As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic amid ongoing climate crisis and renewed pressure on academic infrastructure, how can we bolster collegial networks and share environmental conversations from within discourses of Asian art?

 

This reading group will be a space for informed discussion of ‘Asian art and environment’, in broad terms to invite multiple perspectives on this timely agenda. What do we understand by ‘environment’ and how have art makers and scholars engaged with its related discourses? The reading group begins as a critical engagement with the work of speakers from the 2021 Sydney Asian Art Series, with a view to becoming an ongoing forum.

 

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FORMAT
 

We will meet online via Zoom perhaps 4-5 times this year, prior to each of the Sydney Asian Art Series talks, to discuss texts from each speaker, and possibly additional agreed texts.

• Sessions will begin as 90mins, but let’s consider this as we go.

• A meeting link will be shared with those who register with the convenor.

• The first gathering will be chaired and led by group convenor Olivier Krischer, but this role will rotate as the sessions continue.

• Complementary readings can be suggested via email or in discussion.

• To clarify: the SAAS speakers will not be involved in the reading group. beyond suggesting their texts. The group is intended as an informal, critical engagement with their work and related scholarship.

 

Note: this is intended as an informal, collegial group, not a seminar – participants are expected to read the agreed texts and come with brief notes including questions and suggestions to expand the discussion in a mutually productive way.

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SCHEDULE
 

We will meet Monday evenings 7:00-8:30 pm AEST, on 29 March, 3 May, 13 September and 25 October.

Note: This means 4:00-5:30 pm for colleagues in Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and so forth. Additional times can be discussed as we get underway.​

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READINGS

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The following readings have been proposed by each SAAS 2021 speaker related to their talks. Additional readings can be suggested in the group, though perhaps we aim to read and discuss no more than two per gathering.

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29 March

Patrick D. Flores, ‘The Nature of the Historical: Forming Worlds, Resisting the Temptation’, in Ferdinand, S., I. Villaescusa-Illán, & E. Peeren, eds.,  Other Globes Past and Peripheral Imaginations of Globalization. Springer International Publishing, b 2019.

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3 May

Yuriko Furuhata, ‘Architecture as atmospheric media - Tange Lab and Cybernetics’, in Steinberg, M. and A. Zahlten eds., Media Theory in Japan. Duke University Press, 2017.

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Yuriko Furuhata, ‘The Fog Medium: Visualizing and Engineering the Atmosphere’, in Buckley, C., R. Campe, F. Casetti (eds.), Screen Genealogies. From Optical Device to Environmental Medium. Amsterdam University Press, 2019.

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13 September

Sugata Ray, “Water” [Chapter one], in Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550-1850. University of Washington Press, 2019.

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29 October, 12pm-1pm

Wei Hsiu Tung, 'From social art practice to environmental aesthetic awakening and civil engagement: The case study of Cijin Kitchen', Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vol 7 Nos 2 & 3 (2020). 

Link to event: https://meet.google.com/gzm-zbkc-tmf

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CONTACT

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Convenor: Olivier Krischer, okrischer@gmail.com

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