6.5 Minutes With…Yevgeniya Kaganovich
In a new podcast episode of 6.5 Minutes With…, our director, Jennifer Johung, sits down with artist and UWM professor Yevgeniya Kaganovich as she discusses her collaborative research and art project, Slow Growing in the Time of Trees, where she explores three archetypes – trees, paper, and chairs – through their own unique perspectives. The focus of her work is about the agency and perspective of non-human objects.
Jane Bennet, Vibrant Matter
For further reading on the topic, she recommends Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett, who argues that non-human objects, from trees to trash, possess a form of agency that challenges human-centered views of materiality. She calls for a political and ethical shift, urging us to recognize and engage with the vitality of matter to address ecological and social issues.
Ian Bogost, Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing
In Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing, Ian Bogost explores the idea of “object-oriented ontology,” which asserts that objects, whether human or non-human, exist independently of human perception and have their own experiences. He advocates for a shift in philosophy to consider the subjective experience of all things, encouraging us to think about the world from the perspective of objects themselves.