Futures of Nature/Facts that Matter is hosted by The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), in collaboration with the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC) and The University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI).

Convened by cultural commentator and critic Sarah Nuttall (University of Stellenbosch), this discussion will include leading international academics Cori Hayden, Ackbar Abbas, Dick Hebdige, Karim Makdisi, Achille Mbembe and David Goldberg.

The dualism between humans and nature has been a defining characteristic of modernity, alongside the incorporation of the world into global markets and the attendant production of waste on a scale never seen before. Yet there is a growing recognition that the rate of change of natural processes is shrinking towards the time scales of human society. The time lines of nature are now converging with those of society in a mutual lockstep.

This panel will discuss questions such as to what extent is the convergence of social and natural time opening up to possible disasters in the future? What are the implications of this foreshortening of social and natural time for artistic and aesthetic experimentation, new modes of politics and broader issues of equity and justice?

Please see Futures of Nature PDF for full information and panelists’ biographies.

Futures of Nature audio recording available for download.

Futures of Nature video recording

Start: 7 Feb ’12 5:00 pm

End: 7 Feb ’12 7:00 pm

Cost: Free

Category: 

Email: fin-gipca@uct.ac.za

Venue: Hiddingh Hall 

Phone: +27 21 480 7156

Address: Google Map UCT Hiddingh Campus, 31 Orange Street, Cape Town, Western Cape, 8001, South Africa