Speaker: Dr. Bob Walker
Professor
Department of Geography
University of Florida
Thursday, October 12, 2023
3:00-3:50 PM (Period 8)
Turlington Hall 3018 and Zoom
University of Florida
Abstract: “Apocalyptic Species” is a piece of work describing a recent trip I made to Patagonia, visiting Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. It is written with the stylistic flexibility provided by the “creative turn” in geography, under the wide umbrella of approaches referred to as the Geohumanities. The title, “Apocalyptic Species,” refers explicitly to the book by Craig Childs, Apocalyptic Planet, which I use in class to present a perspective on environmental change that discounts the severity of the Anthropocene by considering it in light of cataclysms that have routinely impacted the planet through geologic time. The goal of “Apocalyptic Species” is to put the catastrophe of the Anthropocene where it belongs beside the terrible natural disasters capable of destroying planetary life. The Chicxulub asteroid, which did in the dinosaurs with its mile high tsunami and nuclear winter, has nothing on Homo Sapiens. “Apocalyptic Species” takes issue with tendencies in critical theory to reduce bodily meanings and comprehensions, derivative of lived experience, to the hegemonic scriptings of an increasingly potent capitalism. It does so by engaging a retrogressive aesthetic designed to convey spontaneous, self-reflective experience that is sense-oriented and thoughtless. The objective is a cognitive simulation aimed at recovering the anti-industrial perceptions of the Romantic poets at the dawn of the Anthropocene.
All are welcome to attend.
For more information, email Dr. Cynthia Simmons at cssimmons@ufl.edu