Art, parasitic critique & hacking : Discussing international political design through Jacob Remin’s ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth’
(2021) EISA2021- Abstract
- How can we, as IR scholars, contribute to the daunting task of crafting a different world? In this paper, I suggest that we begin by looking towards art. Based on a reading of Jacob Remin’s art project ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth,’ I consider how the material imaginary presented in this particular work of art – bio-engineered worms that can extract rare earth minerals from e-waste – provides IR scholars with a glimpse of how the discipline can supplement its dominant focus on epistemics with more active forms of material, technological and aesthetic interventions into global political issues. To this end, I engage with a number of conceptual and methodological devices that have recently received attention in IR litterature; namely Jonathan... (More)
- How can we, as IR scholars, contribute to the daunting task of crafting a different world? In this paper, I suggest that we begin by looking towards art. Based on a reading of Jacob Remin’s art project ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth,’ I consider how the material imaginary presented in this particular work of art – bio-engineered worms that can extract rare earth minerals from e-waste – provides IR scholars with a glimpse of how the discipline can supplement its dominant focus on epistemics with more active forms of material, technological and aesthetic interventions into global political issues. To this end, I engage with a number of conceptual and methodological devices that have recently received attention in IR litterature; namely Jonathan Luke Austin’s call for the development of ‘international political design’ as a subdiscipline in IR, Michael Serres’ figure of the ‘parasite,’ and Claudia Aradau’s repurposing of ‘hacking’ as a form of methodological interference in critical security studies. Employing these analytical devices, I show how the aesthetic and material intervention performed in ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth’ not only negates or critisises the human tolls associated with rare mineral extraction in e-waste dumps in the Global South but also constitutes what I term a 'parasitic act of hacking' that can be leveraged for the ethico-political purpose of imagining and crafting alternative ways of living in and with the world. I end the paper with a discussion of the potential benefits and shortcomings of such interferences with world politics. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cfb67e60-9b61-4009-9367-1c2e81cee8e6
- author
- Ølgaard, Daniel Møller LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- International political design, Solutionism, Technology, Critical theory, Art
- conference name
- EISA2021
- conference dates
- 2021-09-13 - 2021-09-17
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cfb67e60-9b61-4009-9367-1c2e81cee8e6
- date added to LUP
- 2021-12-06 11:04:45
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:40:43
@misc{cfb67e60-9b61-4009-9367-1c2e81cee8e6,
abstract = {{How can we, as IR scholars, contribute to the daunting task of crafting a different world? In this paper, I suggest that we begin by looking towards art. Based on a reading of Jacob Remin’s art project ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth,’ I consider how the material imaginary presented in this particular work of art – bio-engineered worms that can extract rare earth minerals from e-waste – provides IR scholars with a glimpse of how the discipline can supplement its dominant focus on epistemics with more active forms of material, technological and aesthetic interventions into global political issues. To this end, I engage with a number of conceptual and methodological devices that have recently received attention in IR litterature; namely Jonathan Luke Austin’s call for the development of ‘international political design’ as a subdiscipline in IR, Michael Serres’ figure of the ‘parasite,’ and Claudia Aradau’s repurposing of ‘hacking’ as a form of methodological interference in critical security studies. Employing these analytical devices, I show how the aesthetic and material intervention performed in ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth’ not only negates or critisises the human tolls associated with rare mineral extraction in e-waste dumps in the Global South but also constitutes what I term a 'parasitic act of hacking' that can be leveraged for the ethico-political purpose of imagining and crafting alternative ways of living in and with the world. I end the paper with a discussion of the potential benefits and shortcomings of such interferences with world politics.}},
author = {{Ølgaard, Daniel Møller}},
keywords = {{International political design; Solutionism; Technology; Critical theory; Art}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Art, parasitic critique & hacking : Discussing international political design through Jacob Remin’s ‘Harvesting the Rare Earth’}},
year = {{2021}},
}