Subject Area: Environmental Humanities

Artists are beginning to expose and derail dominant regimes for managing life. In the aftermath of ecological disasters—as forests are clear cut, as toxins spill into wetlands—thinkers and tinkerers are working to generate livable futures.

This course will bring perspectives from art, biology, and anthropology to bear on practices of environmental remediation. We will depart from the work of Michel Foucault, a 20th century philosopher, who used the term biopolitics to refer to a style of governmental regulation that can be applied to all aspects of life.

“Tactical biopolitics” is a creative misappropriation of terms by bioartists who use living matter to grow works of art. Drawing on the traditions of “tactical media”, which combines cheap devices and diverse apparatuses with a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethos, these artists are tinkering with technoscience and making surprising ecological interventions.

Rather than just dwell on problems from the past, students will be expected to imagine novel solutions to persistent environmental problems. This course will offer a toolkit of biopolitical tactics for environmental remediation and ecological restoration programs of the future