Introduction - Envisioning Planetary Futures through the Arts and Creative Media

Grassilli, Mariagiulia and Kaur, Raminder (2026) Introduction - Envisioning Planetary Futures through the Arts and Creative Media. Darkmatter Journal, 18.

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Abstract

Metanarratives of ecological threats, environmental disasters, climate change and related violence abound. Yet as Mike Hulme (2009, 2011) reminds us, the language is far removed from vernacular lives even while their effects persist. Instead, Hulme foregrounds the humanities to investigate and effectively communicate with diverse publics. Here, we foreground the works of artists who challenge the status quo while imagining alternative futures to engage people as creators, participants, and/or as spectators. What the artistic works add to the humanities are sensorial and experimental vistas that compel us to contemplate other realities while imagining new possibilities. This might be through a range of still and moving imagery - from films and animations to installations and performances – imagery that instils the public imaginary. Such approaches might be encapsulated by envisioning, where creatives examine, critique and visualise the interstices of time-spaces while inviting others into these visions to forge collective, inclusive and progressive futures. At a time where media and social media monopolies are capturing public imaginaries fuelled by the relentless push of neoliberal capitalism, the raw impulse to (re)generate conscientious new spaces in the sutures between the established and the non-established becomes even more significant and indeed necessary. Notably, Afro-, Indo- and indigenous futurisms base themselves on shifting tectonic plates, often at loggerheads to dominant platforms associated with a colonising past and the ongoing spread of neoliberalisation (Ganti 2014) (1). They offer us multiple histories, worlds, and futures, where different cosmologies, ideologies and aesthetics converge to offer speculative commentaries across time-spaces. For instance, reclaiming film and photographic archives, artists John Akomfrah and the Otolith Group create new modes of visual representations across identities, histories and spaces, unfolding the cinematic entanglements of racial capitalism with current environmental threat. Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch (2018) - thirty glacier ice installations in London - reminds us of global warming, but also the separateness between the natural and urban world: when the ice melts, nature goes back to its realm and city life resumes in a  state of wilful ignorance. Meanwhile, in the Anthropocene or Capitalocene (Haraway 2015), mortality, loss, displacement and fragmentation are reframed through poetic visuals by eco-visionaries, climate justice projects or superheroes rising against/from the nuclear and other apocalyptic scenarios.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	arts and humanities(all),sdg 3 - good health and well-being,sdg 6 - clean water and sanitation,sdg 7 - affordable and clean energy,sdg 11 - sustainable cities and communities,sdg 13 - climate action,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Media, Language and Communication Studies
Related URLs:	https://darkmatter-hub.pubpub.org/pub/in...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2026 11:30
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2026 11:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102726
DOI:

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