The paper discusses a "thought exhibition" developed by Bruno Latour, in collaboration with various co-curators, for the ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany: “Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics” (2020–2022). The critical zone marks the “thin biofilm” (Latour) of Earth, from the tree canopies and molecular traces in the lower atmosphere to the biogeochemical processes in the soil demarcated by the bedrock. This zone is “critical” for life to exist and is itself generated and maintained by biotic processes. Based on the author’s first-hand knowledge of the exhibition planning and collaboration with Latour, the paper discusses the conceptual basis of the project. Its claim is that the critical zone presents an alternative to the monolithic Nature-Culture dualism and its separations by offering a notion of environment characterized by fragile, reactive interdependencies of lifeforms. Among other aspects of the exhibition, the paper focuses on the large-scale installation ‘CZO Space’ (2020–22) by Alexandra Arènes and Soheil Hajmirbaba which demonstrates how interdisciplinary groups of scientists collaborate in Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs) – and how knowledge about environmental anthropogenic impacts is assembled in an expanded ‘phenomenotechnical’ (Gaston Bachelard) way through human and non-human collaborations. Here, assemblages of technological, human, and plants (i.e., tree canopies as detectors and molecular filtering agents for pollutants) compose a scientific “sensitive infrastructure” (Arènes) to monitor the anthropogenic effects on the critical zone.

Authors:
Daniel Irrgang, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany

About the Presenter(s)
Daniel Irrgang is a postdoctoral researcher within the ‘Climate Futures in Digital Cultures’ initiative at Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany) where he is engaged with representation and aesthetics of digital data in critical zone research.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-irrgang-20a82b291

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