Through essays, interviews, poetry, manifestos, choreographic prompts, speculative fiction and case studies at the intersection of art and activism, culture and nature, Sensing Earth explores the aesthetic dimensions and contradictions of ecological consciousness.

Sensing Earth states that our environmental issues are in the first place a matter of culture and aesthetics. Technology and science are not enough to solve these problems.

Artists and cultural initiatives are caught in a difficult bind, since they require cultural circulation to allow ideas to intersect and create meaningful connections. These same systems of circulation also contribute to the planet’s ecological decline, not least in the footprint that accumulates from biennale to international residency to touring exhibition. This in turn raises the greater economic precarity of artists in the Global South. The writings in this volume (which is published in Valiz's Antennae series) tackle these and other issues attending the ecological complicity of the art industry.

Texts explore what sensorial foundations are necessary to address systemic failures, and what routes to take for keeping us moving on this planet, physically, emotionally and intellectually.

Contributors include Grégory Castéra, Center for Arts, Design and Social Research (Dalída Maria Benfield, Christopher Bratton, Luigi Coppola, Pelin Tan), Philipp Dietachmair, Futurefarmers, Pascal Gielen, Marina Guzzo, INLAND (Fernando García-Dory), Meander, Georgia Nicolau, Luciane Ramos Silva, Noel B. Salazar, Joy Mariama Smith, Naine Terena de Jesus, Dea Vidović, André Wilkens, and Ana Žuvela.

Edited with text by Philipp Dietachmair, Pascal Gielen, Georgia Nicolau

Designed by Metahaven

Published by Valiz, 2023

Softcover, 296 pages, b&w, 5.25 × 8.25 inches

Sensing Earth: Cultural Quests Across a Heated Globe