Speculative Ecology: The Challenge of Aesthetics in an Era of Fundamentalism is a new essay by philosopher Claire Colebrook. Published in dialogue with the exhibition Syncretic Wilds: Phasmahammer and Natasha Tontey, it reopens the notion of ecology as a speculative question, challenging the assumption that nature, environment and humanity provide self-evident foundations for politics and ethics. Taking into account contemporary forms of ecological and political fundamentalism, Colebrook argues for worlds in which identities, environments and futures remain open to transformation.
Outbound: Essays in Circulation is a new annual series co-published by Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) and Perimeter Editions. Taking MUMA’s exhibition program as a point of departure, each volume explores the broader social, cultural, political and philosophical questions inherent in its corresponding exhibition, carrying these outward ideas to engage in urgent contemporary debates. Grounded in the perspectives and conditions of Australia and the Asia-Pacific, Outbound creates space for modes of research and writing that extend beyond the interpretive and documentary functions often associated with exhibition publishing. The series expands the conceptual horizons of the MUMA’s exhibition program by advancing disruptive, prescient and precise arguments that affirm the museum as a site where art and ideas are not only presented, but actively produced.
Claire Colebrook is Cecile Parrish Memorial Chair of English Literature at Monash University. She has published extensively on contemporary European philosophy, literary theory, gender studies, queer theory, visual culture and feminist philosophy. Her most recent book is Who Would You Kill to Save the World? (2023).
104 pages, 19.8 x 12.9 cm, softcover, Perimeter Editions x MUMA (Naarm / Melbourne).