“Bending the possible (one pixel at a time). Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene” presented by Przedpełski, Marks, Emadi and Malbon

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Session Title:
  • Online Panel Content

Presentation Title:
  • Bending the possible (one pixel at a time). Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene

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Abstract:

  • Driven by the concern that ICT (information and communication technologies) currently contributes 3.3% to 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Belkhir and Elmeligi 2018, Bordage 2020), surpassing the carbon footprint of the airline industry at 1.9% of global greenhouse emissions (Ritchie 2020), this dialogical and performative panel seeks to interrogate the question of “The Possible,” Natures and Worlds from the point of view of green computing and sustainable experimental media production. The panel responds to the problem of the pandemic rise in streaming media and its underlying capitalist articulation of the Possible by assessing the viability of the concept and practice of experimental small-file media as an sustainable alternative for the era of the Anthropocene. Small-file ecomedia are low-bandwidth experimental movies of no more than five megabytes in size and no more than five minutes in duration, which allows them to be streamed with no damage to the planet. Our proposal makes an intervention into the very concept of ecomedia and “nature.” Ecomedia is not simply a representation or visualisation of environmental problems but an immanent practice of responsible world-making indexical to the earth and the cosmos, as well an activist pedagogy and act of community-building. Our discussants will tackle small file media from a variety of perspectives: appropriate technologies in the global South; media philosophy, technical solutions for media sustainability, and a maker’s perspective on microcosmic media.

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