Waste-to-Energy Solutions: A Sustainability Perspective
Beyond material waste, in a Western, competition-driven society, individuals are often pushed to confine themselves to narrow paths—shedding ideas and creative impulses in order to fit into frameworks that fragment who we are. In this process, our qualities and visions are often deemed incompatible with social and professional expectations. This kind of intangible waste—unseen and unheard—gets buried in the noise of desire-driven cultures, distancing us from a deeper, intimate core. Where do those discarded ideas go? How can we reclaim our trajectories, or at least salvage them from the dump? Through practice-based artistic methods, this lab seeks to open reflective spaces for recovering the creative material we’ve left behind. Guided by dialogical and aesthetic approaches, we will engage in collective, self-reflective inquiries with the aim of reconnecting to our creative impulses and reimagining our paths
Coordinator: Beatrice Catanzaro, Coordinator for Visual Arts Research
Rethinking Extractivism(s): Wealth, Resources, and Practices of Re-Purposing
Extractivism refers to the large-scale removal of unprocessed or minimally processed natural resources, primarily for export and sale on the global market (Duc, 2017). The concept of ‘extractivism’ emerged in the Spanish-speaking Latin American context in relation to the exploitation of natural resources and the reactions of indigenous populations in terms of post-exploitation alternatives (Gudynas 2018). Coordinator: Beatrice Catanzaro, Coordinator for Visual Arts Research. The concept of extractivism goes beyond the mining and oil sectors and encompasses extractivist practices perpetuated in agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism (Acosta 2017; Chagnon et al. 2022). This is why Eduardo Gudynas (2014) speaks of “extractivisms”. The concept of extractivism(s), however, is often defined and conceptualised in relation to the discourses and practices of actors who perpetuate extractivist activities, first and foremost,
transnational companies. With this webinar series, we aim to expand conversations about extractivism(s) by re-centring anthropological enquiries to examine how extractivism(s) is understood, defined and experienced by the local communities impacted by it. We do so by leveraging some of the key concepts associated with extractivism(s) – wealth and resource – and by examining what may count as an alternative to extractivist practices.
Coordinator: Serena Saligari, Coordinator for Anthrolopology Research
Secondary Extraction association 