Class Art and Nature

This Course Unit is optional and it is structured to provide general theoretical and practical concepts in the field of Art and Nature, at a time when, increasingly, the means are being questioned and new forms of action are being sought in the face of the climate crisis and its environmental and social consequences.  

Not applicable

The course's journey leads students to reflect on the following questions: 1. What do we understand today by nature and to what extent are we a part of it? 2. How has the idea of nature been represented throughout the history of art? 3. What contributions do concepts like 'wilderness', 'Anthropocene', and 'post-nature' offer in thinking about our relationship with the natural world? 4. How can artists represent nature in a way that reflects the emotions caused by its increasing exploitation, artificialization, and destruction on a global scale? 5. In what ways can the fascination with the natural world inspire artists to envision more sustainable, empathetic, and just futures for all living beings?

The theoretical classes are structured in thematic blocks that reflect some of the main current issues in the field of nature, such as: climate crisis; biodiversity and extinction; coexistence, symbiosis, and domestication; technology and artificialism; science and other knowledge; care and regeneration; imagined futures. In each block, an interdisciplinary contextualization of the theme is made, followed by the presentation of a selection of works, artists, movements, and thinkers whose production significantly tackles the theme under analysis. This approach allows for mapping contemporary artistic practices and, whenever relevant, establishing connections with historical precedents. The theoretical reflection, articulated with the practical component, enables students to develop work aligned with their interests and research projects, providing an opportunity to deepen a theme or subtheme addressed in class, either through theoretical production or artistic creation.

DANOWSKI, Déborah; VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, Eduardo – Há Mundo por Vir? Ensaio Sobre os Medos e os Fins. Lisboa: Antígona, 2023.  DAVIS, Heather; TURPIN, Etienne – Art in The Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies. Reino Unido: Open Humanities Press, 2015. DION, Mark – The Incomplete Writings Of Mark Dion: Selected Interviews, Fragments And Miscellany. Londres: Art Data, 2017. HARAWAY, Donna J. – Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. MCKIBBEN, Bill – The End of Nature [1989]. Nova Iorque: Random House, 2006. MORTON, Timothy – Hyper Objects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2013 INSTITUTE FOR POSTNATURAL STUDIES – La Condición Postnatural: Glosario de Ecologias para Otros Mundos. Madrid: Cthulhu Books, 2024.  LEOPOLD, Aldo – Think Like a Mountain [1949]. Londres: Penguin Books, 2021.