Markers – Material Delineations of the Present

Whether microplastics in bodies of water and organisms, the introduction of neobiota into new environment or the accumulation of radionuclides from nuclear weapons tests, every anthropogenic marker has a political, technological and ecological history behind it.

Developed from the online publication Anthropogenic Markers, eight sessions in three stages examine how a particular chemical or biological fingerprint becomes a demarcation for the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene.

Researchers of the Anthropocene Working Group, humanities scholars and artists provide insight into the practice of “Anthropocene forensics.” The talks explore the data analysis methods and dating techniques employed to separate the individual signal from the noise as well as the laboratory practices that lie behind the chain of evidence for the Anthropocene.

4: Troubling Sedimentations

With Maximilian Lau, Francine M. G. McCarthy, Sybille Neumeyer
5–6.30 pm
Exhibition Hall 2

The life-enabling substances of phosphorus and nitrogen have led to drastic repercussions through the eutrophication of waterscapes, increased algae blooms and groundwater pollution. What role do the agrarian interventions of modernity play in these disbalances of ecological metabolisms, as well as the excess and scarcity of these elements? Flowing with the drifts, shifts and rifts of matters, this session traces the processes of circulation and sedimentation of nitrogen, phosphorus, knowledge and cultural values.

5: Reading the Ashes

With Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, Neil L. Rose, Benjamin Steininger
5–6.30 pm
Auditorium

It has been a tough lesson for humanity to learn that, when something burns it does not simply disappear. Whether toxic substances, acid rain or even knowledge accumulation, something is always left behind. How does the living organism of peat archive these remains of our fire culture? And which practices reveal the shifts in combustion from the Holocene as compared to the Anthropocene?

6: Conversations Beyond the Human

With Kat Austen, Nigel Clark, Kristine L. DeLong, Jens Zinke
5–6.30 pm
Exhibition Hall 2

How do corals experience the world? And how do their bodies sensor and archive environmental disruptions in the context of the climate crisis? This session opens up discussions on biodiversity, disrupted agencies and more-than-human perspectives on global environmental change.