In order to better understand the foundations of today’s political and ecological crises, DISNOVATION.ORG set out to meet researchers, theoreticians and activists, and collected a number of stories and operational concepts in the form of video interviews.
Focusing on notions such as planetary limits, the rebound effect, ecosystem services and the seventh-generation principle, these videos were conceived to help cultivate a community and a set of theoretical and narrative tools that re-examine the utilitarian vision of nature as a standing reserve for human industry. They question the logic of resource optimization and technological solutionism while encouraging the prototyping of radically different modes of living in relation with our environment.
The interview series emerged within the wider Post Growth artistic-research project and its exhibitions, workshops, discussions and game prototypes. It extends that research in a form that is transmissible, accessible and freely circulated online.
DISNOVATION.ORG & Clémence Seurat, with contributions across the wider Post Growth research by Baruch Gottlieb, Julien Maudet, and Pauline Briand.
Video installation / online interview series | 2020 — ongoing archive
Post Growth Toolkit — The Interviews (Series)
The interviews were developed during the Post Growth research phase, notably around the residency and discussions conducted at the University of California, Irvine, then expanded through exhibitions and public events at iMAL in Brussels and related Post Growth contexts.
Rather than acting as promotional supplements, the videos form a conceptual toolkit. Each sequence isolates a key notion, an argument, or a situated perspective that can feed collective discussion around the ideology of growth, the rhetoric of sustainability, resilience, biodiversity, energy transition, and the environmental consequences of contemporary economic activity.
Several accessible sources describe the series as a digital video installation as well as an online archive. During exhibitions, the interview space could also become a live set hosting additional meetings and filmed discussions with invited researchers and practitioners.
The original interview archive and full playlist are hosted on the dedicated Post Growth website and Vimeo showcase. This local page documents the project and points back to the complete online interview series.
Post Growth Toolkit — The Interviews (Themes & Contributors)
Accessible project descriptions and related publications document the following interview directions and contributors:
Environment vs ecology
Interview with Valerie Olson, documented on postgrowth.art. This conversation distinguishes “environment” as a spatial and territorial term from the more relational and systemic implications of “ecology”.
Post-growth transitions & eco-political orientation
The wider series is described through concepts such as planetary limits, rebound effects, ecosystem services, the seventh-generation principle, indigenous knowledge and collapse informatics.
Documented contributors in accessible sources
Published references around the project mention interviews or discussions with Rose O’Leary, Bill Tomlinson, Valerie Olson, and Geoffrey Bowker among the figures contributing to the Post Growth research conversation.
Function of the series
These interviews do not aim at consensus. They gather perspectives, frictions and conceptual tools meant to strengthen public argumentation around post-growth imaginaries and the material conditions of ecological transition.
Post Growth Toolkit — The Interviews (Installation & Links)
The series was presented within the broader Post Growth exhibition framework and circulated as both an installation and an online resource platform.
Context: The Post Growth project combines interviews, game prototypes, objects, video essays and exhibitions in order to question growth mechanisms, ecological crises and the narratives that sustain them.
Credits
An initiative by DISNOVATION.ORG (Nicolas Maigret & Maria Roszkowska) with Julien Maudet, Clémence Seurat, Pauline Briand & Baruch Gottlieb
Production: iMAL | Co-production: Biennale Chroniques - 3bis f | With support from: University of California Irvine, Productions Intérieures Brutes, ArTeC, La Labomedia, UCL Louvain La Neuve, CNC (Dicréam)
Interviewees: Geoffrey C. Bowker, Rose O’Leary, Valerie Olson, Bill Tomlinson | Transcription & translation: Dasha Ilina, Pauline Briand, Ana Ascencio, Camille Martenot
Pictures, design & illustrations: DISNOVATION.ORG | Camera assistant: Yubo Dong | Web design: Macha Savykine | Adapted from solar.lowtechmagazine.com by Marie Otsuka & Roel Roscam Abbing
