Why is the Aerocene important for the Anthropocene?
How would you feel if one day along the side of the Mississippi River you spotted a giant floating black balloon? And what if this “balloon” wasn’t a simple balloon but an sculpture created in order to raise awareness for the environment? If you ever see one of these — which you hopefully will — it is not more than another initiative to make you think about our impact on the environment. These flying sculptures are product of the Aerocene initiatives.
Aerocene is an interdisciplinary artistic endeavor that seeks to devise new modes of sensitivity regarding the human impact in the environment. This is done through activating a common imaginary towards achieving an ethical collaboration with the atmosphere and the environment. Tomás Sarceno argues that we should understand the air and relearn how to live in order to achieve long -lasting change on Earth (Aerocene). The Aerocene seeks to create a conversation between humans and environment where there is not longer a negotiation with the environment but an understanding and acceptance of the damage that has been done to it.
The many activities in which the Aerocene manifests include, the testing and dissemination of lighter-than-air sculptures that become buoyant only by the heat of the Sun and infrared radiation from the surface of Earth. A synthesis of art, technology, and environmental awareness, Aerocene embodies a vision for fuel- and emissions-free travelling and living in the atmosphere. Aerocene instantly and currently manifests in the development and test of solar sculptures. These sculptures“float without any need of fuel or gas, just capturing the heat of the sun and the infrared radiation of the earth’s surface” (Saraceno, 10). Moreover, Aerocene also proposes new ways of living, as the constant test and development of solar scultures is ultimately to try and create bigger scale models that would sustain human populations inside.
Tomás Saraceno’s definines the Anthropocene as the stage in which we are currently coexisting with a planet that has been negatively marked by human behaviour and that this damage is now irreversible (23). Departing from Saraceno’s definitions, this essay explores the idea of the Aerocene as an alternative way of thinking and interacting with the Anthropocene. Considering the limited access and lack of general knowledge on the Anthropocene, I argue that the Aerocene creates accessibility for the issues discussed in the Anthropocene by providing a more participatory field where people can be more involved with their environment thus recognizing the repercussions that human behaviour has on the Earth.
Departing from the current debates on the Anthropocene as a renegotiation with the environment and the use of it in order to continuing life on Earth, the Aerocene proposes a new epoch in we attempt to live and understand a damaged planet rather than trying to control and reverse the human impact on it. The Aerocene foregrounds the artistic and scientific exploration of environmental issues, and promotes common links between social, mental, and physical ecologies (Saraceno,22). In this way, the Aerocene not only identifies the damage but also seeks for different alternatives of living and interacting with the planet, in contrast with the lack of flexibility in the Anthropocene that has focused primarily in ways of understanding how the state of Earth affects us and produces merely academic work that is not always accessible for everyone.
In his book Aerocene, Tomás Saraceno states: “to be alive is to be connected to the world. The connection does not have to be through senses or breath, as life is usually understood… I think of life as what characterises the world as a whole, and all bodies within. Not limited to the usual animate/inanimate distinction” (Saraceno, 97). Saraceno’s idea exposes the Aerocene as it is a movement focused on life that goes beyond what we perceive. Through the concept of the Aerocene, he presents humans and environment seen as one with each other. Therefore, when human or environment act in any way, this will not only affect the environment but also the other people on it and it has immediate repercussions on the place where these changes happen. The notion of unity and action-reaction is enforced through the futuristic ideas of the Aerocene of creating artificial ecosystems within these sculptures that are going to flow around Earth. In these floating cities, their inhabitants would be able to interact closely with the atmosphere, air and solar energy, thus, they would be more aware of the relationship that exists between us and these elements, additionally to understanding how vital they are for us.
Guy Debord states that the dérive is “a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances” he elaborates by stating that the dérive involves “playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll”(Situationist International Texts). Although, Debord’s dérive primarily focuses on the geography of the urban landscape, his concept can be applied to the Aerocene and the different ways in which people can participate on it. First, in the futuristic flying sculptures, people living or flying in them will become aware of the psychogeographical consequences of their actions in immediate way. This, for example, if in one of the sculptures an inhabitant falls or moves abruptly within it, the other persons inside the sculpture will be affected by the person’s movements since they are all sharing the same space and due to the density of the air inside the floating city a change on its currents well affect the rest(Tomas). Therefore, the Aerocene generates immediate awareness of the consequences of humans actions on environment rather than explaining how human actions have been impactful for years or how they will be in the future. Aerocene takes a more present response to climate change, technological advances and advocates for a sustainable present while trying to respect and appreciate the environment with the ultimately goal of returning to a more sustainable era. Instead of renegotiation our damage and attempting to accept it and live within this damage, as the Anthropocene proposes. Furthermore, in the current Aerocene — the artistic small scale sculptures — the dérive also allows people to “drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions”, this is created by making people active participant of creating these sculptures. The Aerocene motivates people to dérive and become conscious of the environment and the impact that we have had and how we have changed it.
Although the Anthropocene has brought to light issues what were not acknowledge such as climate change, the effect of technology in the environment and the human impact on Earth and therefore, it has started conversations of great importance around these issues (Hedin, 110). The scope of perception of these conversations about the Anthropocene has been limited to academia and becomes and issue that is exclusive and inaccessible — almost elite field — that not many people know. The lack of recognition or experiencing the Anthropocene among more people contradicts and deviates from its goal of ultimately making people aware of humans’ current impact on the environment and moreover trying to renegotiate to reverse that impact. Then, creating a cycle in which the efforts make for a new understanding of our planet are simply happening in academia or intellectual groups and do not take any tangible form in which people are involved and first hand acknowledge and recognize these issues. The Aerocene proposes a more inclusive project based on experiences that ultimately make a bigger impact. It creates a space in which people can interact or dérive with each other as they become more conscious of the way in which the planet is changing. Therefore, it integrates the initial conversation that Anthropocene has created but it provides an interactive space in which people are not only able to acknowledge the changes and current state of our planet but more importantly it aims to make people think of new alternatives in which we can coexist in an already fragile environment without causing any drastic changes.
An example of the community building side of the Aerocene can be seen through the work of people who contribute to the different flights, such as the following in 2017.
The Anthropocene aims to raise awareness and generate a conversation on these changes and proposes a way of living in which we can be sustainable within what we currently have. However this conversation only revolves around us as humans and how we can change it for our own wellbeing while still using the planet in our favour. Moreover, through its exclusivity it creates a power dynamic — “master” to “apprentice” — in which the scholars or scientist investigating the Anthropocene are in advantage from the “common” and therefore, what it is consumed by regular people about the Anthropocene it is what it has been previously selected to be shown. Claire Bishop argues against the “master” to “apprentice” relationship in any artistic process, as she believes it minimizes the way in which people can obtain knowledge from the art but also grow personally(Bishop, 256). Moreover, she states how it is better to have an artistic ‘open form’, “in which a structure can be added to, encourage participation and a more vital relationship with reality, in contrast to a ‘closed form’, to which it is impossible to incorporate additions” (257). Departing from this approach, it is clear that the Anthropocene it is a ‘closed form’ which has exclusive access and it is hard to contribute to. On the other hand, Aerocene offers an artistic approach that it is community based and which objective is to provide people with a tool to gain data that can tell us about the changes in our planet whilst making us interact and consider our environment in a more interpersonal manner. Moreover, it allows the user to contribute and experiment through participation of artistic projects and data collection initiatives.
Finally, I believe that we are still far from being able to live in these floating sculptures and that the idea might seen extreme way in approaching current changes. Furthermore, I believe that the Aerocene is yet to be entered, and, without disregarding people’s efforts and initiatives on creating a better place for us to live and the constant rese, we are still far from being able to understand and live through the values and ways proposed by the idea of the Aerocene as a new epoch.
I believe that the Aerocene is branch of the Anthropocene that through it participatory approach it challenges the Anthropocene’s exclusivity and theory based movement with the use of art and more innovative ideas in order to start looking for solutions instead of revising past negative impacts in which we are already living their consequences. Aerocene is a way of connecting while observing and engaging with the environment. It is to be part of a whole while being a singular and trying to improve and partake of the larger self that is Earth.
Bibliography
Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso, 2012.
Hedin, Gry, and Ann-Sofie N. Gremaud. Artistic Visions of the Anthropocene North: Climate Change and Nature in Art. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.
Heise, Ursula K. Imagining Extinction: the Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species. The University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Saraceno Tomás, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Aerocene. Skira, 2017.
“Text Archives > Situationist International Texts >” Situationist International Online, www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html.
“Welcome.” Aerocene, 2016, aerocene.org/.