Stories of the Anthropocene Festival

As environmental humanities scholars, we believe that the Anthropocene is composed of layers of stories as well as CO2 emissions or atomic fallout. The Anthropocene is essentially a narrative about the interventions of humans on a planetary scale; it is a story written into the rocks and into the atmosphere. The Anthropocene has the ambition to overcome the dichotomized narratives of human societies versus nature, proposing a narrative embodied in the Earth.

In November 2014, a group of scholars and artists convened at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the Anthropocene slam: A Cabinet of Curiosities. In a playful and creative way, presenters introduced objects that they felt embodied the Anthropocene. The Slam was then translated firstly into an exhibition, the Anthropocene Cabinet of Curiosities, on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and secondly into an edited volume.

SAF builds on and aims to recreate the experience of the Slam. SAF challenges participants to exit their comfort zone and embrace an imaginative and inventive mode with the ambition to engage with a wide audience.

At SAF, participants will have 30 minutes to narrate or tell their story to the public in any format, including (but not limited to) video, dance, song, or theater. The audience will select their favorite stories, and these will be curated into an online platform, the Anthropocene Library.

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