Planetary Thinking Workshop October 2022

Odun Orimolade PhD

Hello everyone!

For all our divisions and strife we are human and we fall under the description in this context as
we. We live we die, the planet lives (do we know if it is dying?). We are elements of a living
planet catalyzed by interactions between us and our planet. As elements of the planet humans
find place at the center of changes that occur to our world. Connections are found in everything
from the earth's core to space, from nanoseconds to deep time, from elementary particles to
the Earth's mass and everything in between tangible and intangible.

The notion that we are separate from, above, or apart from nature is simply false; it has also
been extremely destructive. Humans have created many brilliant new things from the elements
and energy around us, alongside some dreadful ones, but the entirety of our human existence
is contained within the natural world.

The level of destruction and instability we are wreaking on the planet is not a sign of our
brilliance, but rather about our interdependence with its systems and the limits we encounter.
The foremost is the sobering constraints of our actual capacities, and another is a recognition of
our positional responsibility in the planet. Cecilia Alemani, Curator of The Milk of Dreams, the
59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2022 agreeably said “The pressure of
technology, the heightening of social tensions, the outbreak of the pandemic, and the looming
threat of environmental disaster remind us every day that as mortal bodies, we are neither
invincible nor self-sufficient, but rather part of a symbiotic web of interdependencies that bind
us to each other, to other species, and to the planet as a whole.”

As artists, we should be interested in how art can aid understanding of the biological, social,
geological, and navigational relationships by articulating creative ways of knowing that are
responsive to change and transformation, while also providing new imaginations of our planet's
future with critical and creative tools for collaborative survival.
When discussing the sustainability of our planet, we must think with the planet, exploring
elemental ways of knowing and acknowledging that the planet is larger than us. This is such a
vast area of contextualization that it can literally be worked into every aspect of our lives. The
focuses could be phenomena, physiological, cosmological, systematic, geological, or even bio
spherical, the list is endless. Everything is interconnected and has an impact, so it all depends
on our interests and passions as a critical and creative thinkers.

This not homework but further information to pique your interest further and catalyze ideas
for your own creative expressions.

Reading look out:

Earthly Things: Immanence, New Materialisms, and Planetary Thinking (lookout in 2023!)
Karen Bray, Heather Eaton, & Whitney Bauman (Editors), Christopher Key Chapple & Philip
Clayton (Contributors).

Living Planet: The Web of Life on Earth (2022) Sir David Attenborough.

The Plasticology Project: The chilling reality of our plastic pollution crisis and what we can do
about it (2022) Dr Paul Harvey

Earthopolis: A Biography of Our Urban Planet New Edition (2022) Carl H. Nightingale

Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains (2022)
Chris Thorogood

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (2022) Suzanne Simard

Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined―and Redefined―Nature
(2021) Beth Shapiro

The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (2021) Dipesh Chakrabarty

A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the
Human Species (2021) Rob Dunn

In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants (2021) Matt Candeias PhD
When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be (2021) Martin Williams

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures (2021)
Merlin Sheldrake

Deadliest Enemy (2020) Michael T. Osterholm

The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization (2020) Roland
Ennos

Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War (2019) Hito Steyerl

Clade (2015) Bradley, James. 

Planetary Economics: Energy, Climate Change, and the Three Domains of Sustainable
Development (2014) Michael Grubb.

Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) Robin Wall Kimmerer

Flight Bahaviour (2012) Kingsolver Barbara.

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (2009) Neil
Shubin

Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery (2007) David
Attenborough, Susan Owens, Martin Clayton, and Rea Alexandratos

Carpentaria (2006) Wright, Alexis. 

The Future of Man (2004) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, translated by Norman Denny.

Oryx & Crake (2003) Atwood, Margaret. 

Biomimicry (1997) Janine Benyus

Gaia (1979) James Lovelock

Should Trees Have Standing? (1972) Christopher D. Stone

links

Planetary_art_beyond_the_human_Rethinking_agency_i.pdf

The_concepts_of_beauty_and_creativity_Earth_scienc.pdf

Planetary_Aesthetics_Introduction_to_Wor.pdf

https://www.pauwaelder.com/planetary-thinking/

https://kunstkritikk.com/planetary-thinking/

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/category/sustainable-consumption-and-
production/video-sustainable-consumption-and-production/

https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/incredible-climate-change-art-will-leave-you-
floored

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/category/reduced-inequality/video-
inequality/

https://sdg4education2030.org/ten-targets-sustainable-development-goal-4with-elyx-video-
august-2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO_1m9dZIC0

https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/

https://tripleampersand.org/art-planetary-scale/

https://www.samdani.com.bd/planetary-planning

https://koozarch.com/interviews/sound-of-the-earth:-planetary-soundscapes

https://www.artelsewhere.com/exhibitions/planetary-dysphoria

https://www.anttimajava.info/artistic-proactivity-in-the-planeta

https://www.noemamag.com/the-origins-of-planetary-realism-and-whole-earth-thinking/
Artists of interest

Olafur Elliasson Lanre Tejuosho

Naziha Mestaoui Andy Goldsworthy

Agnes Denes Richard Shilling

David Maisel Daan Roosegaarde

Lanre Tejuosho Natalia Kapchuk

Chris Jordan Nils Norman

Tom Otterness Paulo Grangeon

Luzinterruptus collective John Sabraw

Norval Morrisseau Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė

Erin Starr Vaiva Grainytė

Gabriel Orozco Lina Lapelytė

Amanda Schachter Tommy Mavra

Alexander Levi Aida Sulova

Benjamin Von Wong Mathilde Roussel

Robert Smithson Ashley Eliza Williams

Moyo Okediji Elena Soterakis

Superflex Collective Rachel Sussman

Nils-Udo Barry Underwood

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré Pedro Reyes

John Akomfrah
Videos: It is a combination of films, short videos, and series

Avatar 2 (2022) Black Fish (2013)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
A Path (2021)
Welcome to the Anthropocene (2012)
Micheal Moore Presents: The Planet of
Humans (2020) Doughnut Economics at the RSA (2012)

Planet of the Humans (2020) The Overview Effect (2012)

My Octopus Teacher (2020) Planet RE:think (2012)

David Attenborough: A life on Our Planet Melancholia(2011)

(2020)
Let the environment guide our development
Annihilation (2018) (2010)

Mountain (2017) Call of life (2010)

Chasing Coral (2017) Home (2009)

Before the Flood (2016) Avatar 1 (2009)

Planetary (2016) The Known Universe (2009)

The Ivory Game (2016) The End of the Line (2009)

Into the Inferno (2016) Wall-E (2008)

Blood Lions(2015) An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Demain (2015) Earthlings (2005)

Racing Extinction (2015) March of the Penguins (2005)

Virunga(2014) Fly Away Home (1996)

Mission Blue (2014) Fern Gully (1992)

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)