Joanna Zylinska: Philosophy / Method / Practice
The primary concern of my work over the years has been the constitution of the human as both a species and a historical subject. Adopting the geological probe of ‘deep time’, I have looked at the emergence of the human in conjunction with the surrounding technologies, such as tools and other artefacts but also communication in its various modes – be it everyday language, storytelling, ethics, art, and, last but not least, media. In an attempt to challenge human exceptionalism without giving up on my own species-specific curiosity about my phylogenetic kin, in my work I zoom in on the signal points of the human such as intelligence, consciousness and perception. With this, I aim to explore the entanglements of human and nonhuman forms of intelligence, including the promises and threats offered by AI. Currently, I am working on perception as arguably the key mode of engagement with the world in different species. This project involves looking at the reconfiguration of ‘the eye’ in the digital age and at the humanist blindspot in machine vision. As part of this work, I am investigating the role played by images, especially mechanically-produced images such as photographs, in human becoming.
The planetary perspective of my work finds its anchoring in the socio-political concerns of the here and now: primarily, the ecological and economic crises, but also the gendering and racialisation of the apocalyptic narratives brought in as responses to those crises. As well as looking into the human and nonhuman past, I am interested in the future of the human – and of the human habitat. For this human future to have a future, it needs to be considered and experienced in contiguity with the needs and demands of nonhumans – from animals through to mycelium, insects, plants and rocks. But this contiguity must not be confused with some kind of Edenic harmony. Indeed, working out the parameters of life and habitability in the media ecologies of today that are not premised on a fantasy idea of unspoilt nature is the ultimate goal of my work. Yet this goal is not driven by a desire to develop some kind of grand-scale theory of everything. On the contrary, for me such work can only every be undertaken in slivers and bits – be it in the shape of a ‘minimal ethics for the Anthropocene’ or bottom-up media ecologies in the mode of ‘eco-eco punk’.
My method of working combines philosophical enquiry with artistic practice which involves still and moving images. I see this hybrid mode of enquiry as being more conducive to the interrogation of complex issues that need to be thought about, sensed and encountered as part of the same cognitive space. By looking from below, around and askew, I aim to offer a critical vision that refracts the current images of the world as we know it – and that offers a glimpse of a world to come.
