Nuclear Ecologies

Theresa Deichert is a curator at KUNSTHALLE GIESSEN, holding a PhD in Transcultural Studies from Heidelberg University and an MA in History of Art from University College London. Her research and curatorial work center on sociopolitical and ecological engagement in contemporary art. She has published in the Journal of Transcultural Studies, among others, and coedited Imagining the Apocalypse (2022).

• List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Acknowledgements. Author’s Note 1. Introduction 2. Metabolic Ecologies: Nonhuman Collaborations and the Affective Power of Contaminated Foodstuff 3. Utopian Democracies? Collaborations in Contested Spaces of Anti-Nuclear Activism 4. Cast in (In)visibility: Collaborations and the Exclusion Zone’s Ambiguity 5. Toxic Waste and “Pristine Nature”: Collaborations with Nonhuman Animals 6. Exposing Continuity: Nonhuman Collaborators as Nuclear History’s Witnesses 7. Taking Stock Bibliography. Index.

'Nuclear Ecologies is a highly original study of how different collaborative artistic practices have addressed the Fukushima reactor meltdown to raise public awareness. In presenting this compelling model, Theresa Deichert argues that the current era of planetary precarity requires an ecological approach to the study of art in a de-centered network connecting humans, nonhumans, and the material environment.' Claire Farago, Professor Emerita at the University of Colorado Boulder, United States, and author of Writing Borderless Histories of Art: Human Exceptionalism and the Climate Crisis'Deichert lucidly analyzes how more-than-human collaboration and complex transculturation affectively constitute artistic responses to the 2011 triple disaster in Japan. From serving radioactive soup to exhibiting in the nuclear exclusion zone and connecting irradiated trees across Hiroshima and Fukushima - Nuclear Ecologies shows us less anthropocentric ways of being that are urgently needed.'Franziska Koch, lecturer for Transcultural Studies at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany'Through employing an ‘ecological’ art historical research methodology decentering human agency, Deichert takes a fresh look at socio-politically engaged Japanese art. In five rich chapters, she adroitly contextualizes contemporary works of art within their social and cultural context, making a convincing case for a critical ecological engagement with art today.'Hans-Martin Krämer, Professor of Japanese Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Heidelberg University, Germany