Berlin, 6pm-8pm, February 3, 2017, https://2017.transmediale.de
A dual keynote lecture by Parks and Hörl, introduced by Parikka. Parks discussed the interaction between human-made technical infrastructure and animals. The three examples given were birds nesting on cellular signal towers, a chimpanzee escaping the zoo and moving around on high voltage power poles and cables, and the construction of animal crossings under and above highways as surveillance and control tools. How to think of the “natural” and the “manmade” if we consider it from the point of view of animals? Culture has been the human “nature” for a long time, but now “culture” is being replaced by “infrastructure” that is less human-centered and more ubiquitous, soliciting interactions from all kind of agents.
Hörl’s talk was much more abstract, with Heidegger’s, Foucault’s, Guattari’s, etc. spicing up almost every sentence. He discussed the subtle differences between different shades of the term “environmentality”, ranging from environmentalism to environmentarism, and placed these relations within the context of neoliberal capitalism. At close view, through a practical application of Foucault’s method of problematisation, one realized all the contradictory aspects encompassed by this term: The concept of a field surrounding an agent, the concept of an interconnected organism-like system, the concept of environment as infrastructure, the concept of the environment as a resource and environmentalism as a method of surplus value extraction, and last environmentarism as a method of social control.
Parks and Hörl’s lectures complemented themselves and the served as mutual footnotes to each other. Rather than coming to a single conclusion, the questions raised remained open. One became aware of the gap that exists between the environmental discourse focused on preservation and sustainability on one hand and the infrastructural-technological discourse, which on the other hand talks about interdependence and capacity. As culture, infrastructure and the broader “natural” environment increasingly intersect, they also have to be considered as one system rather than parallel layers.
