WHAT IS POSTNATURE?

In a time marked by ecological crises, technological interventions, and multispecies entanglements, Postnature challenges conventional binaries between nature and culture, proposing alternative ways of understanding life, matter, and relational responsibility. By bringing together ecological, material, and sonic perspectives, the seminar offers a comprehensive introduction to postnature as both a theoretical inquiry and a field of practice.

Participants will explore how human and non-human, natural and synthetic, visible and invisible forces co-constitute one another, and how contemporary practices—from artistic interventions to listening technologies—engage with these complex entanglements. The seminar encourages critical reflection on ethics, politics, aesthetics, and speculative futures, fostering new ways of inhabiting, listening to, and caring for our shared planet.

This seminar offers an accessible introduction with conceptual tools, case studies, and practical approaches that support critical and creative engagement to postnature. No prior experience in philosophy, ecology, or contemporary theory is required. It is open to participants of all backgrounds and ages—students, researchers, artists, designers, and anyone curious about ecological thinking and postnatural perspectives. 

Session I – Genealogies of Postnature: Decentering the Human
14 / 04 / 2026

How would our understanding of the world change if humans were not the center of ecological thinking? Can thinking about postnature reshape the way we inhabit and care for our environment?

This session introduces the conceptual and philosophical foundations of postnature as a mode of ecological thinking that challenges human-centered worldviews. It explores narratives and frameworks that blur the boundaries between culture and nature, inviting participants to rethink established assumptions about the living world. Through an examination of interspecies relationships, postnatural matter, and more-than-human agencies, the session addresses the ethical and political implications of decentering the human within ecological thought.

Session II – From the Anthropocene to the Antrobscene: Material implications in the contemporary ecological debate
21 / 04 / 2026

How do pollution and toxic byproducts alter the relationships between humans and the more-than-human world? How does thinking beyond the Anthropocene help us imagine more ethical futures? Can understanding matter as active and relational change our approach to environmental responsibility? 

By critically examining dominant interpretations of the Anthropocene and introducing alternative terminologies and approaches—both theoretical and material—this session invites participants to imagine more desirable future worlds. It focuses on the material consequences of human activity, particularly how waste, pollution, and toxic byproducts have become defining components of Earth’s ecosystems. Drawing on ecological philosophy, material culture studies, and environmental justice, the session examines the ethical, social, and material implications of living in an era in which human-generated waste and contamination are reshaping the planet’s future.

Session III – Sound Ecologies: Listening Beyond the Human
28 / 04 / 2026

What do the sounds of the environment tell us about ecological change and human impact? Can sound be a tool for empathy and ethical care toward our shared ecosystems? How might interspecies communication and digital ethics challenge human-centered ways of knowing and listening?

This session focuses on the sonic dimension of postnature, from field recordings and interspecies communication to acoustic contamination and sonic activism. Active listening is presented as a practice of ecological and cultural care, enabling participants to expand awareness of multispecies worlds and challenge human-centered perceptions of sound and environment.

Session IV –  Multispecies Futures - Desirable presents
05 / 05 / 2026

What does it mean to imagine futures where humans are not the only protagonists? How do artistic practices present us with new relational modes with the other-than-human?  Which cultural and ecological considerations should shape the futures we want to inhabit? 

This session fosters imaginative, cultural, and ecological approaches to coexistence and relational care through a queer ecology lens. Disrupting normative ways in which humans relate to their environments can open pathways to radical forms of engagement with the other-than-human and inspire real-world change today. Speculating on new relational modes invites us to reconsider whose futures and presents are imagined, desired, and sustained