Vídeo geomorfológico

Emaranhada nas lógicas interconectadas da colonialidade e da modernidade, a ideia de paisagem há muito vem sendo um meio de ordenação das relações humano-natureza. Contudo, ao mesmo tempo, ela também constitui uma superfície utópica que projeta um espaço-tempo "para além" da modernidade e do capitalismo. Em meio à crescente tecno-capitalização dos viventes e de seu suporte espacial nos monopólios de sementes transgênicas, no fraturamento hidráulico e perfuração de águas profundas, na biopirataria, na geoengenharia, as práticas estético-ativistas têm oferecido modos particulares de ver sobre os enquadramentos epistemológicos, representacionais e jurídicos do ambiente natural. Esta publicação pergunta de que maneira as viradas bio e eco-artísticas das ontologias do sujeito/objeto moveram-se para a forma-paisagem. Partindo das explorações botânicas do início da modernidade, passando pelos legados do desenho paisagístico de meados do século XX, até as recodificações artístico-experimentais da natureza no Novo Mundo, nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, e as lutas atuais pelos direitos ambientais e contra a precarização da vida, os ensaios críticos e as contribuições visuais incluídas em Natura tentam impulsionar o pensamento para além das formas fixas da paisagem através de encontros interdisciplinares, que abrangem análises de sítios arquitetônicos e obras de arte; perspectivas eco-críticas sobre textos literários; práticas experimentais de criação de lugares; e a criação de ecologias materiais e visuais que reconhecem a agência de mundos não-humanos

This is Not a Pipeline: Thoughts on the Politico-Aesthetics of Oil

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Ecologising Museums

"The implications around climate change have far-reaching consequences but they can also have far-reaching benefits. The e- publication Ecologising Museums explores how museums and cultural institutions can face the issue not only head-on, but from all angles. To what degree are the core activities of collecting, preserving and presenting in fact attitudes that embody an unsustainable view of the world and the relationship between man and nature?" -- Publisher's website

Oligodendrocytes Do Not Export NAA-Derived Aspartate In Vitro.

Oligodendroglial cells are known to de-acetylate the N-acetylaspartate (NAA) synthesized and released by neurons and use it for lipid synthesis. However, the role of NAA regarding their intermediary metabolism remains poorly understood. Two hypotheses were proposed regarding the fate of aspartate after being released by de-acetylation: (1) aspartate is metabolized in the mitochondria of oligodendrocyte lineage cells; (2) aspartate is released to the medium. We report here that aspartoacylase mRNA expression increases when primary rat oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) differentiate into mature cells in culture. Moreover, characterising metabolic functions of acetyl coenzyme A and aspartate from NAA catabolism in mature oligodendrocyte cultures after 5 days using isotope-labelled glucose after 5-days of differentiation we found evidence of extensive NAA metabolism. Incubation with [1,6-13C]glucose followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography analyses of cell extracts and media in the presence and absence of NAA established that the acetate moiety produced by hydrolysis of NAA does not enter mitochondrial metabolism in the form of acetyl coenzyme A. We also resolved the controversy concerning the possible release of aspartate to the medium: aspartate is not released to the medium by oligodendrocytes in amounts detectable by our methods. Therefore we propose that: aspartate released from NAA joins the cytosolic aspartate pool rapidly and takes part in the malate-aspartate shuttle, which transports reducing equivalents from glycolysis into the mitochondria for ATP production and enters the tricarboxylic acid cycle at a slow rate.This work was supported by grants from the UK Multiple Sclerosis Society and from Qatar Foundation. The work was further supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust and MRC to the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. The authors acknowledge the excellent technical support in GC-MS and HPLC analysis from Lars Evje (NTNU, Norway).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11064-016-1985-y

Writing Video - Writing the World: Videogeographies as Cognitive Medium

This essay relates to my writings recently published in the monograph Mission Reports – Artistic practice in the field. Ursula Biemann Video Works 1998-2008, Cornerhouse Publishers, in connection with the retrospective exhibitions at Bildmuseet Umea 2008 and Nikolaj Copenhagen 2009. The online version at http://german.berkeley.edu/transit/biemannwriting.htm includes clips of the three films discussed

'Baku in 5 Quarters' and 'The Black Sea Files'

“Baku in 5 Quarters” and “The Black Sea Files” are collaborative creative projects with Swiss artist Ursula Biemann that were premiered at the B-Zone: Becoming Europe and Beyond exhibition at Kunstwerke in Berlin, 2005 and then travelled to Zona B: Als Marges D’Europa at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona in 2007. The B-Zone of the exhibition title refers to a peripheral Europe emerging at the margins of the “A-Zone” primarily constituted by the European Union. The thematic concerns of the exhibition relate as much to a critical inquiry into transcultural geography as they do to extending the boundaries of aesthetic realisation – and this is equally true of Cusack and Biemann’s work. Cusack's contribution to the collaboration was to explore the potential of the artistic use of sound as an analytical and affective counterpart to the visual imagery. While sound art has developed a mature aesthetic, it is rare that it is deployed, as here, in pursuit of the complexities of geo-political realities. “Baku in Five Quarters” navigates a critical and creative response to extensive on the ground research conducted by the researcher in Azerbaijan’s capital. Working with the Architectural University of Baku enabled the researcher to map out different urban zones within the city – each of which corresponding to a specific historical period – and to capture acoustic field-recordings that reflected the dynamics of those areas which were then sequenced into an evocative soundscape. The “Black Sea Files” is a 34 minute 10 screen installation focusing on the contentious Baku/Tbilisi/Ceyhan pipeline for which an immersive multichannel soundtrack was created by the researcher. In addition to its inclusion in B-Zone, it has also been included in the International Biennial at Istanbul and at the Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art (both 2007)