˚ ✦ . . ˚ . . ✦ ˚ . ★⋆.
. ˚ * ✦ . . ✦ ˚ ˚ .˚ . . ˚ . ✦
The Cosmic New Materialisms reading group: A cosmic collective cartography
The Cosmic New Materialisms (CNM) Reading Group was created by Dr Jennifer Crouch and Dr Melanie King in response to the ongoing necessity to think in entangled, complex and embodied ways about extraterrestrial environments and matter. In our current era of technofeudalism, the Earth’s 6th mass extinction, ecological collapse, increased militarism, authoritarianism, extractivism and surveillance capitalism, we recognise an ethical imperative in exploring the actual, notional and material implications of humanity’s complex relationship with space beyond the atmosphere. What started off as a series of conversations in the summer of 2024 grew into an inclusive reading group launched in December 2024. Developed as a multi-media and informal research group, we aim to engage and invite anyone and everyone who is curious about matter in our cosmos and our relationship to it. We meet every 4 or 6 weeks and discuss a chapter, book, article or work of art/media. So far, we have engaged with texts by Valerie Olson, Karen Barad, Astrida Neimanis and a playlist of music and videos compiled by attendees. The original callout for the CNM group was on Instagram and WhatsApp, and received a high volume and wide range of interest online. Attendees meet online and are invited to respond in whichever way they like to the image/text/sound we have decided to explore. Some participants choose to respond with poems, artworks, and images as well as ideas and reflections. Our responses are then amalgamated in a co-created evolving communal mind map, that visually draws together imagery, sound, thoughts, comments and concepts which participants can add to in their own time. Our goal is to create a community and explore connections between cultures, matters, time and space We propose to present and share our ongoing communal mind map/image map co-created by CNM participants. This digital artefact is an ongoing work in progress that visualises our shared and intersectional understanding of the topics we have explored so far: water, politics and ethnographies of space travel, geologies of media and feminist new materialisms. This ongoing, collaborative map contains links, videos and archives the emerging perspectives, cultures, positionality and historiography of CNM. Our participant-contributors are engaged in mutual and egalitarian non-hierarchical ways. We aim to create deep, meaningful engagement far beyond the structures and boundaries of academic research in space studies and STS.
Reading Session List
Session One: Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology - Astrida Neimanis
Session Two: Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics beyond Earth - Valerie Olson
Session Three: Meeting the Universe Halfway Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning - Karen Barad
Session Four: Geology of Media - Jussi Parikka
Session Five: Cosmodolphins Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology, Animals and the Sacred, Mette Bryld & Nina Lykke
Session Six: Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert Macfarlane
Session Seven: Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert - Sunaura Taylor
Session Eight: Posthuman Convergences Transdisciplinary Methods and Practices Edited by Goda Klumbytė, Emily Jones, Rosi Braidotti
Session Nine: Annihilation The Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer
Session Ten: Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography - Siobhan Angus
MIRO BOARD LINK
Civic Center with the City Hall and a Junior High School
A + U E8803 Italian Architecture
Civic Center with the City Hall and a Junior High School and Sports Ground
A + U E8803 Italian Architecture
Residential Complex Monte Amiata Gallaratese 2
A + U E8803 Italian Architecture
Benetton Production Facility — 1992-1995
Treviso, Italy
Ernstings Warehouse (detail) — 1983-1985
Coesfeld, Germany
Kitakyushu Central Library, Kitakyushu City
1973-1975
Ernstings Warehouse (detail) — 1983-1985
Coesfeld, Germany
Benetton Production Facility — 1992-1995
Treviso, Italy
Ernstings Warehouse (detail) — 1983-1985
Coesfeld, Germany
Kitakyushu Central Library, Kitakyushu City
1973-1975
Ernstings Warehouse (detail) — 1983-1985
Coesfeld, Germany
Untitled (Profile)
hello@example.com
Cras ut dictum mi. Sed quis lorem semper, ele mentum mauris vitae, consectetur orci. Cras volutpat eget elit porta facilisis. Aenean fermentum arcu mauris, eu faucibus nisl blandit ac. Proin eget euismod mauris. Quisque vulputate mauris quis tellus ultrices euismod. Quisque eu purus convallis, gravida.
Education
Vestibulum Euismod (Ultrices)
Suspendisse Aenean Lec
2023
Aliquam Faucibus Tellus
Vestibulum Ultricies
Suspendisse Aenean Vestibulum
(upcoming) Tincidunt TBA
Ultricies Ultricies,
Congue Nisl
2026
(upcoming) Vestibulum-Vitae
Auctor Ipsum,
Dictumst Ligula,
Porta Libero
2024
Suspendisse
Molestie Aenean,
Facilisis Tellus,
Porta Libero
2024
Ultrices
Parturient Felis,
Pharetra Nibh,
Porta Libero
2023
Eu & Fringilla, Collaborative
Imperdiet with Quam Sodales
2023
Semper
Cursus Tempus,
Porta Libero
2023
Dictum, Elit. Vestibulum
Gravida Congue
2023
Rhoncus Congue
Ullamcorper Suspendisse,
Duis Ornare Porta Libero
2023
Pellentesque Ornare
Porttitor Ultrices,
Sagittis Tempor
2022