponized as a tool for othering. Biology and the evolutionary theory have, throughout history, been used by the oppressor to justify their means and methods for domination. So while biopolitics is intentionally ignored during the Anthropocene discourse to incriminate those exploited as well through universalist arguments, eugenics has been used to justify slavery and colonization to prove that those colonized needed to be “civilized” since they were evolutionarily inferior to the Caucasian race.

Lamarckian eugenics strove for the refinement of the human race, and relied on the manipulation of the built environment to achieve that. Le Corbusier’s work was based on this manipulation, and he believed architecture and objects like furniture to be tools of eugenics that “medically” corrected humans.44 His work to create the Modulor was an establishment of the standard type of human that could serve as the mold for the betterment of the human race through the manipulation of the built environment.45 This theory went on to inspire other designers like Henry Dreyfuss to create their own standard humans.46

This attempt to evolutionarily prove racial inferiority has affected how the built environment and the discourse around architecture has developed as well. Modernism in architecture resulted as a response to the Industrial Revolution and as a critique of ornamentation. It was always an ally of capitalist modes of production. It wanted to standardize design.

It becomes important to study the roots of the Modernist movement, because the establishment of standard dimensions for design has carried on to how design is approached today. For instance, seat belts are designed keeping the 50th percentile male as the standard for testing, resulting in 47% more women getting injured and dying in car accidents than men. Similarly, due to testing based on the 50th percentile white male, military gear, spacesuits, even heart attack symptoms disproportionately put women at risk.47

In 1942, Le Corbusier wrote an article in the Comodeia—a journal co-opted for Nazi propaganda, and within it, presented a drawing of a tree. This tree had three major branches and emerges from the trunk that is the French State. The left branch is supposed to represent Man and his immediate environment: the region, the central branch represents Man and his family: the social structure, and the right branch represents cultivation of land and trade.42

“

Le Corbusier co-opted Darwin’s diagram to illustrate the interconnectedness of man, nature, and family, all held together by the State and its executive tool—the built environment. Le Corbusier was, with this tree, placing himself within the company of evolutionists, inserting a powerful orthopedic function whereby the stability of the family, the French nation, and its empire depend on the stability of the physical environment. At the epicenter of this doctrine was Lamarckian eugenics.43

The built environment has been normalized to be catered to the standard type, a type that was established back in 1452.48 There is need to study the interrelated nature of oppression since the complacency to normativity and the discourse of “this is how it has always been done” continues to oppress those who are not the standard the built environment is designed for. 42. Fabiola López-Durán and Moore, Nikki. “Le Corbusier, Architecture, and Eugenics : From France to Brazil and Back.” In Across Space and Time: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2017). 159–74. 43. López-Durán and Moore, 159. 44 Ibid, 162. 45 Ibid, 169. 46.Henry Dreyfuss, Designing for People (New York: Allworth Press, 2012). 47.Ritu Prasad, “Eight Ways the World Is Not Designed for Women,”BBC News (BBC, June 5, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-uscanada-47725946. 48. 1452 refers to the date described by Sylvia Wynter as the beginning of the Anthropocene—the first time enslaved peoples were put to work in the Portugese Islands of Madeira.

technologies and agency: umwelt Jakob von Uexküll introduced the concept of “Umwelt” to describe the subjective nature of the way different organisms experience the world.49 Anthroponormativity, established with the colonial standard as the anthropos here, in its absurd attempt to define the world through the lens of the “normative” human, rejects the idea of a subjective umwelt and instead tries to project its own essentialist categories to define who gets to be a “being” and how they interact with their surroundings. Uexküll explains the essence of umwelt as the limits of perception given by the organism’s senses.50 However, humans have the capacity to extend their senses through the use of technology. Heidegger’s idea of enframing discusses this distortion of the true nature of the world through technology, which may extend humanity’s perceptual abilities, but is also tainted by an inherent bias to view the world according to human terms. 51 Historically humans have viewed Nature through an anthropocentric lens. The words “ecology” and “environment” themselves have roots in words like oikos meaning home, or environ, meaning surroundings. The categorical separation between humans and everything else implied by these terms has enabled humanity to project its consciousness on nature in whatever way is convenient— whether through the use of the words “nature” or “natural” to argue for heteronormative ideals, or the Romantic image of nature as presented in the paintings of Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and others that shaped the Environment Conservation movement in the Western world.52 Mythologies have pointed at many versions of Nature as an entity, sometimes even taking human form—Mother Nature or Gaia. They are attributed with feminine features in perpetuation of gender roles to assign fragility. Feelings of wrath and love are used to describe Nature and contribute to the anthropocentric thought that “she” needs to be protected by us or from us.53 So, with the blindness invoked through the domination of the narrative of the oikos, the limited space that humans occupy on the planet is mistaken for the larger planetary reality. Technology enables the oikos to exceed the limits of the Umwelt, but the oikos is itself a fabrication that is limited.

49. Jakob Von Uexküll, “An Introduction to Umwelt.” Semiotica 2001, no. 134 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2001.017. 50. Uexküll, 147. 51. Martin Heidegger. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays.(New York: Garland, 1977) 52.Max Oelschlaeger, “The Roots of Preservation: Emerson, Thoreau, and the Hudson River School,Nature Transformed,”National Humanities Center, accessed June 29, 2020. 53. Oelschlaeger

who are they designed for? who is technology for? With the revelation of the disconnect between the human and planetary reality, it becomes necessary to mention that this misunderstanding itself is rooted in capitalist-centric philosophy. The Anthropocene debate reveals that the oikos was always meant for the colonial standard and was achieved by the exploitation of the other. This means that the technology that was developed to exceed the human umwelt, put human space, universally, in danger, even though the technology was developed and deployed by those who have been the oppressors for centuries. At the same time, this technology puts the people in the Global South disproportionately at harm, and is never designed for them. For example, Google Earth as a mapping technology allows one to find the smallest nook in the “developed” world, but as Mayukh Sen puts it,“Google Earth is not a vaccine for everyone’s homesickness. For those of us whose corners of the world are considered ‘remote’ or ‘uncharted’ from an essentialist white, Western perspective, the interface is far from seamless.” He makes this statement after he could easily find his address in New Jersey, but could not find his ancestral village in India.54 Surveillance technology such as facial recognition and genetic testing has allowed the biggest human rights abuses to occur. The Chinese government has close to a million Uighur Muslims in “reeducation” camps and was able to do so through unbridled surveillance technology.55 The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a non-profit was able to find 24 pages of leaked documents proving the existence of these camps that the Chinese government continues to deny, and revealed the use of mass-surveillance technologies to identify and arrest minorities in the country.56 “The ICIJ reports that the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a policing platform, is used by the police and other authorities to collate personal data, along with data from facialrecognition cameras and other surveillance tools, and then uses artificial intelligence to identify categories of Xinjiang residents for detention.” “The documents also say that the Chinese government ordered security officials in Xinjiang to monitor users of Zapya, which has about 1.8 million users, for ties to terrorist organizations. Launched in 2012, the app was created by DewMobile, a Beijingbased startup that has received funding from InnoSpring Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Bank and Tsinghua University and is meant to give people a way to download the Quran and send messages and files to other users without being connected to the Web.”57

54. Mayukh Sen, “Dividing Lines,” Real Life, March 27, 2017, https://reallifemag.com/ dividing-lines/. 55.Catherine Shu, “Leaked Chinese Government Documents Detail How Tech Is Used to Escalate the Persecution of Uighurs, TechCrunch” (TechCrunch, November 25, 2019). 56.Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, “‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims,” The New York Times (The New York Times, November 16, 2019). 57. Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, 2019.

were birth control technologies Technology has been weaponized to preserve the oikos for the white cis-hetero-patriarchy. The discourse around the topic is intrinsic to the discourse of the Anthropocene, and makes the widespread use of technology and its concurrent exploitation seem inevitable. Of course, technologies whether physical or digital have changed the world for good and for bad, but the silence around the extractive and exploitative effects on marginalized groups renders them as others who exist to be guinea pigs. For example, birth control as a technology has allowed those with uteresus to have agency when there wasn’t any before. But it still remains that the forced sterilizations of Black, Puerto Rican and Indigenous womxn resulted in the technology to exist and provide that agency.58 It is a highly-gendered technology that is a product of colonial domination through biopolitics. It was not designed to give womxn agency, instead it was designed to answer the discourse of “overpopulation” which serves as a defense for the white Anthropocene by making the womb a space to be conquered and controlled. Hormonal contraceptives have a history of domination and begin as early as the 1940s, when barbasco—a yam that grew in the forests of Mexico—was identified as the cheapest source of progesterone.59 Due to the debilitating economy at the time, the barbasco trade employed a lot of people in Mexico, and in order to maximize time and the progesterone recovered, the locals devised their own methods of extraction. These methods, even though time- and money-efficient, were criticized by American and German scientists, and the Mexican labour was categorized as “lazy” and “greedy” and not credible enough to be a part of scientific development. The history of this technology began with epistemological colonization, where certain races were deemed inferior in the production of knowledge.60 When the pill was being developed and tested in 1952 by Dr. Gregory Pincus and Dr. John Rock, the process revealed an unprecedented phenomenon—after regular use, the subjects would stop menstruating. This was deemed “unacceptable” and was developed such that it would be taken for 21 days, followed by 7 days of break, a cycle that is still followed today. This would result in an induced bleeding that would resemble menstruation. This was artificially engineered into the pill simply because menstruation was a “biological” process without which womxn taking the pill would be stripped of their “female-ness.”61 This marks another instance of colonized domination that renders bodies as other. It is astounding that even 70 years later, people with uteruses are made to simulate menstruation when taking the pill, simply because two men decided what constitutes a womxn.

58. Sandrine Piorkowski Bocquillon, “Sterilization in the United States: The Dark Side of Contraception,” Revue de recherche en civilisation américaine (Diallo, David, December 17, 2018), https://journals. openedition.org/rrca/1169. 59. Prado de O. Martins, 47. 60. Prado de O. Martins. 48. 61. Ibid, 50.

ever meant to provide agency? Again, this technology needs to be analyzed intersectionally, because it is not only a labour and gendered issue, but also a racialized one. The pill was tested on womxn in Puerto Rico because the side effects were questionable, and the laws in the continental United States prohibited spread of information about contraception. United States politicians and some Puerto Rican ones like Luis Muñoz Marín believed that contraception would help the economic development of the island and address problems of “overpopulation” which in itself is a highly problematic assumption.62 These trials were carried out on volunteer students in a Medical College in Puerto Rico whose grades were threatened to stop them from dropping out; on patients at Mental Health facilities; on prisoners in Correctional facilities; and on low income communities who were promised housing if they did not drop out. It is vital to note that in some situations, the subjects were not told that they were being tested for contraceptives, but rather were told they were being treated either for infertility or for diseases related to menstruation. They were not warned of any side-effects and when they received complaints, they blamed those on the “emotional super-activity of Puerto Rican women.”63 This analysis is not to undermine the agency that this technology gives to people with uteresus now, but is rather to note that that was never its intention. The pill was also tested on Palestinian womxn and these tests were celebrated because those developing this knowledge believed that those “polluted” bloodlines needed to be stopped from growing.64 It is to note that the world has never been designed for anyone other than the colonial standard human, and though marginalized communities are gaining agency from centuries of organizing and dissent, the privileges we enjoy today were created to harm us, and this knowledge is vital to begin to imagine alternative futures.

62. Prado de O. Martins, 51. 63. Ibid, 52. 64. Ibid, 53.

technology of the precarious modernity Image Source: The Atlantic

“

Within this discourse, ‘civilization’ comes to mean the process of acculturation of the colonized subject, and the subsequent cultural domination of Europe; ‘progress’ and ‘development’ are equated with industrialization; and ‘salvation’ is a goal that may only be achieved through christianity and its predominantly white, heteronormative and patriarchal morals.65 23

Luiza Prado De O. Martins

In the wake of the Revolution in response to police and military brutality against Black and non-Black people of color globally, it becomes necessary to look at the institutions of policing—their histories and the technologies of destruction available to them to commit murder. This analysis is to understand what role technology plays in the propulsion of the ideas of modernity and progress. In the United States, policing began as early as the 1700s and was made up of white men who volunteered to bring back enslaved peoples who self-emancipated. later, the police institution became the enforcers that safeguarded Jim Crow laws.66 With this history, the institution of policing becomes the perfect example to analyze responses to current global precarity. This history of policing, as with all histories of global oppression, is intentionally hidden, but exists just below the surface of prescribed “good intention.” Despite the statistics of colonized and racialized oppression by this institution and the disproportionate harm it does to Black and Brown bodies, the first reaction in any precarious situation is to call the police. Despite the narrative of “those who protect” that dominates the discourse, technologies are granted to this institution in abundance—technologies like tear gas, riot gears, guns, taserstechnologies that could never “protect.” It is strange that this irony is not perceived by those dialing 911, but the narrative created is so strong that it has managed to infiltrate even those with the best intentions. It is the same narrative that has allowed the NRA to run the United States by making its citizens believe that destructive technologies like guns can protect them from harm. This estrangement with precarious situations is applied to technologies of destruction everywhere—this estrangement is how war is justified against civilians, how surveillance of borders and the imprisonment of immigrants is justified, and how fracking and mining are justified. It is the narrative of modernity that frames these perceptions—modernity that enables development and destruction to be framed as “necessary” and “inevitable” in order for global “development.” And it is this very narrative that allows those in power to get away with simply tweaking technologies after the revelation that these technologies have put the global population at risk. They don’t need to reach radical change, because they already established the inevitability of their destruction. So, in order to imagine alternative futures, there is need to think radically and reach beyond the surface to question the necessities of these systems of oppression—because they are, in fact, not necessary at all. 65. Prado de O. Martins, 27. 66. Olivia B. Waxman, “The History of Police in America and the First Force,” Time (Time, March 6, 2019), https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/.

origin stories of technologies a reflection on the sentinelese tribe The Sentinelese are a tribe on the North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal. While the island is under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, the people have mostly been left alone because they are considered to be one of the very few communities globally that live a lifestyle that has been compared to the “Stone Age.” The Sentinelese tribe gathered international attention a few years ago when a Christian missionary was killed by an arrow shot by a member of the tribe. What is talked about less is how he was warned by the tribe multiple times, but he persisted to engage with them, armed with a white savior complex.67 Only a few anthropologists have been able to contact the tribe, but the ones that have report an interesting phenomenon. While the tribe is wary of outsiders, some anthropologists were able to make contact after they brought the tribe coconuts—a fruit that does not grow on the island. They began to grow fond of coconuts and would reach the boats to collect them. Some expeditions attempted to bring them other gifts, but found that while the group accepted metal pots and pans, they rejected anything plastic and skewered the pig they were gifted.68

image source: forbes.com

This is an interesting topic to analyze, because it raises the question of knowledge of the original instrumentalities of technologies. The tribe does not mine metal, and their only contact with the substance has been through shipwrecks, but they were able to analyze the affordances of the material without having a prior knowledge of its origin story. This begs the question, how much of our attachment and understanding of the technologies around us stem from our awarerness of where that technology comes from and what it is made of? Would we be more accepting of radical change, if we were not attached to the normativity of use and were estranged from origin stories and intended use of the technologies around us? Where does that attachment to normativity come from? Is it conditioning to follow ideology or is what the “scientists” researching the Anthropocene would call “human nature” or “anthropocentrism?”

67. Vishvajit Pandya. “Through Lens and Text: Constructions of a ‘Stone Age’ Tribe in the Andaman Islands.” History Workshop Journal, no. 67(2009): 173-93.

This thesis rejects those concepts and postulates that normativity is a product of conditioning, and that an estrangement is necessary to imagine new subjectivities.

68. Kiona N. Smith, “Everything We Know About The Isolated Sentinelese People Of North Sentinel Island,” Forbes (Forbes Magazine, November 30, 2018), https://www. forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2018/11/30/everything- we-know-about-the-isolated-sentinelese-people-of-north- sentinel-island/.

image source: https://fromtheparapet.wordpress.com/tag/uncontacted-tribes/

Eichmann and the Banality of Evil In 1961 when Adolf Eichmann stood trial in Jerusalem for Crimes against Humanity, his final plea included the words “I did not persecute Jews with avidity and passion. That is what the government did. Nor could the persecution be carried out other than by a government. But I never… I accuse the leaders of abusing my obedience. At that time obedience was demanded, just as in the future it will also be demanded of the subordinate. Obedience is commended as a virtue.”69 Hannah Arendt, a political theorist travelling to Israel to cover the trials for the New Yorker, expected a monster, because no human could be capable of the atrocities committed by Eichmann. But after observing the trial and hearing him speak and plead not guilty, Arendt’s image of a monster was dismantled by his “normal” appearance. She coined the concept “banality of evil” and argued that the most terrifying aspect of his testimony and his actions that led to it, was his thoughtlessness.70 As Donna Haraway analyzes Arendt’s book, Eichmann on Trial: A Report on the Banality of Evil, she observes “Here was someone who could not be a wayfarer, could not entangle, could not track the lines of living and dying, could not cultivate response-ability, could not make present to itself what it is doing, could not live in consequences or with consequence, could not compost. Function mattered, duty mattered, but the world did not matter for Eichmann. The world does not matter in ordinary thoughtlessness.”71 Eichmann’s inability to think beyond the normative established by the Nazi regime is an extreme, but not isolated, analogue to the banality of the capitalocentric world—a limited standard human space within the larger world of the planet, and from within which that larger world “does not matter.” Such normative determinism introduces a plurality of normatives that we accept as standards and which we “obey.”. There exists a structural blindness to what may lie beyond those established narratives. Whether or not Eichmann was lying is inconsequential to this argument. What matters is that he reveals how significantly small his—and, by analogy, our—sphere of thought extends, by playing the victim and attributing virtue to the obedience to the normative of the time.

normative determinism How do Standard Concepts of Morality Translate into Thoughtless Patronage of Law and the Construction of an Oikos?

Adolf Eichmann at his trial in 1961, Jerusalem Image Source: npr.org

69. “Adolf Eichmann’s Final Plea: ‘In His Own Words.’” The Holocaust History - A People’s and Survivor History - Remember.org. Accessed November 18, 2019. https://remember.org/eichmann/ownwords. 70. Judith Butler,“Hannah Arendt’s Death Sentences.” Comparative Literature Studies 48, no. 3 (2011): 280. https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.48.3.0280. 71. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 36 72. Ibid, 35

“What is it to surrender the capacity to think?” Donna Haraway

Kashmir: Article 370 and the Systemic Burning of a Constructed Utopia In August 2019, India scrapped Article 370 from the Indian Constitution, repealing an amendment that was put in place in 1957, granting a special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. This was granted because the Muslim majority population of Kashmir did not want to be a part of India after India-Pakistan partition. India won them over by incorporating Article 370 as a promise of partial autonomy.73 In 2019, India, under the rule of Narendra Modi, repealed this article and Kashmir was put under a communications and travel lockdown. What was already a contested and highly militarized area, saw more military being deployed, leading to human rights abuses reaching new heights. This lockdown lasted 9 months, with no internet services available even after those 9 months.74 This action comes after an exponential rise in nationalistic tendencies since the 2014 elections.

A large part of the Indian population, in the face of these atrocities chooses to commend Prime Minister Modi on taking this step. They bring up Kashmiri economy, Kashmiri businesses “thriving” under the Indian law and the legality of the Article 370 at its inception. What they never mention are Kashmiri lives. Intricate details of legality and consequent attachments with morality are inspected subjectively from a privileged point of view. The needs of them are discussed without listening to them. The mindless fanatic following of “laws” in order to justify nationalistic tendencies is rooted in the virtuousness of obedience. Privilege is validated when the louder, nationalist voices resonate with deep-rooted beliefs in the preservation of power, and the dehumanization of the other is an issue separated from the self. By silencing voices in Kashmir, India presribed those lives a lower value and made themselves louder. This encouraged patriarchal systems of power to create an army of mindless, shouting bodies, who believe they are doing the right thing.

Not questioning the implications of the opinions of those that hold power leads to imaginations of utopias–utopias that will be built on the backs of those who could never benefit from it. Military Occupation, Kashmir Image Source: Incendiarynews.com 73. “Kashmir Special Status Explained: What Are Articles 370 and 35A?,” India News | Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera, August 5, 2019), https://www. aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/kashmir-special-status-explained-articles-370-35a-190805054643431.html. 74. Ahmer Khan and Billy Perrigo, “What’s Happening in Kashmir During Coronavirus Lockdown,” Time (Time, May 6, 2020), https://time. com/5832256/kashmir-lockdown-coronavirus/.

Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay The Cyborg Manifesto talks about the binaries that dictate the world that were established by and serve to favour only white cis-hetero patriarchy, and presents the Cyborg— an entity that is simultaneously a hope for the future, and our current existence.75 She defines the Cyborg as “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.”76 Her premise for establishing this observation is that the difference between social lived reality and science fiction is “an optical illusion.”77 The real world inspires fiction and fiction emulates the realities of existence. Therefore, the Cyborg exists amongst both, and within neither at the same time. Her Cyborg exists in a world without gender, and therefore, represents no origin story. She calls it the illegitimate offspring of patriarchal capitalism and militarism, expected to reject its origin story, as “illegitimate offsprings are often unfaithful to their origins.”78 She describes the Cyborg as an entity that blurs the binaries that exist within the world—between humans and non-humans, between organisms and technology, and between the physical and nonphysical.79 Haraway wrote this essay four years before Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “Intersectionality” and therefore, it does not appear in this essay.80 However, much of what

Haraway talks about is intrinsic to the discussion about intersectionality. She mentions Chela Sandoval’s concept of “oppositional consciousness” which centers the experiences of Black, Indigenous, Chicana and other womxn of color who are pulled apart by identity politics— excluded in the racial discourse, and in the social construction of “woman” which was fought for by the white Feminist movement.81 Acknowledgement of the intersectionality of these identities is what Sandoval calls “oppositional consciousness,” which Haraway describes as a “historical consciousness marking systemic breakdown of all signs of Man in ‘Western’ traditions, constructing a kind of postmodernist identity out of otherness, difference, and specificity.”82 It becomes essential to center as Haraway does, the discourse of intersectionality and oppositional consciousness when discussing the binaries that govern social relations. Haraway discusses the social constructions such as race, gender, class that are established to keep hierarchies that preserve the power for those who already possess it. The blurring of these binaries is not the imagination of a post-racial future, but it is the acknowledgment of the differences created by these historical boundaries and making the conscientious choice to allow for varied identities to exist in validation.

75. Donna, Haraway. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science,Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149 76. Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, 149. 77. Ibid, 149. 78. Ibid, 151. 79. Ibid, 151. 80. Crenshaw, 3. 81. Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, 154. 82. Ibid, 154.

y c BOrG : Are you one? Am I? Are We All? What does it mean to be one?

a rt i s t _ c h i t r a g a n e s h 31

This image created by IndianAmerican artist Chitra Ganesh represents the blurring of boundaries between the organism and the machines. The white feminist movement attempted to paint the woman as a ‘goddess’ by prompting a return to nature.83 However, despite the fact that womxn, especially womxn of color have been disproportionately affected by technological development, whether we like it or not, organisms and technology are already intricately affected by one another, and as Haraway mentions “our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.”84 With the development of AI technology and surveillance methodologies, technologies are developed to simulate human consciousness, while human consciousness within ourselves is divided into categories. The dehumanization that is attributed to those othered identities stems from the binaries established between humans and non-humans. Evolutionary theory for the last few centuries has produced humans as “modern” organisms distinguished from the other nonhumans through knowledge, and as knowledge is monopolized by the Western world, the othered humans are dehumanized in comparison as well.

Chitra Ganesh’s art is a representation of alternative imaginations where identities are acknowledged as layered and not erased. The art shows a space-suitesqe clad figure, blowing a bubble

83. Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, 179. 84. Ibid, 151. 85. Ibid, 155.

with the image of a womxn clad in Indian clothes. The bubble seems to be an extension of the ‘self’ in the space suit. The background is a landscape that transitions from looking like cliffs to technological fragments. Birds flying through the landscape seem to blend in to the rocks/ shrapnel. This blurred representation seems to visually show the layering of identities that are embedded within all organisms. The artist also borrowed her graphic style from Indian comic books Amar Chitra Katha which have for decades told the stories of Gods and spirits and mythical tales. The discard of the reverence attributed to these tales seems like an ode to the cyborg’s rejection of origin stories which allows it to have, as Haraway mentions “a historically consituted body,” but at the same time be able to imagine a future where that body is not torn apart and othered.85 This is the intent of this thesis. It is an attempt to imagine alternative futures where histories of struggle and resistance are acknowledged and on the back of those struggles, oppositional consciousness is used to imagine worlds where binaries and essentialist philosophies are torn down to create new subjectivities. These new subjectivities are cyborgs themselves, they do not focus on origin stories or instrumentalities but rather are webs of identities that exist without hierarchies.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to start articulating our utopias, articulating what needs to be burned and what needs to be saved.â&#x20AC;? 86

Shabaka Hutchings

Sci-fi storytelling has been monopolized by white cis-hetero-male voices for decades and the technological futures potrayed in the stories affect the way collective imaginations construct the idea of a future. When the Sci-fi stories potrayed in popular media and published works cater predominantly to white cis-heteromale futures, subsequent world-making processes work to attain that goal as well. It becomes imperative then, to imagine intersectional futures, where identities are not erased, but thrive. These imaginations break down social binaries that dictate lived realities and dream of blurring.

Collage Image Credits: Chitra Ganesh, On Moonless Nights, 2017 Black Panther movie still Joshua Mays, fanart for Broken Earth series Omar Gilani, Pakistan Showcase, 2017 Wendy Red Star, Medicine Rock Child, 2011 Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer

86.Giovanni Russonello, “Shabaka and the Ancestors Are Making Their Own Jazz History,”The New York Times (The New York Times, March 11, 2020),https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/arts/music/shabaka-and-the-ancestors.html.

INDIGENOUS FUTURISM

FOR OUR BODIES WE HAVE COME BACK LOIS ESMÉ CRUZ

Cruz in this piece is conveying the kinship and the intrinsic love that is central to imagining Indigenous futures. The image represents fluidity in gender, spirit and kinship not only amongst humans, but with all organisms and the land itself. Indigenous Futurism describes the fluidity that was stolen through erasure by the colonial standard, and any imaginations of the future must require the return to the fluidity. Lindsay Nixon analyses this piece by Cruz by saying, “Esmé proposes a restoration of two-spirit life within Indigenous community, actively remembering our traditions of gender fluidity and sexual diversity, in order to create a future imaginary that is responsive and respectful to the multiplicity of ways Indigenous peoples express their selfdetermined genders and sexualities.”87 These imaginations are a call for centering story-telling practices in worldmaking—stories that reveal the histories of love, kinship, struggle and prefigure the futures to come.

p s e ) c d u e l ( a p s r e ) t c d i u e e o l ( a n e r t s i e o u n e s q ,, u q OMPUTER TY C R I D JANELLE MONÁE

AFROFUTURISM

Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer tells the tale of a dystopian society where people were called “computers” and those who refused to live by dictated rules were rendered “dirty.” Janelle Monáe’s character wakes up on a sterile bed in a place called “New Dawn” and after a helmet is placed on her head, she is made to repeat “My name is Jane 57821. I am a dirty computer. I am ready to be cleaned.” The “dirty” computers are brought to this facility to be cleaned of their “bugs”—bugs that emerge from their existence outside of the binary categorizations of the normative society and their practice of dissent. Two men in sterile white suits run through her memories, methodically deleting them after the viewers see them to be of her life as a young, Black, queer artist. Jane’s girlfriend from her “real” life is the one brainwashing her in this facility, her own memories vanished. This afrofuturist art potrays a dystopian society but really is just showing a technologically advanced version of the erasure of Black, queer and other marginalized lives that has been social reality for centuries now. Othered identities are seen to exist outside the normative sphere of existence and their very survival is considered an audacious act. The video ends with both women remembering their erased memories, signifying the importance of storytelling and epistemologies of resistance that define the lived realities of marginalized groups. They release a gas called the “Nevermind” gas on their oppressors, putting them to sleep. The gas was used by the white-suited oppressors in the New Dawn on dirty computors to comply them into erasure. The use of the word “nevermind” as a weapon to torture is a play on the use of privileged complacencies and turned heads to the exploitation of othered identities. The video relays the role of resistance and the fight against erasure in imagining alternative futures that cater to the hopes and dreams of all.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is a Pakistani, queer artist belonging to a wellknown political family in Pakistan. Zulfikar’s art revolves around the destruction of heteronormative, religious and cultural expectations of masculinity. This image is from a series called Musalmaan Musclemen: a reproduction of a book written by Arnold Schwarzenegger on bodybuilding. Bhutto translates the images in the original book using colorful fabric, thread-work, satin, and floral patterns, contradicting what is normatively considered to be the standard for masculinity with normative feminine characteristics. The result is a blurring of these binaries that have been vehemently protected by those adamant to not think beyond what they have been told. The queering of this standard opens imaginations of new subjectivities—ones that enable bodies with all their layered identities to be allowed to exist in their entirety without being forced to fit into a standard mold or being erased.

o n i s t o n a i s t n a i n i g g a a m i m i d e d z e i l z rraaddiiccaali SOUTH ASIAN-ISLAM-FUTURISM

MUSA

LMAAN MUSCLEMEN ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO

How do art and imaginations transcend rigid thoughtlessness?

“

Studying alternative world-making movements like Afro/Indigenous/Chicana/Muslim/Trans Futurisms reveals new ways of imagining futures—it allows a glimpse into a parallel universe, one where life was not interrupted by colonialism. It enables visions of futures with culturally diverse cyborgs—where technology is not developed to extract and exploit but to enhance kinship; where nature is not an object with value prescribed based on personal gains, but is understood as an entity of its own that cannot be categorized separately from organisms; where identities are not categorized into standardized boxes, but flow freely. These futures are based in story-telling practices—they are fantastical and empowering. They do not ask for a return to pre-colonial times, but are rooted in the histories of resistance and struggles that have defined lived social realities of marginalized groups.

Design plays a crucial role in articulating modes of being in the world. It is a field involved not only in the shaping of matter, but in the shaping of relations, processes, systems; it is implicated in managing who is allowed to inhabit the world, and how. In constructing the material world, design devises nodes of possibility: what could be, and what could not; how things could be, and how could they not. It creates worlds, and ways of inhabiting them. The ramifications of these possibilities reach back, rewriting pasts, reconfiguring presents, prefiguring futures.88 Luiza Prado De O. Martin Image 1 source_ louisesmecruz.blogspot.com Image 2 source_independant.co.uk Image 3 source_zulfikaralibhuttoart.org

87. Lindsay Nixon, “Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurism,” Otherwise Worlds, 2020, pp. 332-342, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn1vd.21. 88. Prado de O. Martins, 24.

Broken Earth trilogy N.K. Jemison

N.K. Jemison’s trilogy, the Broken Earth series is a speculative fiction narrative that tells the story of a group of people called the orogenes who are systemically oppressed because of their ability to control the kinetic and seismic energy of the Earth. While this superpower is useful to control climate episodes, their otherness leads to them being excluded and enslaved. The setting for this story is a world that has seen multiple human extinctions after plantetary exploitation. The current world exists in the ruins of past natural and technological destruction. The people in power rule with the established narrative that render orogenes as dangerous, and therefore need be enslaved and controlled. The orgones are captured and to “trained” to control their powers to aid the “State.” Those who do not comply are put in a coma and their powers are siphoned and used through technology while their body is left lifeless. The orogenes are derogatorily called “roggas”—a word that was established historically in the story to dehumanize them.

“

Jemison draws parallels with the histories and the present of oppression, dehumanization and othering of Black bodies to establish social reality as a foundation for fiction. The story is also told through multiple temporalities and time periods, decolonizing the concept of time and allowing the readers to understand the characters, story and the struggle non-linearly. The story is told through the eyes of three women but is later revealed that they are one person—multiple identities across different temporalities—navigating through injustices, on a planet that is alive and layered with histories of injustices but is constantly seen as an object, much like the orogenes. Jemison forces her readers to be in conflict with their pre-conceived notions about geology, history, identity and the relationship between them, all while telling a story about “a” future that simultaneously was, is and could be. 37

89. N. K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2018).

Image Source_gq.com

Some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place.”89 S t o n e S k y, N . K . J e m i s i n

“

By reading past this point you agree that you are accountable to the council. You affirm our collective agreement that in the time of accountability, the time past law and order, the story is the storehouse of justice. You affirm that the crime was an era of refused understanding and stunted evolution. We believe now in the experience of brilliance on the scale of the intergalactic tribe. Today the evidence we need is legacy. May the public record show and celebrate that Alandrix consciously exists in an ancestral context. May this living textual copy of her digital compilation and all its future amendments be a resource for Alandrix, her mentors, her loved ones and partners, her descendants, and here detractors to use in the ongoing process of supporting her just intentions. We are grateful you are reading this. Thank you for remembering.

With love and what our ancestors called “faith,” the intergenerational council of possible elders90

Evidence is a short sci-fi piece by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and the story is in the form of a report that collects the legacy of Alandrix, a descendant of Alexis. The report establishes Alexis’ existence before and after the fall of capitalism and the time prior to this collapse is called Before Silence Broke period. The text above is the introduction to the story. It grounds the reader into the world they are about to enter, and validates the fight against oppression by saying that the fight has been won and the future is a kinder, more just world. The project of collecting legacy contains a letter Alandrix writes to her ancestor Alexis at the age of 12, thanking her for her participation in the Revolution and for being brave. This letter paints a picture of a world, five generations from today, where a twelve year old Alandrix is doing a report about the time the silence broke and the world became a braver place. She speaks of how the words of love spoken by Alexis and her comrades were hummed, sung and breathed by the next generations as people moved towards a world where silence became an unncanny phenomenon. The report also contains “research notes” from Alandrix’s dissertation where she is analyzing a photograph of a stained subway “cave.” which according to the researchers at the time is the only evidence of the time that the silence broke and the writings are by people they call “underground” people. A part of the writing says— “We have been wrong all along. Blood is not money. Money is not food. The anyonymous prophets were right. We cannot afford our own blood.”91

Image Source_indyweek.com

Evidence

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

This study of capitalism as an artifact of the past through research notes and photographs allows the reader to view the phenomenon as temporary and therefore, as oppressive systems of the past, capable of being dismantled. The report also contains an email from Alexis post-capitalism to Alexis during capitalism. She writes from the future to congratulate her past self and to validate her fight, and to tell her how beautiful life is in the future. She writes—”Here in the future we have no money. We have only the resources that we in our capitalist phase did not plunder to work with, but we have no scarcity. You can reassure Julia we have plenty of technology; technology is the brilliance of making something out of anything, of making what we need out of what we had, of aligning our spirits so everyone is on point so much of the time, that when one of us falls, gets scared, or caught up, the harmony of ‘yes, yes, yes, we are priceless’ brings them right back into tune with where they need to be.”92 This story is, therefore, a reminder to think about the world through shifting temporalities—to think of the future through the past, and to view the past as a reminder of what the future could and should be. Alexis’ words about technologies reveal the discourse of modernism and technological determinism that dictate the arguments for capitalism. But technological futures can exist without technology being used as a tool of oppression. It can become an aid to build a more loving world.

90. Walidah Imarisha, Adrienne M. Brown, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Evidence,” in Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2015). 33. 91. Gumbs, 37. 92. Ibid, 39.

No Oikos for the Cyborg

This thesis is, therefore, an attempt at queer world-making. It calls for de-centering of the human subject. This de-centering requires a reimagination of everything that would have previously been encompassed in an oikos- a home, to begin with. Speculated in the aftermath of the fall of capitalism through global revolution, this thesis creates a world where humans are scavengers. Focusing on the technological tools that the Capitalocene has used to preserve the standard anthropocentric space, this thesis queers the need for original instrumentality. The scavengers find these technological artifacts, but are deprived of the anthropocentric and anthroponormative narratives that defined their original instrumentality. This defamiliarization of technology would create a multitude of new subjectivities that would blur the boundaries between human and non-human, standard and the other. This would result in a flat ontology of consciousness that would reveal new ways of living.

Section showing a structure built and housed by the scavengers. Inability to identify different elements within the drawing is meant to depict Donna Harawayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concept of the Cyborg that begins to blur essentialist boundaries. The graphic estrangement is meant to represent the epistemological discomfort that these broken down social binaries invoke. The demolished hierarchy of the social constructions of class, race and gender that the Cyborg represents is illustrated using flattened graphic technique that allows for a sense of doubt when the viewer inevitably searches for categorizations.

Queer(ing) World-Making

“

Queerness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality. Put another way, we are not yet queer. We may never touch queerness, but we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality. We have never been queer, yet queerness exists for us as an ideality that can be distilled from the past and used to imagine a future. The future is queerness’s domain. Queerness is a structuring and educated mode of desiring that allows us to see and feel beyond the quagmire of the present.”93

These acts of queering are to attain a state of queerness—an existence where no normal exists. In the midst of a global pandemic, there is often talk about “returning to normal,” and that yearning for a “normal” is a privileged desire. The pandemic only revealed the cracks in the systems globally, cracks that have existed since the standard was established. Privilege is the product and the foundation of capitalism—it evokes the question of José Esteban Muñoz whether the chicken or the egg came first, because the two are intrinsically related. Until capitalism is dismantled, privileged José Esteban Muñoz talks about queerness as a normals will continue to weigh down on the state of being—one that allows us to move past backs of the othered. To topple these privileged complacencies to imagine better futures that are normals, imaginations of radical, queered futures are rooted in the histories of our people.94 It requires a necessary. José Esteban Muñoz in Cruising Utopia departure from the adherence to normativities and discusses hope and its role in imagining utopias by the dismantling of any systems that apply meanings centering his argument for hope with Ernst Bloch and of sacred-ness or morality to those normative events his descriptions of abstract and concrete Utopias.97 or practices. This non-prescription and destruction Abstract utopias are naive because they are of normative ways of being is what he and other “untethered from any historical consciousness,” but queer theorists call the process of queering.95 When concrete utopias are rooted in historical struggle and Marsha P. Johnson threw that first brick during revolution and are, as Muñoz mentions, “the realm the Stonewall riots in 1969, the world underwent of educated hope.”98 Concrete utopias are what queering.96 The act of her throwing that brick was Afrofuturist authors and artists like Alexis Gumbs not just an action against “normal” social behaviour, strive for—hopeful futures that are attained by the but her identity as a transgender drag queen was dismantling of normative systems and are spaces of breaking cis-heteronormative social categorizations equity and happiness. and her identity as a black woman dismantled expected racialized behaviors. The act embodied the Hope, in our imaginations of the future, nature of her defiant identity and brought her out therefore, remains central. While hope is often of her forced invisiblity. This moment of visibility, scoffed at, and the discourse around it is belittled and the subsequent riots that followed took the in academia, hope represents a fight against histories of oppression, and sculpted them into complacency. This is not hope that aims for a imaginations of the future. That moment, like “return to any normal” in the face of displacement many others of defiance, changed the world, and from said normal, but rather a decolonized hope we are living futures today that would have been that is used to arm the fight against any normal. seemingly unattainable dreams.

93. José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: the Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York, New York: New York University Press, 2019), 1. 94. Muñoz, 3. 95. Ibid. 3 96. Shane O’neill, “Who Threw the First Brick at Stonewall? Let’s Argue About It,” The New York Times (The New York Times, May 31, 2019), https://www. nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/first-brick-at-stonewall-lgbtq.html. 97. Muñoz, 3 98. Ibid, 3

This thesis is, therefore, an articulation of my concrete hope. It imagines a world sometime in the futureÂâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the exact time does not matter, because time is decolonized as well. It is not linear, but fluidÂ, where the past, the present, and the future are all flowing through each other and are built off of one another. It situates this world in a post-capitalist society, where social constructs like money do not dictate worth, technology is not weaponized or accumulated to create profits, and the binary categories of being as Haraway defines them, are

blurred.98 This is not an abstract utopia, where post-racial themes prevail, but rather a world that acknowledges its history, and the struggles of those who enabled them to be where they are. The human race is de-centered in relation to the planet and non-human beings, and live as scavengers off of the land and the technological landscapes established by those who came before. 99. Haraway, The Cyborg Manifesto, 155.

Since this thesis situates itself in a postcapitalist time, borders do not matter. As Andrew Herscher and Ana María León discuss in their essay At the Border of Decolonization, “Within colonial processes, two functions of the border are paramount: borders not only inscribe colonialism into the Earth, parceling land into property, but they also legitimize this inscription, as colonists pose Indigenous land without the borders they recognized as “empty.” This putative emptiness is, more precisely, an emptying-out, a conceptual deletion of Indigenous landscapes that precede, allow, and authorize the material erasure of those landscapes, and the human and non-human beings that sustain and are sustained by them.”100 Borders exist as a result of colonial and capitalist systems and are physical manifestations of “modernity” and “progress” while remaining, ironically, invisible. In order to imagine a truly post-capitalist world, dismantling notions of “modernity” and “progress” is vital. While being invisible, borders are used as physical tools to dehumanize and prescribe value to lives based on the location of that life in relation to the border. Borders not only divide and define human identities, but they do so to land, water, air, plant and animal life. The imagination of a world without any borders, therefore, requires decolonizing the thought that prescribes value to invisible lines etched on the planet. This process is imagined as rematriation of the land, which as Herscher and León mention,“refers not just to the return of land, but to the regeneration of sustaining and sustainable relations with the land’s constituent parts. The rematriation of land is not a metaphor: it is the specific and irreplaceable horizon of restoring land to Indigeneity. The motion of turning towards this horizon, of yearning for it, is the unraveling of border thinking.”101 Land is, in this imagination, rematriated and those who occupy it live with the knowledge and the memory of its colonization and the fight for its rematriation and its acknowledgement as a being itself.

In order to imagine this world, it is imperative to listen to the stories of those who have been marginalized by systems of oppression and to merge all of their dreams with personal dreams, to prescribe by what Muñoz calls revolutionary consciousness—“Feeling revolutionary opens up the space to imagine a collective escape, an exodus, a ‘going-off script’ together. Practicing educated hope, participating in a mode of revolutionary consciousness, is not simply conforming to one group’s doxa at the expense of another’s. Practicing educated hope is the enactment of a critique function. It is not about announcing the way things ought to be, but, instead, imagining what things could be. It is thinking beyond the narrative of what stands for the world today by seeing it as not enough.”102 To take on this project of dreaming, this thesis turned to Afro/ Muslim/Trans/Indigenous/Dalit futurist works, to understand the struggles of marginalized groups and to create a collective, intersectional, revolutionary consciousness.

This revolutionary consciousness is embodied by the scavengers in this world. They understand their histories, and the struggles of their ancestors. They understand that race, gender, money, sexuality are social constructs that dictated the value of their ancestor’s lives. They understand the land beneath their feet to be a being that they exist-with, not something that exists for them, and the non-humans around them are entitled to the same existence as them. This non-extractive, noncapitalist, non-patriarchal world identifies the layered nature of identities and the historical connotations and oppression of those identities, and does not erase those histories. Rather, the scavengers acknowledge these histories and therefore understand the privilege of existing in a world that was fought for—a fight that enabled their identities to not be placed in a hierarchy.

100.Andrew Herscher and Ana María León, “At the Border of Decolonization,” e-flux, May 6, 2020, https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/at-theborder/325762/at-the-border-of-decolonization/. 101. Herscher and León, 2020 102. Lisa Duggan and José Esteban Muñoz, “Hope and Hopelessness: A Dialogue,” Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory 19, no. 2 (2009): pp. 275-283, https://doi.org/10.1080/07407700903064946.

“to denaturalize the way we dwell (move) in the world is to denaturalize the world itself in the favor of a utopian performativty.”103 José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia

The knowledge of their history and its relationship to their current existence allows these scavengers to live in a state of fluidity outside of the categorizations of the Capitalocene. This implies that the hierarchies of value placed on human and non-human life by the colonial epistemologies do not exist and a flat ontology prevails.104 The first image shows a scavenger collecting food in a scoop-like structure, and the second image shows a deer eating out of the same structure at night. The importance of this discourse of fluid existence is not about the recipient of the food gathered by the scavenger—themselves or the deer—but rather that it does not matter. Animals eating out of human stores of food is a common occurence, but the difference here is that food is not possession and cannot be claimed. The act of gathering the food does not entitle the gatherer to it, and in this world, therefore, concepts of possession and exceptionalism—stealing, thievery, property—do not exist. This applies to all aspects of their existence—when no hierarchy exists, property and possesion become empty concepts.

103. Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 151 Utopia in this thesis is a reference to Munoz’s discussions of Concrete Utopias as opposed to Abstract Utopias—straight time is rejected and a queer aesthetic is used to understand new ways of being. 104.. Selina Springett, “Going Deeper or Flatter: Connecting Deep Mapping, Flat Ontologies and the Democratizing of Knowledge,” Humanities 4, no. 4 (2015): pp. 623-636, https://doi.org/10.3390/h4040623.

technology as Diffusionism

The development of technology and the spread of technological epistemologies has been guided by Eurocentric Diffusionism, which is the belief that knowledge production is intrinsic to the European world, and that any knowledge produced in the Global South is a result of the ideas that emanated from the Global North.105 Diffusionism is, therefore, produced as logic for the creation of the colonial binary of the civilized and the savage, as it suggests intrinsic connection of these categories to technological development and advancement.106 The colonial project was to establish a “New” world, and by positioning Eurocentric knowledge as the foundation for the future, it rendered the Indigenous and other Black and Brown communities and their modes of knowledge production as static moments in the past that have to assimilate in the name of modernity. This marked the erasure of the epistemologies that these communities already possessed, which were and are in far more diverse areas than the European colonizers of the same times. The narrative of the New World, coupled with

diffusionism established a linear temporality that was associated with ideas of modernity, and consequently invalidated fluid temporalities that Indigneous cultures existed within. Technology has, therefore, always existed amongst binaries—old and new, civilized and savage, good or bad. In media, technology is often shown as the intiator of a dystopia that threatens humanity, with an existential nostalgia for pre-technological times at the cusp of destruction. Even in the Anthropocene debate, the blame is being argued between the development of the Steam Engine or Nuclear technology.107 This binary representation fails to hold the colonial, neo-colonial and capitalist systems that created that binary to profit off of the accumulation of these technologies and the oppression of marginalized groups and nonhumans through them, accountable. The narrative is so deeply engrained, that it is easier to imagine a dystopia with robot overlords, than it is to imagine a technological, decolonized, post-capitalist future. This thesis is an attempt at imagining the latter.

“By 1492, when ‘America’ was ostensibly ‘discovered,’ there were untold numbers of indigenous societies, untold numbers of languages and dialects, architecture to rival any, imperial city states with astronomical observatories and solar calendars, a mathematical concept of zero, an extensive knowledge of natural medicine and the healing arts, highly developed oral traditions, and above all, a spiritual comprehension of the universe, a sense of the natural and supernatural, and a profound sense of the sacred. This was part of humanity’s long, inexorable ascent to civilization, on an earth possessed of honour, dignity, and generosity of spirit.108 Robert Houle

105. Daniel Coleman et al., “Different Knowings and the Indigenous Humanities,” ESC: English Studies in Canada 38, no. 1 (2012): pp. 141-159, https://doi. org/10.1353/esc.2012.0009. 106.Julie Nagam, “Deciphering the Refusal of the Digital and Binary Codes of Sovereignty/Self-Determination and Civilized/Savage,” Public 27, no. 54 (January 2016): pp. 78-89, https://doi.org/10.1386/public.27.54.78_1. 107. Yussoff, 24. 108. Nagam, 1.

a shapeshifter Reading the Shape-Shifter Alicia Inez Guzmán, in her article Indigenous Futurisms, refers to Indigenous epistemologies that view technology as a shape-shifter, and quotes Stephen Loft—”the “shapeshifter (not unlike the Trickster himself) [is] neither inherently benign nor malevolent, but always acting and active, changing transformative, giving effect to and affecting the world.”109 Queering technologies then, is regarding them as shape-shifters—accepting their mysterious origins and their undeniable powers of transformation. The nature of those transformations lies in the circumstance, but they are catalysts of change nevertheless. This narrative allows technologies to be fluid, untethered by original instrumentalities. To observe a post-capitalist world with decentered existences, speculative reality is depicted in a time where the resources the Capitalocene exploited to construct its technology have been depleted and humans live as scavengers. But the built technology of the Capitalocene survives the epoch’s end and exists as ruins waiting to be appropriated by the scavengers. This technology is projectively read by them, similar to Rem Koolhaas’s diagrammatic reading of the cartoon by A.B. Walker of a New York skyscraper. By representing a sort of fractured, somewhat suburban life inside a skyscraper frame, architecture becomes, as Koolhaas mentions “..less an act of foresight than before and planning an act of only limited prediction. It has become impossible to “plot” culture.110 The image of villas and trees stacked on 82 floors in a frame is strange, and

this strangeness allows a disabling of normative imaginations of buildings, skyscrapers and the city and invite a multiplicity of interpretations. Sarah Whiting and Robert Somol discuss Koolhaas’s interpretation in their essay Notes around the Doppler Effect and other Moods of Modernism--“These New York frames exist as instruments of metropolitan plasticity and are not primarily architecture for paying attention to; they are not for reading, but for seducing, becoming, instigating new events and behaviors.”111 The scavengers therefore read these objects of technology not as a decipherable text, but rather as a projective diagram—capable of giving rise to many possible programmatic and functional realities. A steering wheel becomes a place to rest on, a CD player becomes a method of cooking food, a harness becomes a sleeping device. As Whiting and Somol write,”a more Foucaltian notion of disciplinarity is advanced in which the discipline is not a fixed datum or entity, but rather an active organism or discursive practice, unplanned and ungovernable.”112 The scavengers do not attempt to reverse-engineer the techno-fossils they find to decipher the original intent of the technology and generate a design that would privilege that origin. They practice what this thesis suggests is a projective version of the practice—Diverse Engineering—one that opens up a plurality of possible interpretations.

109. Alicia Inez Guzmán, “Indigenous Futurisms,” InVisible Culture, March 15, 2015, https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/indigenous-futurisms/. 110. Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York. New York: The Monacelli Press Inc., 1980. Pg. 85 111. Robert Somol, and Sarah Whiting. “Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism.” Perspecta 33 (2002): 72–77. 112. Somol and Whiting, 74.

Design Experiments These early experiments were to prescribe an aesthetic value to the sense of estrangement that emerges through the queering of technology. Kitbashing using found objects and machinery to queer concepts of the oikosâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;space, movement, homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;futher augmented this estrangement. The contradiction in scale between the kitbashed objects and the meta-themes they investigated, and the redundancy of the original instrumentality of the kitbashed objects in the experiments assigned aesthetic qualities to the idea of technology as a shape-shifter.

57 53

This contraption was the first experiment to defy normative ways of being. It was created by simulating the circumstances of the speculative reality of this thesis, where the CD player was “found” and was projectively read as a technology without an origin story. The act of taking it apart and queering the privileged rotational movement to create a cooking/ eating device is a shift in perception—technology is not read in terms of what it is and can do, but rather what it affords as a shape-shifter.

Jugaad: Queering Technology With this un-privileging of origin stories, notions of progress and modernity that govern the Capitalocene are rejected. By building things through diverse engineering, without contemplation of what “it should be,” the scavengers follow the principles of Jugaad- an Indian concept with the closest translation being “making do” or “frugal innovation.” As Nandita Badami mentions in her article Informality as Fix: Repurposing Jugaad in a Post-Crisis Economy—”The materiality of jugaad is rooted, first and foremost, in practices of undisciplined consumption.”113 This undisciplined consumption coupled with limited resources develops into innovative solutions that are developed solely to fix the problem at hand, without considerations of the “progressive” notions of developing it further. This gives rise to ingenious solutions like making buttermilk in rejigged, semi-automatic washing machines, converting pressure cookers into portable espresso machines and plastic water bottles flattened into slippers. This lack of obeying normatives suggests new ways of living where these scavengers would be de-centered as humans and without any reference of their place in the world, humankind would exist in the precarious World

without concepts of modernity or progress. As Anna Tsing puts it, “…we learn over and over that humans are different from the rest of the living world because we look forward—while other species which live day to day, are thus dependent on us. As long as we imagine that humans are made through progress, nonhumans are stuck within this imaginative framework too.”114 With the normative narrative of progress removed and binary essentialist boundaries blurred, the humans would achieve what Donna Haraway calls “Sympoiesis”— worlding-with— implying a plurality of narratives and multiple temporalities.115 Accordingly, the scavengers in this World are not concerned with establishing hierarchies in search of the meaning of their existence. They provide the reader a lens into a society that has inherited sophisticated technology, but without access to the narratives of progress and technological instrumentality within which they were originally situated. This scenario is not intended to generate sympathy, but rather to clear a space for the development of multiple alternative narratives and to examine the way this diversity of narratives informs the structure of this society’s life around the interpreted meanings of the abandoned objects.

113. Nandita Badami, “Informality as Fix,” Third Text 32, no. 1 (February 2018): pp. 46-54, https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2018.1442190. 114. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017). 115. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 33.

Jugaad: Method of Mimicry

Homi K. Bhabha, in Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse discusses the concept of Mimicry as that which represents the difference between the colonial standard and the other, by appropriating both and taking on an ambivalent position at this border. He mentions, “It is a form of colonial discourse that is uttered inter dicta: a discourse at the crossroads of what is known and permissible and that which though known must be kept concealed; a discourse uttered between the lines and as such both against the rules and within them.” 116 This image is a representation of this concept of mimicry— both the motorcycle and the multiple boots represent a material property that ties them to the discourse of capitalism and mass production. But by boiling down the purpose of a wheel and the importance of rubber when that wheel contacts the road, the original intent of both objects is ignored and the action is queered to rely on simply the required affordability. Muñoz discusses, “A queer aesthetic can potentially function as a great refusal because art manifests itself in such a way that the political imagination can spark new ways of perceiving and acting on a reality that is itself potentially changeable.”117 Jugaad, as a queer aesthetic is, therefore, a tool of mimicry, as Bhabha describes it. It refuses to privilege the binary categorizations and contradictions placed on technologies and by occupying a place at the border of original instrumentality and the action that requires the queering to occur, it stands in defiance of the normative. In this context, that border is between the movement of the wheel and the intended use of the boots. By privileging the affordance of the rubber sole of the boot over its origin story as an object for the human body, this act of queering constructs a new reality and refuses the narrative of assigned use that capitalism feeds its preys. Jugaad is, therefore, an act of protest. 116.Homi Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse,” October 28 (1984): p. 125, https://doi. org/10.2307/778467. 117. Munoz, Cruising Utopia, 135

Vellum: Visphot

While this Vellum entry was always meant to be furniture for the competition, it was created with the principle of Jugaad. The steering wheel was not concerned with the search of its original instrumentality. It afforded sitting, so it was sat on. This method is intended to clear a space for the development of multiple alternative narratives and to examine the way this diversity of narratives informs the structure of this societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life around the interpreted meanings of the abandoned objects. The estrangement produced by the queering of industrial size, mass-produced car parts to become ergonomic for the scavenger who created it, evokes mimicryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it exists as a manifestation of revolutionary consciousness, dismantling normative methods of being.

The role of the key in Visphot epitomizes the concept of privileging affordances over original instrumentality as a manner of protest. The key, to those who know how a car works, symbolizes a start to a defined processâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;start of the engine and the subsequent linear movement of the car. In this queered aesthetic, however, the key locks and unlocks the rotational motion of the surface under a body. It is a literal disruption to the act of sitting, where once the movement is unlocked, the person occupying it loses their balance and fall off. In a way, the act that represents the beginning of a standard process, poses a disruption to the queered actionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a disruption which is ambivalent, because a queer aesthetic defies any normative ways of being.

Walking through the heat sand back to the community no-place, Kesuma was patiently waiting for the dirt fungi on their head-cooker to finish being happy. The mirror on their head-cooker was seering brightness on to the food and they could hear the sizzling of the fungi.

Lost in thought, they did not notice the shiny shrapnel that stuck out of the ground, and stepped on it.

The shrapnel went straight through their foot scarf and they felt the pain of the shiny splinter run up their leg. They tried to balance on one foot, unable to touch the wounded foot on the ground, but the heat sand has unstable ground.... 63

Not seen fossils bodies like these near our no-place before. They do look like something from before the Age of Love?

They lost their balance and fell, hitting something rockier than heat sand should be.

They did not know what they fell on, but their body was resting on a tubular orb, that made their body felt it belonged on it. After de-sphrapnelizing their foot cover, they began to observe the pile of techno-bodies of body comfortable objects they fell on. It was an unusual amalgamation indeed. The hollow orb could hug bodies when they occupy the deer grass field in the dark. I have other technofossilized bodies that will balance them.

They were curious about the comfort of the techno-fossil pile and pulled the tubular orb body out of the sand and dragged them back to the community no-place, their mind full of possibilities.

Once they were back at the no-place, Kesuma jumped on their pile of fossil bodies they had found on previous encounters with technologies before the Age of Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to find limbs for the tubular orb stand. They had some gracefully curved bodies that would balance the tubular orb and touch the ground lightly, they just had to find them in their little corner in the no-place.

This should be a good limb once some fingers are added. The stand of the tubular orb has holes on the side that this could join with. 65

As the tubular orb began becoming a body hugger, Kesuma kept adding limbs to them to support their own.

Kesuma was satisfied with the body hugger. They were going to add this to the community settling space so that their family could use it as well. They had made a lot of apparatus from technology before the Age of Love, but this was their favorite. They could tell that this piece was not used for love back then, but this feeling made them love it more so.

This hugs the body happily. Maybe the others in the no-place would like to settle on it? The raccoon has been looking for a place to sit in to take the heat from the yellow orb.

Design Experiment: Study of Multiplicities and Affordances Discovered through Diverse Engineering of Found Technologies Concepts like privacy, enclosure, family are all questioned and not defined. Normal everyday activities like the act of sleeping are attempted to be re-imagined. Reyner Banham’s A Home is Not a House questions the need for the outer shell of a house if all the systems that are needed to be in a home can be combined to create a “standard of living package,” and placed around a campfire with a thin plastic shell to protect from the weather.118 By invalidating the normative image that is associated with dwelling, he begins to re-think what is really means to live and what is needed to sustain the previous answer. Is a bed needed for the act of sleeping? Is a stove or for that matter a four walled kitchen needed for cooking? Is a wall needed around 2-8 people for them to live in a home? What Banham is alluding to is understanding existing in and around spaces as those spaces afford. As James Gibson writes “Why has man changed the shapes and substances of his environment? To change what it affords him. He has made more available what benefits him and less pressing what injures him.”119 The Capitalocene is the result of the manipulation of the environment to change what it can afford those who view it as an object, but in the speculative reality of this thesis, the scavengers are de-centered. This means that instead of manipulating the environment to create artificial affordances, the scavengers diverse engineer the sophisticated technology of the Anthropocene to understand new affordances. These new readings of affordances would create new ways of existing and creating those would not be restrained by normative narratives.

This design experiment was done as a part of this thesis to explore affordances through diverse engineering. Kitbashing recognizable objects and potraying them out of scale helped in creating, with exaggerated strangeness, what the manifestation of a scavenger’s standard-of-living package would look like when all activities of daily life were to be reimagined around the affordances of technology they find. The wires afforded imagining holding something up, the pods at their bases (sleep-catchers) afforded slumping over them, and the calculator openings at the base of the sleeping field afforded things(limbs) to be inserted. The contraption all together afforded the act of sleeping or resting, maybe not in the current human oikos, but in no-place.120 The dwelling/ camp/ home/ tribe does not necessarily have an enclosure, or prescribed sleep-catchers for people—private, public, family, neighbor, friend, acquaintance are not concepts that are described. Maybe relationships can be afforded by the space as well. James Gibson mentions “It is a mistake to separate the cultural environment from the natural environment, as if there were a world of mental products distinct from the world of material products.”121 Normative determinism comfortably delineates culture and nature so it could continue to manipulate nature to create new affordances for cultures that preserve its blinded reality from the actual planetary reality. De-centering practices would result in a blurring between the two and the scavengers in the speculative reality would exist in a blend—Donna Haraway’s proposal of natureculture through the affordances read in the technologies they find.122

118. Reyner Banham,”A Home is Not a House,” Art in America. 1965, volume 2, New York:70-79 119. James J. Gibson, “The Theory of Affordances.” In The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979). 120. In a talk called “Planetary Utopias” Angela Davis, in conversation with Gayatri Spivak and Nikita Dhawan, chooses to call utopias “no-place” after the words direct translation from its Greek source “ou-topos.” She makes this distinction to call attention to the tension between the hope associated with utopias and the transformations necessary to achieve those hopes. I choose to use this term here, not to replace oikos with utopia, but to highlight similar tensions between the perceived and the actual reality of the term oikos or ecology in the Anthropocene 121. Gibson, 73. 122. Donna Jeanne Haraway. When Species Meet (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2009).

Limb Limb supporting supporting apparatus apparatus with with free free movement capabilities,allowing allowingfor for movement capabilties, multiplicity personal comfort. comfort multiplicity of of personal

Body temperature regulating Body temperature regulating mechanism mechanism consisting of water-fille tube consisting of water-filled tube attached attached to a soft pad that rests on the to a soft pad that rests on the forehead forehead

Wearable Wearablecontraption contraptionconsisting consistingof of shearing shearingdevice deviceto tocut cut the the umbical umbical cord, cord, holding for mixture for the holding devicedevice for mixture for the healing healingof of the the vagina vaginaand and the the elongated elongated application for the same application device device for the same.

Resistance Resistance based based mechanism mechanism attached attached to toflap flapwrapping wrappingaround aroundthe thepregnant pregnant person’s person’s stomach, stomach, assisting pushing pushing.

Limb Limbsupporting supportingapparatus apparatuswith withfree free movement allowing for movementcapabilities, capabilties, allowing multiplicity multiplicityof ofpersonal personal comfort comfort.

Slide exit out outof of Slideto to aid aid the the little little human’s human’s exit the thehost’s host’s body body.

Pooltotobe beoccupied occupiedby bythe thelittle littlehuman. human. Pool Space Spacefor forthe theremoval removalofofthe thelittle little human humanfrom fromthe thehost hostbybydisattaching disattaching the theumbical umbicalcord cord.

Queer Aesthetic: Shifting Perceptions of Binaries When bodies are standardized, their expected behaviours are standardized as well. This image is attempting to challenge the accepted “rituals” of childbirth. When every person giving birth experiences it in different ways, why is the universalized horizontal bed the space of that experience? The image shows a pregnant person in a contraption that is engineered by the scavengers to have free movement to allow for the pregnant body to position itself the way it needs to. The person in the back is manually aiding pushing using a resistance-based mechanism that allows them to push using their legs. The tube at the top of the mechanism holds water that trickles down the tubes and wets the attached fabric, keeping the pregnant person’s body temperature low. The baby slides down the tube into a pool as it leaves the body. These images have borrowed elements from indigenous birthing practices of being somewhat vertical while giving birth and the Nilotic tribe practice of assisted pushing.123 This image, and the others depicting this thesis are manifestations of queer aesthetics and, therefore, mimicry.124 Large scale, industrial pieces of machinery are used as representations of the meta-being of the Capitalocene— technology. They metaphorically represent the widespread, diverse branches of the term—from digital technology to space technology. This representation is to manifest on paper, the ironic queering of capitalist technology to be diverse engineered by those occupying this speculative world. In the Capitalocene, technology is weaponized to be a tool of oppression that disproportionately harms and polices othered bodies. By representing those othered groups as the ones appropriating the very technology that was harnessed to harm them, and dismantling its original instrumentality, a potentiality, as Giorgio Agamben calls it, emerges. 125 Jose Esteban Muñoz discusses temporalities in relation to Agamben’s concept of potentiality by saying, “Potentialities have a temporality that is not in the present but, more nearly, in the horizon, which we can understand as futurity,”126 By establishing a temporal difference between potentiality and possibility and situating images of queer world-making within the futurity of potentiality rather than the “present-ness” of possibility, a post-capitalist, queered world becomes a future to strive for, rather than an abstract thought that “cannot” exist in the capitalist present. It becomes, what Muñoz mentions, a

123. “Born at the End of a Rope: Embracing Indigenous Childbirth Traditions to Save Lives,” United Nations Population Fund, February 14, 2019, https://www.unfpa.org/news/ born-end-rope-embracing-indigenous-childbirth-tradi tions-save-lives. 124. Bhabha, 153. 125. Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 99 126. Ibid, 99.

Squishingmechanism mechanismallowing allowingfood food Squishing pushedthrough in through to compacted be broken down pushed to be and compacted pressure and in be through pressurethrough and be pushed down cylindrical bundles pushed dout in cyclindrical bundles. Holder Holderand anddripper dripperofoffood foodenhancer enhancer agent agent Resistance based mechanism for holding and through and pushing pushing food food through.

Twisting needles Twistingmechanism mechanismwith with needlesatatthe the end endthat thatattach attachto toprotruding protrudingfood foodbundles and braids them together bundles and braids them together Slide forfor food braids toto slide Slide food braids sliedown downamidst amidst the dripture ofof enhancing agent the dripture enhancing agent. Bundle Bundleholder holderfilled filledwith withfood foodcooking cooking agent and heated agent and heatedpebbles pebblesfor forthe thesoaking ofsoaking food bundles of food bundles.

“utopian performativity” that “suggests another modality of doing and becoming that is in process, unfinished.”127 This prescription of the unfinished to the process of world-making gives it the space it needs to be fluid and break free from the rigidity of capitalist and colonial categories. This speculated world or no-place is characterized by multiplicities —it is built on the acceptance of intersectionality. As it attempts to blur the binaries amongst and between humans, non-humans, nature, culture and technologies, this world establishes the intersectional identities of all these beings as the foundation of this blurring. Therefore, these images are a manifestation of that. The same contraption that was used as a birthing mechanism, is utilized as a mechanism to build food, as shown in this image. The resistance mechanism used by the person to aid pushing now becomes a collection spot that can push compressed food out through the holes that held the pregnant person’s body. The leg holders hold a fabric filled with herb water that drips over the food bundles as they roll down the slide the baby slid down on, into the same pool. One being or one action doesn’t hold privilege over the other, and the nuanced sentiments attached to actions are questioned. Within the rigidity of the capitalist world, reproduction is attributed “sacred-ness” while the body of the person giving birth is policed. The bodies of people with uteresus are put under extreme scrutiny—abortion laws privilege lives of unborn foetuses over the life of the person giving birth, reproductive agency of trans and non-binary people with uteresus is questioned and stolen, morality of womxn giving birth without being married is maligned. This dichotomy of value placed on the action of reproduction and the person giving birth is attempted to be broken down in this series of images. Hygiene, when preparing food has different variations and traditions around the world and all those traditions are rooted in local knowledge. Culture is developed around food preparation. By attributing a multiplicity of purpose to the birthing apparatus by representing it as a food preparation apparatus as well, stigmas of “uncleanliness” attached to giving birth and other biological processes of the reproductive system like menstruation implemented by patriarchal systems are decolonized. A blurring of culture and technology occurs in these two images as well, where technology produces culture and culture depends on technology to remain fluid. The queered technological aesthetic that decolonizes the discourse of reproduction and aids in food production, also decolonizes what constitutes as culture. Cultural preservation is a priority in marginalized communities since culture is heavily based in history. Capitalist narrative of modernity renders culture an

127. Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 99

Bathingspace spaceoccupied occupied by by bird. bird. Bathing Potentiallyhunting huntingground groundififititdoes doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Potentially not seethe the hawk hawk soon soon. see

object of the past, or not modern. This divides culture and technology and places them in two different linear temporalities. In queer(ed) futurity, however, technology is a shapeshifter which is inherently non-binary, and temporalities flow through one another. This topples the notion of static culture and knowledge and allows technology to be intrinsic to cultural production. The third image allows further appropriation of the apparatus where it is utilized as a watering hole for a small bird and a possible hunting ground for the hawk watching. Amongst the binaries that divide the capitalist world, the divide between humans and non-human organisms is used to substantiate other divides as well. Hierarchy of value of life is established in terms of human-ness and human proximity, and results in induced anthropocentrism. This image is a rejection of the first thought that the viewer thinks of—the birds are occupying the technology used for birthing and food preparation—but rather, that the birds are occupying this technology as a space that affords occupation. The narrative of boundaries has divided even the non-human world into hierarchies—hierarchies that direct human empathy. Companion species like dogs and cats and indoor plants are subjects of empathy due to their proximity to humans, while millions of animals become objects as they are mass murdered in capitalist food production plants. Anna Tsing, in her book The Mushroom at the End of the World discusses this phenomenon—“Over the past few decades , many kinds of scholars have shown that allowing only human protagonists into our stories is not just ordinary human bias; it is a cultural agenda tied to dreams of progress of modernization. There are other ways of making worlds. Anthropologists have become interested, for example, in how subsistence hunters recognize other living beings as “persons,” that is, protagonists of stories. Indeed how could it be otherwise? Yet, expectations of progress block this insight: talking animals are for children and primitives. Their voices silent, we imagine well-being without them. We trample over them for our own advancement; we forget that collaborative survivals require cross-species coordinations.”128 This multi-species, collaborative existence is part of Indigenous knowledge and that of communities of color globally, but have been ignored by the worship of modernization and modernity which render these epistemologies an object of the past. This image is, therefore, an establishment of a multispecies, collaborative existence in a post-capitalist world, where hierarchies of human and non-human are broken down and the worth of non-human lives are not established in human terms.

128. Tsing, 155.

Aesthetics and Perception:

Decolonizing Nature in a Post-Capitalist World.

The Capitalocene is an aesthetic event—it is a narrative that configures perception and renders the aesthetics of destruction beautiful, natural and inevitable.129 This shift in perception is visible in the sunsets that appear more colorful than ever with increasing particulate matter in the sky, or in the images by Edward Burtynksy, such as this one, where exploited landscape appears breathtakingly beautiful. These perceptions are being configured and reconfigured at a rate that we can barely keep up with, and, therefore, the narrative of the oikos allows for a complacency in privileged existence that perceives this exploitative change as “inevitable” for the construction and preservation of the human space on the planet. The oikos constructs nature in human terms that can be appropriated to be a tool for the Capitalocene. The paintings of Nature by the Impressionists creates the narrative of a beautiful object that needs to be protected by and from humans; the term ‘natural’ is weaponized to be established as a biological standard to counter dissent against social categories like gender, sexuality and race; the association of nature with the term Mother constructs expectations of being provided for and justifies extraction of resources. Oikos is based on the belief that human capitalocentric reality is the same as a universal planetary reality, and this belief has rendered the planet itself as an other—a resource to be inevitably exploited. Amanda Boetzkes, draws upon Inuit observations to say, “The world has tilted on its axis,” and therefore, to imagine a post-capitalist futurity, a reconfiguration of sensorial and perceptive systems is required.130 This thesis rejects the notion of an oikos and turns to Indigenous Knowledge to understand the planet and nature as beings that exist on their own accord—not defined in human terms. 129. Heather M. Davis and Etienne Turpin, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies (London: Open Humanities Press, 2015), 11. 130. Davis and Turpin, 11.

Decolonizing Nature Place-Thought from place itself. When the Sky Woman falls on the back of a turtle, she becomes land herself, and placethought is therefore, her communication with life around her. Place-thought also gives agency to nonhumans to form “societies” and not merely ecosystems “Sky Woman fell from a hole in the sky. John 134 Mohak writes of her journey towards the waters as dictated by Eurocentric thought and knowledge. below. On her descent, Sky Woman fell through This understanding of agency blurs the boundaries the clouds and air towards water below. During between nature and culture, and between human/ non-human beings and the land. This blurring is rooted her descent, birds could see this falling creature in what Dwayne Donald calls “ethical relationality” and saw she could not fly. They came to her and which he describes as “an enactment of our helped to lower her slowly to waters beneath ecological imagination. Ethical relationality doesn’t her. The birds told Turtle that she must need a deny that we’re different, so it’s not a way to say place to land, as she possessed no water legs. that we’re all the same. But it seeks to understand Turtle rose up, breaking through the surface so more deeply how our different histories and experiences position us in relationto each other. It is that Sky Woman could land on Turtle’s back. an ethical imperative to see that despite our varied Once landed, Sky Woman and Turtle began to form the earth, the land becoming an extension place-based cultures and knowledge systems, we live in the world together and must constantly think of their bodies.”131 and act with reference to those relationships.”135 Donald discusses ethical relationality from the Watts discusses this Creation story to discuss framework of Place-Thought, where the relationships Place-Thought as a framework for understanding the that are discussed stem from the understanding of World—the premise that land is alive and thinking the land as being alive, and all inter- and intra-species and that all humans and non-humans derive agency relationships gather agecy from that fact. from the extension of this premise.132 She places Place-Thought in opposition to Eurocentric ontological The discourse of Place-Thought, as is with framework of understanding the world, in order to point all Indigenous Knowledge, is often disregarded in out the differences in understanding the creation of Eurocentric frameworks, because epistemologies societies and how the latter colonized the former, by based in storytelling are regarded as “old” and not in labelling it as “mythic” and not modern. She discusses conjunction with the discourse of modernity. In order how Europcentric epistemological and ontological to shift perceptions to regard a post-capitalist world, frameworks exist in the abstract, and the articulation this thesis rejects the notion of the oikos that emerges of this abstract results in a divide of “epistemological/ from Eurocentric framework of understanding the theoretical versus ontological/praxis.”133 But the world, and uses the Place-Thought lens to establish Place-Thought framework, as she describes it, is a relationships between localized realities and planetary literal translation of the Sky Woman’s thought and not realities. an abstraction. The complex theories of being and existence, therefore, are not and cannot be distinct Vanessa Watts, in her paper Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency amongst Humans and Non-Humans, describes the creation story of the Haudenosaunee as translated by John Mohawk—

131. Vanessa Watts, “Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go On a European World Tour!).” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society,2(1), 20-34. 2013. 132 Watts, 21. 133. Ibid, 23. 134. Ibid, 23. 135. Heather M. Davis, E. Turpin, and Zoe Todd, “Indigenizing the Anthropocene,” in Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies (London: Open Humanities Press, 2015), 249.

Affordances and Ecological Perception As this thesis prescribes to the Place-Thought framework, it becomes essential to discuss the biological and sensorial shifts in perception required to assign an aesthetic value to the post-capitalist imagination viewed through said framework. James Gibson developed a theory of ecological perception that conceived “a perceiveing subject whose actions and interpretations are interwoven with the environment.”136 This implied that self-perception is located within the perception of one’s environment and postulated an objective reality that is rooted in perception.137 This objective reality relates back the concept of place-thought and the interconnectedness of the self in the place. While perception differs then based on the observer, the objectivity of the world is not distorted in any way—while the human may only be able to perceive its being in relation to the land, the interconnected relationships of the land, human and non-human remain tangible truths. This understanding of ecological perception can be understood through the theory of Affordances developed by Gibson as well, which Amanda Boetzkes describes as, “limitless information that an environment yields, the possible meanings this information may have to the perceiver, and the full range of actions the perceiver may choose to respond with.”138 It is, then, a fact of the environment and a fact of behavior.139 Current Eurocentric framework of thought reduces land, environment and technology to what it affords humans, but affordance theory refuses to reduce environments and objects to the basic function they may afford to the perceiver. “It permits a level of consciousness of the world beyond function.”140 In the speculative post-capitalist world, then, both the land and the technologies of the Anthropocene afford certain functions to the scavengers. The scavengers perceive these functions to be objective realities viewed under the framework that the land and the technologies of the Capitalocene are beings themselves. Their understanding of themselves and the things/ beings they build are situated within this larger framework of reality. As Amanda Boetzkes mentions, “Through the concept of affordance, a behaviour may bloom and yield excessive meaning beyond the mechanistic balance of an ecosysetm, and thus new ways of thinking about ecological being become possible.”141 136. Heather M. Davis, E. Turpin, and Amanda Boetzkes, “ Ecologicity, Vision, and the Neurological System,” in Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies (London: Open Humanities Press, 2015), 273. 137. Boetzkes, 273. 138. Ibid, 273. 139. Ibid, 274. 140. Ibid, 274. 141. Ibid, 274.

Design Experiment This model was an experiment of the theory of affordances and ecological perception in the context of a post-capitalist scenario. A landscape of the Capitalocene that has been prescribed an aesthetic value as shown in the photographs of Edward Burtynsky was created as a base. Through kitbashing, technological appendages were added as the curves and breaks of the base afforded. This creation was an imagination of how the scavengers would create on destroyed landscapes using the technology of the Capitalocene, within the framework of place-thought. Without the framework of modernity, the divide between nature and culture is blurred, and actions that occur as a result of perceiving affordances become cultural practices themselvesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a fulcrum system created to bridge land on either side of a pit became a practice of transportation that rejects normativity; an apparatus that allows rotational movement became a heating device that moves with the Sun to capture its rays and reflect them for heating purposes.

Patchiness and Multi-Species Collaboration â&#x20AC;&#x153;Making worlds is not limited to humans. We know that beavers reshape streams as they make dams, canals and lodges; in fact, all organisms make ecological living places, altering earth, air, and water. Without the ability to make workable living arrangements, species would die out. In the process, each organism changes everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world. Bacteria made our oxygen atmosphere, and plants help maintain it. Plants live on land because fungi made soil by digesting rocks. As these examples suggest, world-making projects can overlap, allowing room for more than one species. Humans, too, have been always been involved in multispecies world-making. Fire was a tool for early humans not just to cook but also to burn the landscape, encouraging edible bulbs and greasses that attracted animals for hunting. Humans shape multispecies worlds when our living arrangements make room for other species. Pines, with their associated fungi partners , often flourish in landscapes burned by humans. Humans, pines and fungi make living arrangements simultaneously for themselves and for others: multispecies worlds.â&#x20AC;?142 Anna Tsing 83

142. Tsing, 22.

through a Place-Thought Framework Anna Tsing in her book The Mushroom at the End of the World writes about the emergence of the matsutake mushroom in precarious environments, and calls attention to the power of the state of precarity to reveal “patchy landscapes, multiple temporalities, and shifting assemblages of humans and nonhumans: the very stuff of collaborative survival.”143 Dismantling Capitalism creates a precarious world, and without the notion of progress, humankind survives as scavengers off of the affordances of the land and the technologies scavenged. This systemic breakdown of Eurocentric ontological frameworks, allows for patchy assemblages of multispecies, collaborative survival to exist in vulnerability with each other. These images are a manifestation of this imagination—affordances perceived differently by beings—where collaborative survival allows multipilicities of temporalities to create a patchy landscape. This patchy landscape in the Capitalocene would be bulldozed by narratives of progress and exploited as resources, but in a postcapitalist world is allowed to exist as an objective reality.

143. Tsing, 5.

Temporalities of Perception â&#x20AC;&#x153;Time, is the accumulation of a lifetime of passing through environments that offer certain kinds of affordances, which then influence the collective perceptions and sensations of the organisms of the earthâ&#x20AC;?144 Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin

“

Ethic of Historic Consciousness

This ethic holds that the past occurs simultaneously in the present and influences how we conceptualize the future. It requires that we see ourselves related to, and implicated in, the lives of those yet to come. It is an ethical imperative to recognize the significance of the relationships we have with others, how our histories and experiences are layered and position us in relation to each other, and how our futures as people similarly are tied together. It is also an ethical imperative to see that, despite our varied place-based cultures and knowledge systems, we live in the world together with others and must constantly think and act with reference to these relationships. Any knowledge we gain about the world interweaves us more deeply with these relationships, and gives us life.”145 Dwayne Donald This image is an attempt to represent the ethic of historic consciousness, as in, it represents an interconnected nature between different species, and between those yet to come and those who have passed—an interconnectedness that surpasses any linear temporalities. The image shows holes in the ground—the first occupied by a person relaxing and having a conversation with the person making food by layering it in the second hole; the third hole holds bodies of those who have passed on and are returning to the Earth as manure to facilitate new life; the fourth hole shows soon-to-be new life within the ostrich eggs. The holes represent life, death, sustenance, leisure—activities that remain true for all living beings, but are prescribed hierarchies based on their proximity to normative, capitalist discourses of human existence. By placing these activities next to each other, perceptions of those essentialist notions are dismantled. Proximity to death does not imply that life and sustenance cannot thrive, and through this shift in aesthetic perceptions, a more deeply knotted web of interconnected reality is revealed, giving rise to new understandings of multi-species living.

144. Davis and Turpin, 12. 145. Boetzkes, 271.

Conclusion

“

But breathe this deep because this is the message. We did it. We shifted the paradigm. We rewrote the meaning of life with our living. And this is how we did it. We let go. And then we got scared and held on and then we let go again. Of everything that would shackle us to sameness. Of our deeply held belief that our lives could be measured or disconnected from anything. We let go and re-taught ourselves to breathe the presence of the energy that we are that cannot be destroyed, but only transformed and transforming everything. Breathe deep, beloved young and frightened self, and then let go. And you will hold on. So then let go again. With all the love and the sky and the land and the water, Lex146 The above is the final paragraph of the story Evidence by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. It marks the ending of the email written by Alexis PostCapitalism to Alexis During-Capitalism, describing the beauty of the world after Capitalism has been toppled and telling her past self to keep fighting and to let go of normative ways of being that dictate and define life during the time. The email is a part of “evidence” of legacy collected for Alexis’s descendant Alandrix. This passage verbalizes the hope this thesis dreams of—hope of a world where life is not measured in socially constructed oppressions, where people are not scared to be radical, where interconnected, multispecies, collaborative survival is not a disconnected reality. The foundation of this thesis is hope. José Esteban Muñoz calls for hope as a rejection of the now— an insistence for a better world that is not here yet. He reads Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope to find grounds for the critique of “a totalizing and naturalizing idea of the present in the concept of the no-longer-conscious. A turn to the no-longer-conscious enabled a critical hermeneutics attuned to comprehending the not-yet-here. This temporal calculus performed and utilized the past and the future as armanents to combat the devastating logic of the world of the here and now, a notion of nothing existing outside the sphere of the current moment, a version of reality that naturalizes cultural logics such as capitalism and heteronormativity.”147

146. Gumbs, 41 147. Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 12

The speculative fiction of this thesis serves as an alternative worldmaking technique, one that rejects the complacency of the now, and like Alexis, lets go to discover new subjectivities through shape-shifting technology in queered temporalities. The scavengers of this world, in what this thesis calls the Age of Love, are alternative imaginations of our descendants— descendants who have the privilege to lead the scavenger life. This focus on the privilege is important because often in dystopian potrayals of the world, scavenging humans are aestheticized to evoke pity and fear. The narrative of the fear associated with the death of modernity is rejected by this thesis, and scavenging is celebrated as the outcome of the death of capitalism and notions of progress. This scavenging privilege for the future is rooted in radical, revolutionary actions that reject the now, and in the hope for beautiful revolutions that uproot Capitalist systems of oppression. This hope is what Muñoz calls “revolutionary consciousness.”148 The appropriation and subsequent queering of the technologies of the Anthropocene is a rejection of the universalist connotations of the term itself. The scavengers unprivilege the origin stories of these technologies themselves, which becomes an act of decolonization. Technologies are broken away from their perceived inherent-ness of modernity and the “New” world, and are projectively read by the scavengers as shapeshifters—neither good or bad inherently, but affording objective realities. In uncertain times, imagining futures is a practice of hope. But more often than not, the imaginations of futurity that are acted upon, are utopias for some that are built on the backs of those who were othered by those imaginations. Hoping for a collective, collaborative future is, then, a radical act. It acknowledges the categories that the colonial, capitalist and neo-colonial powers have established and acknowledges the implications of those categorizations. This is not abstract hope that ignores the work done and the work that needs to be done to eradicate the implications of those categorizations to imagine post-racial, post-homophobic, post-colonial futures. But rather, it is concrete hope, that is rooted in the histories of revolutions and builds futurities upon that revolutionary consciousness to begin to blur those categorizations. The discourse of hope usually does not find a place in “serious” academia—it is considered naive. But that in itself is reason enough to keep talking about it, because that academia is not built to discuss better futures for the othered—it in itself is an institution of othering that seeks to maintain power structures. This thesis rejects these power structures and dares to be naive anyway, because, as Muñoz says, “Hope is a risk. But if the point is to change the world we must risk hope.”149

148. Muñoz and Duggan, Hope and Hopelessness, 278. 149. Ibid, 279.

Bibliography “Results of Binding Vote by AWG Released 21st May 2019,” Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, May 21, 2019, http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/. “Welcome to the Anthropocene.” Globaïa. Accessed May 26, 2020. https://globaia.org/anthropocene. Demos, T.J. “Welcome to the Anthropocene! - Still Searching.” Fotomuseum Winterthur. Accessed May 25, 2020. https://www.fotomuseum.ch/en/explore/still-searching/articles/27011_welcome_to_the anthropocene. Yusoff, Kathryn. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. Legacies of British Slave-ownership, accessed June 1, 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/. Heine, Conrad “Hone Tuwhare: Maori Poet Whose ‘No Ordinary Sun’ Catapulted Him to Celebrity,” The Independent (Independent Digital News and Media, October 23, 2011), https://www.independent. co.uk/news/obituaries/hone-tuwhare-maori-poet-whose-no-ordinary-sun-catapulted-him-to- celebrity-771415.html. Kihleng, Emelihter. “Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.” The Contemporary Pacific 30, no. 1 (2018): 258+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed June 5, 2020). https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib. calpoly.edu/apps/doc/A523394047/AONE?u=calpolyw_csu&sid=AONE&xid=e456c120. Quijano, Anibal, and Michael Ennis. “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America.” Nepantla: Views from South 1, no. 3 (2000): 533-580. Rosalind C. Morris and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea (New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010). Martins, Luiza Prado De O. “Technoecologies of Birth Control: Biopolitics by Design,” LUIZA PRADO DE O. MARTINS, April 2017, https://www.luiza-prado.com/technoecologies. Haraway, Donna Jeanne. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989. alexanderikhide.com Abi-habib, Maria and Sameer Yasir, “As Modi Pushes Hindu Agenda,a Secular India Fights Back,” The New York Times, December 20, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/world/asia/india-muslims- citizenship.html. Khan, Fatima. “Art Installations at Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Removed by Delhi Police, Graffiti Painted White,” ThePrint, March 24, 2020. https://theprint.in/india/art-installations-at-shaheen-bagh-jamia-removed- by-delhi-police-graffiti-painted-white/387086/. 89

“Jamia Millia: Indian Student Injured as Man Fires at University Protest.”BBC News. BBC, January 30, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51308376. Ahmed, Sara. “Recognizing Strangers,” in Strange Encounters:Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2009. 36-37. Mustafa.“Jamia: Rampant Student Arrests, But No Action Over Police Brutality?” Live Wire, May 1, 2020. https://livewire.thewire.in/campus/jamia-rampant-student-arrests-but-no-action-against- police/ Sommerville, Siobhan B. “Sexualized Aliens and the Racialized State: A Queer Reading of the 1952 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act,” in Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2007. López-Durán, Fabiola and Moore, Nikki. “Le Corbusier, Architecture, and Eugenics : From France to Brazil and Back.” In Across Space and Time: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2017. 159–74. Dreyfuss,Henry. Designing for People. New York: Allworth Press, 2012. Prasad, Ritu. “Eight Ways the World Is Not Designed for Women,”BBC News. BBC, June 5, 2019, https://www. bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47725946. Uexküll, Jakob Von. “An Introduction to Umwelt.” Semiotica 2001, no. 134 (2001).https://doi.org/10.1515/ semi.2001.017. Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. New York: Garland, 1977. Oelschlaeger, Max. “The Roots of Preservation: Emerson, Thoreau, and the Hudson River School, Nature Transformed.” National Humanities Center. Accessed June 29, 2020. http:// nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntwilderness/essays/preserva.htm. Sen, Mayukh. “Dividing Lines,” Real Life, March 27, 2017, https://reallifemag.com/dividing-lines/. Shu, Catherine. “Leaked Chinese Government Documents Detail How Tech Is Used to Escalate the Persecution of Uighurs.” TechCrunch. TechCrunch, November 25, 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/24/ leaked-chinese-government-documents-detail-how-tech-is-used-to-escalate-the-persecution-of- uighurs/. Ramzy, Austin, and Chris Buckley. “‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims.” The New York Times. The New York Times, November 16, 2019. https://www. nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html?module=inline. Bocquillon, Sandrine Piorkowski. “Sterilization in the United States: The Dark Side of Contraception.” Revue de recherche en civilisation américaine. Diallo, David, December 17, 2018. https://journals. openedition.org/rrca/1169. Waxman, Olivia B. “The History of Police in America and the First Force.” Time. Time, March 6, 2019. https:// time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/.

Smith, Kiona N. “Everything We Know About The Isolated Sentinelese People Of North Sentinel Island.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, November 30, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2018/11/30/ everything-we-know-about-the-isolated-sentinelese-people-of-north-sentinel-island/. Pandya, Vishvajit. “Through Lens and Text: Constructions of a ‘Stone Age’ Tribe in the Andaman Islands.” History Workshop Journal 67, no. 1 (2009): 173–93. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbn081. “Adolf Eichmann’s Final Plea: ‘In His Own Words.’” The Holocaust History - A People’s and Survivor History - Remember.org. Accessed November 18, 2019. https://remember.org/eichmann/ownwords. Butler, Judith. “Hannah Arendt’s Death Sentences.” Comparative Literature Studies 48, no. 3 (2011): 280. https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.48.3.0280. “Kashmir Special Status Explained: What Are Articles 370 and 35A?” India News | Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera, August 5, 2019. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/kashmir-special-status-explained- articles-370-35a-190805054643431.html. Khan, Ahmer, and Billy Perrigo. “What’s Happening in Kashmir During Coronavirus Lockdown.” Time. Time, May 6, 2020. https://time.com/5832256/kashmir-lockdown-coronavirus/. Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science,Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. Russonello, Giovanni. “Shabaka and the Ancestors Are Making Their Own Jazz History.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 11, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/arts/music/shabaka- and-the-ancestors.html. Nixon, Lindsay. “Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurisms.” GUTS, November 14, 2016. http://gutsmagazine. ca/visual-cultures/. Jemisin, N. K. The Stone Sky. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2018. Imarisha, Walidah, Adrienne M. Brown, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. “Evidence.” Essay. In Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2015. Muñoz, José Esteban Cruising Utopia: the Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York, New York: New York University Press, 2019. O’neill, Shane. “Who Threw the First Brick at Stonewall? Let’s Argue About It.” The New York Times. The New York Times, May 31, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/first-brick-at-stonewall-lgbtq. html. Duggan, Lisa, and José Esteban Muñoz. “Hope and Hopelessness: A Dialogue.” Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory 19, no. 2 (2009): 275–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/07407700 903064946.

Herscher, Andrew, and Ana María León. “At the Border of Decolonization.” e-flux. Accessed June 29, 2020. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/at-the-border/325762/at-the-border-of-decolonization/. Springett, Selina. “Going Deeper or Flatter: Connecting Deep Mapping, Flat Ontologies and the Democratizing of Knowledge.” Humanities 4, no. 4 2015: 623–36. https://doi.org/10.3390/h4040623. Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. New York: The Monacelli Press Inc., 1980. Somol, Robert, and Sarah Whiting. “Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism.” Perspecta 33 (2002): 72–77.

Coleman, Daniel, Marie Battiste, Sákéj Henderson, Isobel M. Findlay, and Len Findlay. “Different Knowings and the Indigenous Humanities.” English Studies in Canada 38, no. 1. March 2012: 141–59. doi:10.1353/esc.2012. Nagam, Julie. Deciphering the Refusal of the Digital and Binary Codes of Sovereignty/Self- Determination and Civilized/Savage. Public. 27. 78-89. 10.1386/public.27.54.78_1. Guzmán, Alicia Inez. “Indigenous Futurisms.” InVisible Culture, March 15, 2015. https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu /indigenous-futurisms. Badami, Nandita. “Informality as Fix.” Third Text 32, no. 1 (2018): 46–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/0952882 2.2018.1442190. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. Bhabha, Homi. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” In Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, edited by Cooper Frederick and Stoler Ann Laura, 152-60. University of California Press, 1997. Banham, Reyner.”A Home is Not a House,” Art in America. 1965, volume 2, New York:70-79 Gibson, James J. “The Theory of Affordances.” In The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. Haraway, Donna Jeanne. When Species Meet. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2009. Davis, Heather M. and Etienne Turpin. Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies. London: Open Humanities Press, 2015. Watts, Vanessa. “Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go On a European World Tour!).” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society,2(1), 20-34. 2013.

No Oikos for the Cyborg

Articles inside

vi. Temporalities of Perception

v. Patchiness and Multispecies Collaboration

iv. Design Experiment

iii. Affordances and Ecological Perception

ii. Place-Thought

i. Design Experiment

ii. Queer Aesthetics Shifting Perceptions of Binaries

v. Vellum: Visphot

i. Decolonizing Nature in a Post Capitalist World

iv. Jugaad: Method of Mimicry

iii. Jugaad: Queering Technology

ii. Design Experiment

i. Donna Haraway and the Cyborg Manifesto

iii. Queer World-Making

i. Diffusionism and Reading the Shape-Shifter

ii. Blurring_Section

ii. Who is a Cyborg?

ii. Afrofuturism storytelling

i. Queer(ed) Speculations, Radicalized Imaginations

i. Where does the Othered Subaltern Belong?

Police Brutality and the Weaponization of Technology iv. Origin Stories of Technologies Sentinelese Tribe

Alekhander Ikhide’s Collages ii. Othering Weaponized Protests in India

i. The Uncanny Anthropocene

ii. Birth Control Technologies and Agency

i. Who are Technologies Designed for

iii. Eugenics and Modernism Le Corbusier and the Standard Human

Were they Ever Meant to Provide Agency? iii. Technologies of the Precarious Modernity