PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Humanity has become a geological force. This calls for critical reflections and reevaluations of our species’ past, present, and future. Frequently, they are characterised by the entanglement of unprecedented creativity, hybris and a tendency towards (self-)destruction. Questions about power and responsibility are unavoidable. From an artistic perspective, it is particularly interesting how changing narratives, images, and imaging technologies influenced processes of worldmaking. Which marks did they leave in the relationship between humanity, its environments, and other species?

Next to the ecological consequences of an ever-expanding technosphere, I am particularly interested in its political, economic, and social implications. Often, the resulting landscapes become unintended monuments for complex correlations in societies.

The long-term project consists of a growing collection of case studies about controversial infrastructures and threatened ecosystems. Archive research on the history of the affected landscapes and related discourses forms the base for my photo and video productions.
I contextualise the resulting materials in mixed-media essays. The ongoing project is in constant development.
I regularly present excerpts from my mixed-media essays in lecture performances, installations, and artist books.

The project title derives from „Man and Nature“ by George Perkins Marsh, first published in 1864. Marsh was a self-taught scholar and unsuccessful business­man who was equally involved in destroying and preserving pristine American landscapes. Condemning the mistakes of his earlier life, he became a fountainhead of the conservation movement and pre­decessor for Paul J. Crutzen‘s suggestion for a new geological epoch defined by humanity‘s impact on the Earth system: the Anthropocene. Despite these and many other warnings, humanity has failed to react to the existential threats it continues to create.

The long-term project started in 2011 with a case study on debated hydropower projects in the framework of a scholarship by a German energy corporation. Soon, I realised that I had delved into a highly complex topic that could not be sufficiently elaborated in the original timeframe. So, I decided to extend the focus and start a collection of case studies on other relevant examples of the problematic relationship between humanity and nature. Among them are controversial infrastructures like dams, power stations, and canals, as well as land reclamation projects. Next to these landscapes that have been very visibly transformed by human action, I am interested in threatened ecosystems that are considered to be wilderness but show strong entanglements of human and natural history at a closer look.

After all, my case studies aim to understand how we could get to the point we are at. Which world views have led to the current state, and how have they coined our collective understanding of nature? Is it the human condition to eventually destroy our base of life while striving for power and dominion? Can our remarkable abilities to achieve formerly unimaginable goals one day be used to achieve a sustainable future in harmonious coexistence? Although my productions rarely show humans, they are the central actors in every picture. While reflecting on whether something like nature could still exist in an expanding technosphere, we cannot but realise that it is humanity that so strongly relies on the stability of the Earth system.

Nature does not need us. We continue to be guilty of the sufferance of numerous species. However, nature at large will find ways to cope with any scenario we impose on this planet.