There is (no) Anthropocene

There is (no) Anthropocene responds to the 2024 decision by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to not classify the term Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch.

There is (no) Anthropocene responds to the 2024 decision by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to not classify the term Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch.

Anthropocene is a broad term used to describe this era of accelerating human impacts on Earth.

The 2024 decision recognises the complexity of defining when the Anthropocene started. Was it 1952? The dawn of agriculture? Fossil-fuel driven industrialisation? How do we consider humans as part of nature? What should define this moment?

Artists Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux with Colleen Coco Collins, Janine Randerson and Arielle Walker, Shelley Simpson, and Virginia Were present new lens-based and sculptural works focused on: the intersecting stories of historic mining sites in Iceland and Mi’kma’ki; our current government’s push to reinvigorate petroleum and mineral exploration in Aotearoa New Zealand; and the impact of extreme weather on Tāmaki Makaurau’s west coast.