Agropoetics Reader (2020)

“The Agropoetics Reader unfolds as a collection of texts that informed, grounded, and nourished Soil Is an Inscribed Body. In this context of reflections and cogitations about the epistemic violence perpetrated by the West against other forms of knowledges, the project examines anti-colonial struggles of past and current land conflicts across the world in order to address the invasiveness of neo-agro-colonialism and its extractivist logics.”

With contributions by Bengi Akbulut, Yemisi Aribisala, Marwa Arsanios, Luis Berríos-Negrón, Filipa César, Marisol de la Cadena, Ayesha Hameed, INLAND, Mijo Miquel, Asuncíon Molinos Gordo, Huying Ng, Maria Ptqk, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Bouba Touré, Mirellle and Jennifer in conversation with Alex Ungprateeb Flynn, Hervé Yamguen, and the editors.

Edited by Elena Agudio, Marleen Boschen, and Lorenzo Sandoval, with Onur Çimen and Cleo Wächter
Publisher Institute for Endotic Research Press, Berlin, with Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, 2020
Open access
ISBN 9783981951264
235 pages

Publisher

PDF, PDF (8 MB)

Sebastian Olma: In Defence of Serendipity: For a Radical Politics of Innovation (2016)

“In Defence of Serendipity is a lively and buccaneering work of investigative philosophy, treating the origins of “serendipity, accident and sagacity”, both as riddles and philosophical concepts that can be put to a future political use.

Taking in Aristotle, LSD, Tony Blair and techno-mysticism, Olma challenges the prevailing faith in the benevolence of digital technology and the illegitimate equation of innovation and entrepreneurship, arguing instead that we must take responsibility for the care of society’s digital infrastructure, and prevent its degeneration into an apparatus of marketing and finance. For although there is nothing wrong with marketing and finance per se, if they alone lead technological development, free of any discretionary political interference, the freedom to be exploited will be as much a part of the future as our ability to intervene freely in our lives, will be a thing of the past.”

Preface by Mark Fisher
Publisher Repeater Books, London, 2016
ISBN 1910924342, 9781910924341
237 pages
via WL

Reviews: Max Dovey (Imperica, 2017), Robert Hewison (Cultural Trends, 2016), Serendipitor (2016).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF

Alan Sonfist (ed.): Art in the Land: A Critical Anthology of Environmental Art (1983)

Seminal collection of texts on land art and environmental art.

“A growing concern for nature has appeared worldwide over the last two decades. Art has always reflected the questioning of a society by itself and often takes an active role in the search for the answers to those questions.

A group of artists whose work makes a statement about man’s relation to nature has appeared over the last decade. These artists have at one time or another used natural substances such as earth, rocks, and plants in much of their work and have frequently constructed the work outside on natural sites. Although these artworks refer to nature, the artists’ methods, styles, and even intentions vary widely. They really cannot be said to form distinct groups but to occupy places on a broad spectrum.

At one end of the spectrum the idea of monumentality, of earth moving, is made possible by industrial tools: bulldozers, dump trucks, and so forth. These artworks were built to speak of themselves, not the land they occupy. At the other end of the spectrum there are artists pursuing the relatively new idea of cooperation with the environment, which they see as necessary because of the threat of its destruction. These artists respond sensitively to the work’s site, changing it as little as possible. This group is especially interested in stimulating an awareness of nature and the Earth.”

Texts by Joshua C. Taylor, Mark Rosenthal, Elizabeth C. Baker, Jeffrey Deitch, Michael Auping, Jack Burnham, Lawrence Alloway, Jonathan Carpenter, Pierre Restany, Donald B. Kuspit, Diana Shaffer, Grace Glueck, Kate Linker, Harold Rosenberg, Charles Traub,
Robert Rosenblum, Michael McDonough, Kenneth S. Friedman, and Jeffrey Wechsler.

Publisher Dutton, New York, 1983
ISBN 0525477020, 9780525477020
xii+274 pages
via rumblebee

WorldCat

PDF (21 MB)