<strong>A Public Lecture by Professor Libby Robin, Australian National University
</strong>Doors open at 18.15
Join Libby Robin, Professor of Environmental History at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, in thinking about how museums can help us reflect contemporary environmental challenges. Presented in partnership with the Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network, University of Edinburgh.
In today’s museums and artworks, in digital and other public spaces, there has been a re-emergence of the ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that were once a mark of public culture in the 1500s.
Some, but not all, are presented as formal cabinets, like the <em>Wunderkammer</em> of the pre-Enlightenment era. What is the significance of curious objects for artists and curators working to explore the current ecological crises? Cabinets of curiosities celebrate objects, but they are also display connections, and juxtapositions. They provoke curiosity, and also show how our perspective can be made ‘curious,’ or strange. Ecological crisis also connects us to distant times in curious ways—such the deep past that formed fossil fuels, and the consequences of burning these fuels that will shape the future for generations.
This event is the first in ‘Unexpected Encounters with Deep Time’, a series organised by the Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network, which will explore different ways of encountering the ‘extended geological moment’ of the Anthropocene. Professor Robin’s lecture will unpack some of these cabinet installations, reflecting on the role of juxtaposing unlikely objects as a response to the strange changes in perspective heralded by ecological crisis.
The event is free but ticketed. Book via <a href=”http://www.eventbrite.com/e/cabinets-of-curiosity-strange-objects-in-uncertain-times-tickets-18989745841?aff=es2″ target=”_blank”>Eventbrite</a>
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