GMU:Re-enchanting the field: Difference between revisions

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-Preparatory Sessions (Online): April 4th, 11th 25th and May 9th 2025
+Erasmus+ Blended Intensiv Program (BIP). A collaboration between Bauhaus University Weimar (Sound Ecologies and Media Environments), the Estonian Academy of Arts (Master of Craft Studies), Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (Department of Design) and the Unniversity of Applied Arts (Transformation Studies) Vienna,Austria.
-<br>Field visit, Narva, Estonia (including travel days): 18.5. – 25.5.2025
-<br>Follow up & Project Review (online): June 20th and July 5th 2025
 Prof. Ursula Damm, Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger, Mindaugas Gapševičius (Bauhaus University Weimar)
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 <br>Prof. Kärt Ojavee (Estonian Academy of Arts)
-NUMBER OF ECTS AWARDED: 6 (4 SWS)
+<big>'''SCHEDULE'''</big>
-Topics addressed: energy transitions, extractivism, industrial waste as material witness and driver of (geo)political transformations and change.
+'''Preparatory Sessions (Online):''' April 4th, 11th 25th and May 9th 2025
+<br>'''Field visit, Narva, Estonia''' (including travel days): 18.5. – 25.5.2025
+<br>'''Follow up & Project Review''' (online): June 20th and July 5th 2025
-== Syllabus ==
+'''<big>NUMBER OF ECTS AWARDED: 6 (4 SWS)</big>'''
+'''Topics addressed:''' energy transitions, extractivism, industrial waste as material witness and driver of (geo)political transformations and change.
+== SYLLABUS ==
 * 04.04. 2025 [[Welcome & Introduction]]
 * 11.04.2025 [[GMU:Re-enchanting the field/Social & Political History of Oil Shale Production|Social & Political History of Oil Shale Production]]
 * 25.04.2025 [[GMU:Re-enchanting the field/The geo-history of oil shale in Estonia|The geo-history of oil shale in Estonia]]
+'''<big>PROGRAM DESCRIPTION</big>'''This course offers an intensive training in elemental ethnography and ecological research. During a week long fieldvisit to Narva, Estonia, near the Russian border we will  investigate the material legacy of oil shale extraction in the Baltic region, focusing in particular on the historical entanglement of energy, substances, landscapes, and bodies, and their unintended proliferations and designs. The fieldvisit will be preceded by 4 online lectures to provide context and to introduce us to the main topcis and cpnceptual framing of our research.
-The Chairs of Acoustic Ecologies and Media Environments invite students from Media Art and Design program to apply for a week-long field experiment in Narva, Estonia, near the Russian border. In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Applied Arts Vienna (School for Transformation), the Estonian Academy of Arts (Master of Craft Studies), and Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (Department of Design) we investigate the material legacy of oil shale extraction in the Baltic region, focusing in particular on the historical entanglement of energy, substances, landscapes, and bodies, and their unintended proliferations and designs.
 Our main aim is to engage with the emergent properties of bio/geo-chemical waste in their broader geopolitical context and to unpack how they hold landscapes and bodies in colonial relations, long after the mining activities have been shut down.
+More specifically we want to explore the recurrent cycles of decomposition, death and renewal that are shaping the ambivalent landscapes of extractivism in Estonia, making their queer connections and affinities visible and apparent for critical inquiry and future research.
-Oil shales are marine fossils stored in rocks containing kerogen that can be converted into crude oil and gas. The northeast of Estonia is extremely rich in oil shale reserves that have attracted the interest of imperial powers and totalitarian regimes throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The unfettered violence of colonial and capitalist extraction has left behind vast mountains of industrial ash, and polluting materials, that are waiting to be remediated and disposed. The enduring legacy of toxic waste in open dumps next to forests, rivers, and unused agricultural lands has created its own queer ecologies that collectively remake environments in which received boundaries between waste, residue and resource, or regenerative materials are continuously renegotiated, reconfigured and redrawn.
-During this 5 day workshop, we want to explore the recurrent cycles of decomposition, death and renewal that are shaping the ambivalent landscapes of extractivism in Estonia, making their queer connections and affinities visible and apparent for critical inquiry and future research. “Queer” in this context does not necessarily describe something that already exists. Rather, queer inaugurates a certain kind of future of intelligibility for beings and collectives who are not yet available for explication. Hence, we consider the shale oil waste dumps as post-natural worlds, traversed by imperial and capitalist relations, whose historically specific modes of (chemo/techno)sociality and untapped potentials we seek to understand.
 ===METHODOLOGY & TASKS===