Timelines
Timelines
Is the current planetary “state of emergency” uniquely salient or simply a snapshot of endlessly repeating and evolving processes of life on Earth? Does the perception that we are living through an ecological crisis arise from our short lifespans and myopic worldviews that amplify our fears of change? The 21 images in Timelines use deadpan photography to explore views of our world that are superficially familiar yet strategically detach us from our sense of control. The timelines help break through our crisis mentality while suggesting strategies for coping with (ecological) changes that are measured and informed by a reality extending in time beyond our lived memories.
Eric Zeigler is Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. His research and artistic practice interrogate the underpinnings of the history of the photographic process by purposefully exploiting problematic contemporary western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery. Aaron Ellison is a photographer, sculptor, writer, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Ecology at Harvard University. His research and artistic practice focus on the disintegration and reassembly of ecosystems following natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Working together, Eric and Aaron explore unknown worlds beyond our current understanding. Their joint work currently centers on non-anthropocentric/posthumanist aesthetics and creative photodocumentation of forests and deep time.
Is the current planetary “state of emergency” uniquely salient or simply a snapshot of endlessly repeating and evolving processes of life on Earth? Does the perception that we are living through an ecological crisis arise from our short lifespans and myopic worldviews that amplify our fears of change? The 21 images in Timelines use deadpan photography to explore views of our world that are superficially familiar yet strategically detach us from our sense of control. The timelines help break through our crisis mentality while suggesting strategies for coping with (ecological) changes that are measured and informed by a reality extending in time beyond our lived memories.
Eric Zeigler is Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. His research and artistic practice interrogate the underpinnings of the history of the photographic process by purposefully exploiting problematic contemporary western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery. Aaron Ellison is a photographer, sculptor, writer, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Ecology at Harvard University. His research and artistic practice focus on the disintegration and reassembly of ecosystems following natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Working together, Eric and Aaron explore unknown worlds beyond our current understanding. Their joint work currently centers on non-anthropocentric/posthumanist aesthetics and creative photodocumentation of forests and deep time.
