Aquatopia

Climate Interventions

By: May Joseph, Sofia Varino

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Hardcover | 16 November 2022 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
122 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8 x 0.79

Hardcover

$182.75

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Aquatopia documents Harmattan Theater's ecological interventions and traces its engagements with water-bound landscapes, colonial histories, climate change, and public space across New York City, Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Cochin. The volume uses Harmattan's site-specific performances as a point of departure to consider climate change and rising sea levels as geographical, ecological, and urban phenomena. Instead of a collection of flat, static surfaces, the Aquatopia atlas is animated by a disorienting, anti-mapping strategy, producing a deterritorialized, nomadic, fluid atlas unfolding in real time as an archive of climate change in multidimensional, active space. The book is designed for pedagogical access, with interludes that consolidate the learning outcomes of the experimental theory animating each site-specific performance.

Accompanied by close descriptions of five performances and supplemented by digital documentation available online, this volume intervenes in discussions on climate change, urbanism, and postcolonization/decolonialization, and contributes to interdisciplinary studies of ecology and environmental politics, postcolonial/decolonial theories and practices, performance studies and aesthetics, in particular public art, and performance as research.

Industry Reviews

"What can performance do in the face of anthropogenic climate change? May Joseph and Sofia Varino's Aquatopia: Climate Interventions offers us a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting around this question through what they call an oceanic practice. The book draws in equal measure on lived experiences from Harmattan's performances and on theoretical reflections that inform the choice of the performance site and the acts of mapping and moving through this space. This rich and inspiring book refuses to split body and mind, exploring instead how environmental performances can bring about both necessary historical revisions and better futures." - Martina Koegeler, Lund University

"Aquatopia: Climate Interventions by May Joseph and Sofia Varino offers a groundbreaking perspective on the power of performance to address the urgent climate crisis. The prologue sets the stage by emphasizing the ethical imperative to engage with the environment as we face climate precarity.

The authors' journey began with their response to the 2004 tsunami's devastation, leading them to explore performance as a means of ecological engagement. They argue that performance is not just artistic expression but a methodological, political, and ethical intervention in the Anthropocene, the era marked by human impact on the planet.

The book introduces the concept of 'oceanic practice', encouraging readers to forge a new relationship with the environment. Performance emerges as a powerful tool for education, awareness building, and activism in the face of environmental degradation.

In a world marked by pandemics and uprisings, Aquatopia inspires us to reevaluate the role of art and performance in addressing climate change. It invites readers to embrace the transformative potential of performance for a sustainable future.

In summary, Aquatopia is a beacon of hope that challenges us to reimagine the possibilities of performance and art in our climate-aware world."

Lisa Bloom, author of Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics: Artists Reimagine the Arctic and Antarctic (2022)

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