A "blue turn" in humanities education is observable at a time of global water crisis, disproportionately and variously experienced by human and non-human persons. In academic culture, this turn orientates environmental humanities towards water ecosystems, proposing a new paradigm of "water thinking".

The turn towards water has challenged binary ways of thinking about the world, biological and cultural gender and opened up a space for non-heteronormativity within environmental movements. What if, at the individual and community level, we treat the "Blue Planet" as our LOVER?

The lecture will discuss the emerging hydrosexual movement, or an artivist engagement with the water crisis and the protection of aquatic biodiversity, unfolding at the intersection of art, science, and activism. The movement was launched by the artistic and research duo cyber_nymphs (Justyna Górowska a.k.a. WetMeWild and Ewelina Jarosz a.k.a. Underwater_activist). It was inspired by the ecosexual movement in art established by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, a couple of California-based queer artists whose works were shown at the Arsenał Municipal Gallery in Poznań in 2018. Within the hydrosexual movement, human persons are invited to critically reflect on the anthropocentric dimensions of love of nature and to adopt a perspective that broadens sensory experience onto the more-than-human world. We incorporate pleasure, playfulness, and a sense of humour into artivist practices, seeing them as central to addressing the most serious issues. A second important inspiration for the hydrosexual movement have been the perspectives offered by queer and feminist blue posthumanism, which places the hydrosexual movement in the perspective of transdisciplinary action.

Ewelina Jarosz (she/they) assistant professor at the Department of Media and Cultural Studies of University of the National Education Commission Krakow and an artist co-authoring water-related art projects. Her current interests lie at the crossroads of environmental art and queer-feminist blue posthumanism. Their writing addresses topics such as environmental art, blue media, hydro-feminism, and pleasure activism. She is a two-time recipient of a Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship. She works with the E.A.R.T.H. Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz and with The Posthumanities Hub at Linköping University, Sweden. Member of the art and research duo cyber_nymphs, she is a co-founder of the Blue Humanities Archive.

admission free

Audiodescription of the lecturer's visuals will be available during the lecture. The visually impaired and the blind interested in participating in the event are kindly asked to contact: mateusz.nowacki@arsenal.art.pl

photo: Matylda Uszyńska