[spectre] Fwd: Project Launch for AGAINST CATASTROPHE, Ukraine Dispatch

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Betreff: 	[CDCinfo] Project Launch for AGAINST CATASTROPHE
Datum: 	Wed, 17 Aug 2022 13:23:12 +0200
Von: 	Nelly Yaa Pinkrah <CDCinfo at leuphana.de>

*Project Launch for AGAINST CATASTROPHE**: UKRAINE DISPATCH*

Hi everyone,

We are happy to launch the website for our multimodal research project, 
‘Against Catastrophe’ <https://againstcatastrophe.net/>, with the 
*Ukraine Dispatch*. Our project challenges the normalization of 
catastrophic thinking and necropolitical designs in the contemporary 
world. It does so through the histories of science and technology, 
infrastructure studies, environmental criticism, research-based art and 
speculative design. The project outputs 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/about>will include an edited volume, 
offline and online art/design exhibitions, and a series of online 
publications.

As we were conceptualizing the project, Russia invaded Ukraine. Faced 
with the resulting humanitarian and geopolitical crisis, we felt a need 
to respond to the unfolding tragedy. With ‘Dispatches’ – a short-form, 
multimedia, online publishing format – we hope to move past the news 
cycle-based temporality of contemporary catastrophism, but faster than 
traditional academic publishing, to shed light on the longer-term 
structural causes and implications of catastrophes.

In the first dispatch, on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, 
our intention is not to offer a single response to the immediate human 
tragedy, but to explore the war in and beyond the multiple catastrophes 
it has wrought. The six collected dispatches here – by Asia Bazdyrieva 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/of-brushwood-reeds-and-foil>, 
Anna Engelhardt 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/adversarial-infrastructures>, 
Krolikowski Art <https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/start-over>, 
Katarzyna Nowak 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/mourning-a-forest-road>, 
Oleksiy Radynski 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/nord-stream-studies>, and 
Jonathon Turnbull et al. 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/dispatch-1/the-dogs-that-survived>– are 
products of war, but focus on its causes and effects in infrastructure 
and non-human nature. You can read the full editorial statement here: 
https://againstcatastrophe.net/editorial 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/editorial>

‘Against Catastrophe’ is led by Dr. Orit Halpern, Lighthouse Professor 
and Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change at Technische 
Universität Dresden. The core project team 
<https://againstcatastrophe.net/ac-team>is based out of Concordia 
University (Montreal), MIT, and TU-Dresden.

‘Against Catastrophe’ is funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec and the 
Swiss National Science Foundation, and is part of the larger Governing 
Through Design research cluster.

[Apologies for crossposting]

Regards,
Nelly, on behalf of the 'Against Catastrophe‘ team