So, there's a lot of discussion at the moment about the Anthropocene - a word that has been popularised by the atmospheric chemist, Paul Crutzen, to describe the geologic time since human's have made an impact on the Earth's eco-systems. Martin Rees referred to it in his talk at Wysing on Saturday. Martin is a cosmologist and astronomer who heads up a research department withn the University of Cambridge called The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. The Centre is looking at what a future Earth will look like, post human. In fact they postulate that Earth has plenty of time left, despite extreme environmental changes, and that future life is more likely to be machine, or artificial intelligence, rather than human. Saturday's event was really inspiring and brought together a lot of this kind of thinking, taking the theme of The Multiverse as a starting point. I'm really looking forward to staying in this headspace as I head to Amsterdam this week to attend Sonic Acts which is looking at the "new geological epoch" of the Anthropocene. There are some amazing people speaking including Tim Morton, Graham Harman and Douglas Khan, alongside some brilliant live music, including by Wysing's Space-Time festival 2014 highlights Karen Gwyer and part wild horse mane on both side. Plus I'll have time to check out Ed Atkins' show at the Stedeljik and Michael Dean's show at De Appel. Sonic Acts website here. 

Tags: anthropocene |  sonicacts |