The aim of the project is to deepen ecological insights, stimulate cultural imagination, and invite ethical response to the multispecies futures, environmental violence and the queer ecologies of extinction in the Baltic Sea. The project explores questions such as: How can we understand ecologies of extinction in the context of the Baltic Sea with its deep pasts and futures? How can natural-scientific insights, heritage resources, philosophies of extinction and eco- and bioart be mobilised to open up questions of intergenerational justice and care in the context of the Baltic Sea, and, subsequently, to move from environmentally ethical thinking to action?
Theoretically and methodologically, the project contributes to the development of two key conceptual frameworks: environmental strand of the research field of Queer Death Studies (co-founded by Marietta Radomska), which looks at more-than-human death, crisis imaginaries and eco-grief; and ‘low-trophic theory’ (developed together with Cecilia Åsberg), dealing with the issues of environmental violence, consumption and complicity in the context of marine ecologies.
Furthermore, the project unfolds through collaborations with scholars, artists, cultural practitioners and activists, paying special attention to the power of scientific, artistic and cultural imaginaries as well as storytelling. These collaborations have solidified through networks, such as the Baltic-Nordic State of the Art Network which provided the ground for cultural, artistic and general public exchange and engagement, and The Eco- and Bioart Lab research group and platform focused on art and the environment (founded and headed by Radomska). Moreover, these collaborations have led to the organisation of several workshops and events open to the general public and focused on communication of transdisciplinary research in the ‘blue humanities’. The events have also resulted in building long-term plans for networking and further art-science-humanities collaborations extending beyond the temporal frames of the Seed Box programme.
The project forms part of The Seed Box: A MISTRA-FORMAS Environmental Humanities Collaboratory Phase 2.
