Aesthetics of Geopower : Contested Planetary Imaginaries

Brings together globally diverse perspectives on how the forces shaping the earth, both human and nonhuman, are articulated in art and cultural practice.

This volume attends to geopower: the forces, both human and nonhuman, that are shaping and emanating from the earth. In a present marked by planetary ecological derangement, escalating geopolitical competition, and growing resistance to extractive regimes, it theorises the ways in which geopower intersects with aesthetics, taken expansively to include operational imaging, sensed materiality and embodied perception. Bringing together sixteen interdisciplinary specialists, the collection shows that the aesthetic, far from being secondary or supplemental to geopower, is centrally embedded in its dynamics. Whether in the construction of new extractive frontiers or the fostering of alternative, decolonial modes of imagining and inhabiting the planetary environment, the aesthetics of geopower are shaping the earth’s possible futures.