The Korean Society of Art Theories Roundtable II
Photographs of Bird Collision as the Images of Absence, and an Ethos beyond Care
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Seunghan Paek
In this study, I explore an ethos beyond care by investigating photographs of bird-window collision, a phenomenon referring to birds’ unwanted death due to the transparency of glass walls or windows. In doing so, I conduct the following. The first is to generate a narrative of bird collision based on my field trip, through which to explore the relationship between photographs of the collision and its implications as what I call as the images of absence. Instead of simultaneously witnessing the very moment of collision in situ, the trip often ends up by confronting the visual traces afterwards. Such a temporal gap is pathetic but inevitable, and implicates the perennially deferred relationship between human and the colliding birds. After speculating about the field photographs, I ring together two different books in order to explore the loose relationship between care and indifference beyond the often morally driven Anthropocene claims: Living as a Bird by Vinciane Despret and Does the Earth Care? by Mick Smith and Jason Young. What is brought forth through this cross-reading activity is a revised conception of care, which is not always enacted in reference to ethical criteria and remains either silent or non-communicative between species.
Art for Coexistence: Ecological Art in New York’s Alternative Art Scene in the 1970s and 1980s
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Im Sue Lee
This paper analyzes ecological art that emerged in New York's alternative art scene in the 1970s and 1980s from the perspective of the coexistence of humans, animals, and machines. In the late 1970s, New York City was financially bankrupt, so areas where the city's resources were under-allocated had very poor environments due to the waste problem. In a broader context, environmental issues were raised urgently with the energy crisis resulting from the oil crisis of the early 1970s. And electronic information technology faced the task of expanding human consciousness to the environment and finding new energy models. In this situation, artists worked with an interest in the urban waste problem, coexistence with living things, and a new ecological environment created by electronic technology and nature. This paper focuses on Christy Rupp and Frank Gillette. Rupp started with her interest in the problem of waste production. Her <Rat Patrol> (1979) dealt with New York's trash crisis and rat problem. She has sought to reveal the human impact on natural habitats through various forms of work. Gillette revealed the relationship between nature and humans by linking media to the natural ecosystem. In 1973, he presented an ecological installation work combined with video. He continued his work on natural landscapes and ecosystems and attempted to shift from human-centered spatial awareness to ecosystem-centered spatial awareness. As can be seen through Rupp and Gillette, the direction of artistic practice shown by the early pioneers of ecological art was the coexistence of humans, animals, and technology.
