As part of the group work, participants of the summer school created designs of so-called anthropocenes, i.e. objects or entities that describe specific relationships, principles or connections that are typical for how we currently understand the Anthropocene.
Marek Holeček’s ice axe
authors: Markéta Ekrt Válková, Peter Daubner, Michaela Zemková)
Syringe
BIOLOGY: Vaccination currently serves as a means of combating devastating infections, with the intention of immunising an otherwise non-immunised population. Diseases are actually a kind of natural mechanism for the regulation of populations of organisms. This is known as up-down regulation, when an excessive population is regulated by a predator or contagion (this is accompanied by down-up regulation in the form of lack of resources/space). Humanity has, to a certain extent, freed itself from these types of regulations thanks to the development of medicine and the mass production of food (agriculture, animal production and the preservation and heat treatment of food).
SOCIAL SPHERE: Vaccination against certain diseases has broad social support and support from some states and health insurance companies. It is a quick solution that is economically advantageous, and profitable for the whole. It carries some risk for individuals (especially in a vaccinated society). Based on solidarity, thanks to herd immunity, it helps to protect even individuals who have not yet been vaccinated or cannot be vaccinated. The goal is worldwide vaccination coverage – it pays for rich countries to invest in vaccination in poorer countries in order to protect the populace as a whole. An important element in this is global migration, which brings new challenges and changes in national policies. The harmonisation of individual approaches, methodology and social issues (e.g. mandatory vs. voluntary vaccination) is addressed. A certain paradox can be observed here – in a vaccinated society, trust in safety is lower – in the Europe of today, it is supported by only one-third of the population (in Africa 92%, in Asia 95%). The rejection of vaccination correlates with a loss of trust in authorities and science in general. Alternative interpretations of the world, disinformation and hoaxes also have an impact. Underestimating the risks associated with marginalising death, which is no longer perceived as part of life.
PHILOSOPHY: This also applies to the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm, where the human organism reflects the universe. In such a case, vaccination may represent a symbolic means of changing (or disrupting) the microcosm itself.
SYRINGE: Such a disruption may be symbolised by the tool that allowed this large vaccination coverage of the populace in the first place – the syringe. A well-known object that has been introducing substances into the human bloodstream for centuries. It is an effective process that bypasses the body’s absorption process through the mucous membranes of the digestive tract and can have immediate effect.
authors: Tereza Knotová, Bohumil Fiala, Klára Boumová
Coffee: The most widespread drug of the Anthropocene?
What comes to your mind when you hear the word coffee? Globalisation, agriculture, art and culture, synonymous with meetings, stimulant of performance and efficiency, colonisation, “Prague café society”, or just the smell and feeling of well-being?
Coffee is currently the world’s most widely consumed beverage and one of the most heavily imported commodities. 9 billion kg of it are imported every year. The coffee plant originated in the province of Kaffa in Ethiopia, from where it reached Europe through the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey due to the expanding contact and exchange of cultures in the modern era. The localised species has become a global phenomenon. The huge increase in coffee consumption occurred after World War II and goes hand in hand with similarly rapid population growth and the consumption of other commodities (“Great Acceleration”). Thanks to “Westernisation” in the second half of the 20th century, coffee spread to areas where it had not been drunk at all, for example China. 3 billion cups of coffee are drunk around the world every day. Coffee has become the most widespread stimulant, helping us to achieve the performances and qualities that modern times require of us – higher work efficiency, higher performance, better concentration, etc. Electrification and the related change in people’s daily regime and biorhythms could also have contributed to this. However, few people enjoy a cup of coffee knowing that that single cup consumes 140 litres of water. Monocultures of ever-expanding coffee plantations negatively affect biodiversity, e.g. songbirds. As part of the Anthropocene approach, people are trying to mitigate some of the negative impacts, which include, in addition to those mentioned above, transport and related pollution, unequal market conditions for coffee growers as a result of stock exchange prices and retailers’ networks, etc. These mitigation efforts include, for example, the use of coffee grounds in composting, fair trade, or the purchasing of coffee directly from local growers.
Coffee has become an Anthropocene phenomenon, the significance of which goes beyond a mere beverage, and its impact is reflected in people’s everyday lives.
authors: Denisa Brejchová, Filip Schätz, Jakub Makal
Karlštejn castle
National heritage – We want the Karlštejn of 1348, but we don’t have it. Only very little of the castle’s original buildings and look remain today. It is not a Gothic castle today => the development of the castle over time is neglected, and people focus only on its golden age. We thought that the castle represented only one time period. However, this is not the case. Everything that happened to it left its mark. Library of samples of “boreholes” of what was happening on the site. In paleoecology, we can read it, at Karlštejn we cannot – or in both cases only experts are able to.
But how is Karlštejn perceived by visitors?
- An easy topic – Charles IV. (Name Karlštejn)
- The difficult topic – the development of the castle – came to be included in “cultural heritage” only at the time of the National Revival.
- We lose the original appearance of the castle in order to gain a national symbol.
- The others (other interpretations of the castle or its other inhabitants and rulers) are foreigners, so they should leave Charles alone. (At the same time, the extent to which Charles IV perceived himself as a Czech is open to question.)
Tourism – Karlštejn is growing and outgrowing/absorbing the surrounding village, but the village is also a parasite that is nourished by the castle. Like a parasite, it is undergoing an adaptation to dependency, as the whole village lives off tourism (theme park syndrome)
- Symbiosis – parasitism or mutualism?
- The surrounding villages are very similar, but their economies function completely differently because they do not have a castle.
- Society reduces the castle to a historical caricature, and the village reduces the caricature to a tourist caricature.
Landscape – an example of landscape biodiversity. The surroundings of the castle were entirely free of forest, for both defence and grazing. Today there is a forest there. Nowadays, we often equate this with nature. Nature equals the forest. When we want to “do something for nature”, we plant a tree. The perception of non-forest environments is somewhat less intuitive.
Would we like Karlštejn just as much if it was on a bare hill? Don’t we expect it to be surrounded by a forest?
authors: Kateřina Fantováel Pokorný, Michal Bartoš
Anti-pigeon spikes
The fouling of historical monuments with pigeon droppings is at first glance perceived as a clash of nature and culture. However, the domestic pigeon is a cultural creation that became part of civilisation following the domestication of rock pigeons in antiquity. It is therefore a cultural legacy that is older than philosophy or Christianity.
However, the domestication of pigeons and their coexistence with people and other creations of humanity leads to their natural excretions causing aesthetic and material damage to objects that are of historical, artistic and practical value (sculptures, facades, attics of buildings). This problem intensified with the decline of pigeon-keeping following the Second World War. An unexpected negative externality of pigeon breeding and its subsequent gradual disappearance is the huge population of homeless birds fouling historical monuments.
Humans therefore devise various methods to prevent statues, facades and other objects from being fouled by the droppings of these “homeless pigeons”. These include, for example, the placement of spikes on these objects in such a way as to prevent the pigeon from settling on and possibly fouling them. In this regard, analogous procedures against the “human homeless” can be observed, for example special modifications of benches that make it impossible to lie on them. These measures transform the look of the public space and the coexistence of different inhabitants/beings.
However, there are other ways to deal with “unwanted populations” in urban centres. These include, for example, prohibitions on feeding birds under the threat of a fine, while the analogy can again be seen with prohibitions on begging, although here, it is the beggar that is punished, and not the feeder. These measures lead to a change in lifestyles.
However, both pigeon and human “homeless populations” invent innovative ways to counteract the practices directed against them, especially when it comes to objects that reshape the public space, such as the aforementioned spikes. Over time, pigeons learned how to build nests within the spikes. Similarly, homeless initiatives exist that criticise the modification of the public space in order to prevent the gathering of certain groups of people.
authors: Jan Gérik, Roman Figura, Dodo Dobrik