Visions of nature and technology and the uses to which they can be put
lie at the heart of US-American self-understanding and its cultural
imaginary. From the founding of the Early Republic, nature was “one of
the fundamental American ideas”, as Leo Marx put it. Technology and,
related to it, notions of scientific rationality, became the central
means to make nature habitable. This materialized in the construction of
rivers, canals, bridges, and roads, in land art, and in landscapes and
urban scapes. Nature and technology, two seemingly opposed concepts,
turn out to be inextricably intertwined.
In this seminar, we will use
case studies to discuss the intersection of nature and technology. We will
visit iconic US-American sites and places that epitomize the co-production of
nature and technology. Relevant theoretical concepts, e.g., versions of the sublime,
the pastoral and the anti-pastoral, and the abject will provide us with
terminology to characterize the distinct aesthetics employed in these spaces
and the affective impact they might generate.
An analysis of cultural
productions that explore these (and other) sites will deepen our understanding of
specific spaces, sites, and location by crafting powerful fictional scenarios
and contributing critical perspectives. We will look at selections of art,
film, and literature, and draw on theories of constructivism, ecocriticism, and
posthumanism to discuss the use of motifs, ranging from ‘the machine in the
garden’ (Marx) to the figure of ‘the cyborg’ (Haraway), as well as the
possibilities and limitations of fiction to engage with our subject matter. The
seminar’s focus is particularly on the US, but it also seeks to explore transnational
dimensions of nature-technology-intersections across national boundaries.