Augmented Species: Digitale Ökofiktionen als Strategie künstlerischen Engagements

Abstract

Abstract The essay aims to explore how eco-fiction unfolds speculative futures of potential worlds in digital images and how this acts as a strategy of artistic engagement, following György Kepes's demand for “ecological consciousness.” Using Tamiko Thiel, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Sofia Crespo and Feileacan McCormick as well as and Sommerer and Mignonneau as examples, the article shows how artists are turning away from the seemingly dystopian narrative of the Anthropocene in favor of positive and playful narratives via digital eco-fiction. Their works formulate a claim of artistic commitment which is to be methodically and historically reflected and critically questioned with regard to the seductive branching off into parallel illusory worlds. Opposed to the immediacy and promise of authenticity of “real nature,” their programmed, fabulated imaginary worlds lead to an overlapping of different realities.