Extractivism describes an economy that has an enormous impact on environmental and social systems and rarely delivers the benefits it promises.

The Summer School “Remote Guide to Extractivism” places students in multiple sites of extractivism across the world over the course of 2 weeks to investigate and map processes occurring simultaneously in the past, present, and future.

A network of companion studios operating in Melbourne, Taipei and Athens investigates similar extractive sites in their local context. Students in Melbourne, Australia travel to the wide, arid landscapes of the remote Wimmera region and work with local communities in place. Students in Taipei exchange with indigenous people in Hualien, the east of tropical Taiwan, where mountainous terrains encounter the wide- open sea. Students joining the European studio explore Elefsina, the site of the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries and now an industrial town north of Athens, Greece. Participants test various methods and develop tools for dealing with complexity of what defines extractivism beyond its material effects. They also register its invisible manifestations and broader ramifications on the land and the cultures it disrupts. Collaborative mapping of supply chains (local ⁄ national ⁄ planetary), geologies (temporality ⁄ deep time ⁄ entropy), futures (projection ⁄ speculations ⁄ prediction), and effects (cultural and ecological implications, scales) of extractive processes in each one of these specific sites will be translated into artistic practice.

Lerning outcomes

  • Ability to reflect ecological phenomena against the background of cultural traditions.
  • Understand a range of opportunities for discipline-specific practitioners in interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts.
  • Apply collaboration, representation and communication skills for interdiscipli-
  • nary and intercultural engagement.
  • Conduct critical enquiry relevant to an identified issue (such as the notion of ‚extractivism‘), and analyse and evaluate findings.
  • Conceptualise, develop and present creative propositions on how to envision different ways of doing and being in the world in the wake of the ecological crisis.
  • Critically reflect on own contributions to an interdisciplinary undertaking.

Modality

Hybrid: Students will be working locally at one of the three locations (Athens, Taipei, Melbourne) and exchange online.

Applicants

The program offers places to 15 Students in Melbourne, 15 Students in Taipei and 20 students in Elefsina/Athens from a wide range of arts and design disciplines, including performing arts, film, music, fine arts, media arts, design, and art education.

Collaborating partners

  • Monash University (MONASH)
  • Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA)
  • Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)