Vanina Saracino - Solar futures: a more-than-human approach to the energy transition

On a planet ravaged by anthropogenic climate change, the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy solutions has become a crucial concern. Beyond technological advancements, such a transition requires a fundamental shift in human attitude towards the planet and its living matter—a more-than-human approach to energy. Photosynthetic futures examine the complex and entangled notion of energy through a more-than-human lens. The course is situated at the intersection of art, evolutionary biology, and SF (science-fiction) as creative tools to reimagine the future.

This course will include a critical examination of green capitalism, an ideology that has sought to reconcile environmental preservation with profit maximization since the late 1960s. By critically considering case studies such as the Ashalim solar tower in the Negev Desert and other solar megastructures, we will reflect on the potential of a posthuman energy project inspired by the most efficient technology for the capture and transformation of sunlight into usable energy: the leaf. Adopting this non-human technology, “green animals” such as the species elysia chlorotica have evolved in endosymbiotic relationship with plants and become photosynthetic. Is the future to be found in the blade of grass, as suggested by Italian art historian Giorgio Agamben?

Partly inspired by visionary evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, who speculated about a future Homo Photosyntheticus—humans evolved in symbiosis with algae and adopting a decelerated existence—Photosynthetic futures aims at considering animal photosynthesis as an anti-capitalist and anti-accelerationist framework to envision a more just future for all life on the planet. The course will explore the potential of a more-than-human energy transition from the standpoint of visual culture and the arts.

Location: Digital classroom at the following Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87840668529?pwd=N1VZMnc4eUxUa1E0S2ZMbjBzUDZVdz09

Vanina Saracino (she/they) is a curator, writer, and adjunct professor at Art and Media, Universität der Künste (UdK, Berlin). Her work focuses on theories and art practices that question anthropocentric and binary worldviews from an intersectional perspective, with an emphasis on lens-based and time-based art. She has curated the third and fourth editions of the Screen City Biennial, respectively titled Ecologies–Lost, found and continued (Stavanger, 2019), and Other Minds (Oslo, 2022), together with Daniela Arriado.

Saracino he has collaborated with Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi (Venice), TBA21–Academy, Cinemateca Brasileira (São Paulo), Cinemateca do MAM (Rio de Janeiro), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), EKKM (Tallinn), Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg), The EYE Film Institute (Amsterdam), among others, and has realized residencies at ISCP (New York, 2023), Artport (Tel Aviv, 2022–2023), Q21/MQ (Vienna), Fire Station Artists’ Studios (Dublin, 2019), CPR – Curatorial Program for Research (Reykjavik, Tórshavn, Tromsø, Boden, Luleå, Hyrynsalmi, Helsinki, 2018), GENERATOR, 40m cube/EESAB (Rennes, 2018). Lives and works in Berlin.

https://www.vaninasaracino.com