This chapter in Emerging Technologies and Museums: Mediating Difficult Heritage edited by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexandra Bounia and Antigone Heraclidou (Berghahn 2022) examines the intersections of critical heritage, the immersive turn in art and museums, and the oft-mentioned need to experience climate change and the Anthropocene to really understand these phenomena. To address the possibilities and tensions of this approach I look at three recent installations that explore the climate and ecological emergency through immersive media, including the work of Olafur Eliasson, United Visual Artists and John Akomfrah. All deal with questions of memory, time and conservation in quite different ways, but with a commitment to the centrality of experience in prompting action against ecological collapse.
Available to order on the Berghahn website.
Sterling, Colin. 2022. Experiencing the Anthropocene: The Contested Heritage of Climate Breakdown. In: Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexandra Bounia and Antigone Heraclidou (eds.) Emerging Technologies and Museums: Mediating Difficult Heritage. New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 151-171
Colin Sterling 