To demonstrate the function of art in the Anthropocene, I created “The Museum of Human Activity,” a virtual curation of real-world Anthropocenic artworks that explores connections between media-making and the earth, while attempting to understand our effect on the environment through interactive storytelling. Donna Haraway points out, “Environmentalism and environmental justice require each other in inventive practices rather than in game-over cynicism” (102). If museums take an inventive approach to producing and curating information, they can be sites of critical praxis (Murphy). Playful forms of digital engagement can encourage meaningful interactions with art collections that might otherwise seem too intimidating to viewers when presented in a traditional gallery format (Murphy). Additionally, alternative sites for teaching and analysis are increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted learning online (Bao 113). Therefore, rather than trying to coordinate an in-person show, the Museum of Human Activity was designed as a pixel-art exhibition.
Haraway reminds us that “storytelling is a thinking practice” and a tool for inspiring others to contemplate “the disasters of the Anthropocene” (102-103). The objective of the Museum of Human Activity is to foster material literacy of the player’s stake in the progression of the human epoch and the disasters Haraway describes. As the player advances through the game, they encounter documentation of humankind’s influence on the biosphere. Through the interactive narrative, they are introduced to the crises that underscore the Anthropocene, a multispecies issue with roots in colonialism and capitalism.
To build the museum, I used Bitsy, a free, browser-based editor that requires no familiarity with coding or video game design. Bitsy allows for critical making with minimal technical expertise, permitting a wider audience to participate in or replicate the work achieved through this platform. It allowed me to construct a small world that not only highlights points of tension in terrestrial life – enabling us to connect with and confront harsh realities through the aesthetics of a virtual gallery which only functions thanks to Anthropocenic technology – it is also an educational space that can be entered anywhere with an internet connection and access to a desktop.
The selected artworks illustrate that although the Anthropocene is the responsibility of humanity as a species (Chakrabarty 215), not all humans have access to earth-shaping technology equally, nor do they equally suffer from the violence that sustains those technologies (Luke 14; Parikka 44-45). To digitize these pieces, I translated the artworks into 8-bit replicas of themselves, rendering them pixel by pixel in each room of the museum. Although the game is linear, by adding items to read and sprites to start dialogue, the player determines how the narrative unfolds. If they choose, they can skip all interactions and enjoy the artworks on display without learning anything about them. This resembles how we often move through the Anthropocene, benefitting from Anthropocenic technology without investigating the harm it causes. Hopefully, players are curious enough to engage with the elements of the game and exit with the realization that the world is changing, but it is not game-over yet, despite an ironic invitation to continue contributing to consumerism at its conclusion.
An internet connection and a browser with HTML5 and Javascript capabilities
References:
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Climate History: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 2, 2009,pp. 197-222.
Haraway, Donna. “Staying with the Trouble for Multispecies Environmental
Justice.” Dialogues in Human Geography, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018, pp. 102-105.
Luke, Timothy W. “Tracing Race, Ethnicity, and Civilization in the
Anthropocene.”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 0, no. 0, 2018,
pp. 1-18.
Murphy, Oonagh. "Museum Studies as Critical Praxis: Developing an Active
Approach to Teaching, Research, and Practice." Tate Papers, no. 29, 2018,
tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/29/museum-studies-critical-praxis.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Parikka, Jussi. The Anthrobscene. University of Minnesota Press, 2015, blogs.aalto.fi/mediainfrastructures/files/2019/10/1_Parikka_Anthrobscence.pdf.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
In-Game References (Art and Scholarship)
Burtynsky, Edward. "Clearcut #1, Palm Oil Plantation, Borneo, Malaysia," 2016. Edward Burtynsky, edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/anthropocene. Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Burtynsky, Edward, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier. "AR #2,
President Kenyatta’s Tusk Pile, April 28, Nairobi, Kenya." 2016. Anthropocene, Art Gallery of Ontario and Goose Lane Editions, 2018, p. 184.
Burtynsky, Edward, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier. "AR #4,
Sudan, The Last Male Northern White Rhinoceros Nanyuki, Kenya." 2016. Anthropocene, Art
Gallery of Ontario and Goose Lane Editions, 2018, p. 178.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Climate History: Four Theses.” Critical
Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 2, 2009, pp. 197-222.
Chase, Michael J. et al. "Continent-Wide Survey Reveals Massive Decline
in African Savannah Elephants." PeerJ, vol. 4, no. e2354, 2016, pp. 1-24.“Cutting Deforestation out of the Palm Oil Supply Chain: Company
Scorecard.” Greenpeace International, 3 Mar. 2016,
greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gp_IND_PalmScorecard_FINAL.pdf.
Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.
Davis, Heather and Zoe Todd. "On the Importance of a Date, or,
Decolonizing the Anthropocene." ACME: An International Journal for Critical
Geographies, vol. 16, no. 4, 2016, pp. 791-780.
“Gilbert & George: ‘In the Bush.’ 1972.” Tate,
tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-george-in-the-
bush-t01702. Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Harwood, Graham, Richard Wright, and Matsuko Yokokoji. “Tantalum
Memorial.” 2009. Transmediale/art&digitalculture, transmediale.de/tantalum-memorial.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Horkheimer, Max and Theodor W. Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment:
PhilosophicalFragments, edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Translated by Edmund
Jephcott, Stanford University Press, 2002.“
Land Art.” Tate, tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/l/land-art. Accessed 5
Apr. 2020.
Luke, Timothy W. “Tracing Race, Ethnicity, and Civilization in the
Anthropocene.”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 0, no. 0, 2018,
pp. 1-18.
“Palm Oil: Global Brands Profiting from Child’s Forced Labour.” Amnesty
International, 30 Nov. 2016,
amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/11/palm-oil-global-brands-profiting-from-child-and-forced-labour.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Parikka, Jussi. The Anthrobscene. University of Minnesota Press, 2015,blogs.aalto.fi/mediainfrastructures/files/2019/10/1_Parikka_Anthrobscence.pdf.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
Smithson, Robert. “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects.”
Artforum, Sept. 1968, artforum.com/print/196807/a-sedimentation-of-the-mind-earth-proposals-36602.
Accessed 5 Apr. 2020.
“Works.” Anthropocene, Art Gallery of Ontario and Goose Lane Editions,
2018, pp. 59-188. Yoldas, Pinar. “Ecosystems of Excess.” Art in the Anthropocene:
Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments, and Epistemologies, edited by Heather Davis
and Etienne Turpin. Open Humanities Press, 2015, pp. 359-370.
Concept, design and text: Oriana Confente
Graphics: ledoux.io/bitsy/editor.html
Game originally created for “The Anthropocene, Critical Theory, Race,” led by Dr. Winfried Siemerling at the University of Waterloo in April 2020.
(she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. They recently graduated from the Master of Arts program in English (Rhetoric and Communication Design) at the University of Waterloo. Their work will also appear in Feral Feminisms and The F-Word (a CRIAW-ICREF publication) in 2021. Find them at: http://orianaconfente.com.