Conducted through artistic research methods and practice, Carbon Cosmotechnics will examine the “low carbon” socio-technical imaginary emerging in contemporary China, and the way it transforms the common-sense understanding of the relation between humans and nature. The concept of “ecological civilization,” a political vision heralding China’s environmental turn, draws on religious and philosophical traditions that portray humans as being in harmony with nature. It is translated into technically implementable terms of carbon metrics, appearing as “low carbon” initiatives, policy, and ubiquitous rhetoric, which incentivize and inspire development of myriads of carbon engineering technologies. From carbon markets to carbon capture, storage and utilization, these means of engineering carbon and its flows should be examined not as universal technologies but, following Yuk Hui’s argument, as “cosmotechnics,” which are intrinsically linked to cultural worldviews, and which result in culturally-specific technological futures. The aim of Carbon Cosmotechnics is to examine how the technical understanding of carbon meets the influence of Chinese cosmologies in forming the basis for technocratic environmental governance on one hand, and the strategic social imaginary suffused with aesthetic, ethical, and spiritual dimensions on the other.
The Carbon Catalogue, a project led by Karolina Sobecka for Cycles of Circulation, developed through collaboration and fieldwork in China.