CfP Garden the sky water · June 12-15, 2019, Paris · Deadline March 24

Dear colleagues and friends,

Below is a call for paper for the "Garden the sky water" conference/event (June 12-15, 2019), organised by the "Chaire Arts et science" of École Polytechnique (Paris). The deadline is March 24.

Water is the essence of life on our planet. With climate change and industrial agriculture, water resources are diminishing at unprecedented speed. Could the atmosphere, a diluted ocean of aerial moisture, be the solution to provide fresh water? Could we interrogate the cosmos in our links to the mist? But will “the sky’s the limit” become another commodity for profit? Or will we open a tap of imagination for the benefit of all ?
In this interdisciplinary conference, we propose to face climate change by cultivating together new approaches in the exploration of alternative sources of water. We are calling for post-anthropocentric narratives, entanglements between nature, culture and technology, insisting on our interdependence with our environment and playing string figures with companion species, as phrased by Donna Haraway. Our explorations will lead us to wander through Gilles Clément’s gardens, who proposes a new form of environmental exchange accessible to all, in which the gardener rejoices in the art of observation “with as little means as possible” (link). Throughout this journey we will reflect upon the socio-political, scientific and philosophic implications of water in the atmosphere and space. In the tension between infinite desires and finite resources, shall we become gardeners who creatively express their protection, responsibility and love into the world? Or should the figure of the gardener be replaced by the gardener gardened as in the human comedy L'Arroseur arrosé by Louis Lumière (1895)?
You are cordially invited to experience voices of various ‘gardeners’ : artists, scientists, philosophers, anthropologists and architects, as well as to open and share your own gardens !

Keynote Speakers

Jamila BARGACH, Anthropologist, Dar Si Hmad non-profit org, Morocco
Gilles CLÉMENT, Gardener, Garden Designer, Botanist, Entomologist and writer, France
Anne-Marie LAGRANGE, Astrophysicist, Laboratoire d'astrophysique de Grenoble and Member of the French Academy of Sciences, France
Nicolas REEVES, Artist and Architect, Professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Karolina SOBECKA, Artist and Designer, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, FlightPhase Art and Design Studio, USA
Veronica STRANG, Cultural Anthropologist, Institute of Advanced Study, UK
Arturo VITTORI, Architect, Designer and Artist, Warka Water Inc. non-profit org, USA-Italia

Event initiated by
Ana REWAKOWICZ, Artist, Canada and École polytechnique, France
Jean-Marc CHOMAZ, Artist Physicist, CNRS – École polytechnique, France

Call for Participation

We invite you to contribute to round table presentations and/or posters on the following topics from various disciplines with scientific or artistic approaches :

• Rivers in the Sky – Alternative water sources – Harvesting water from fog and dew
• Plants and water collection
• Blue Planet(s) – Exoplanets and molecular cloud (nebula)
• Clouds and cloud formations and architecture
• Rituals, Traditions and Cosmologies – Water Identities and Stories
• Environmental Anthropology
• Water Ownership and Control
• Women and water governance and education – Social impact of water
• The Act of Gardening

The round table presentations will be 15 minutes and can include short papers, artistic presentations and performative interventions.
Please submit a one-page abstract (approx. 300 words) with your name, contact information and institution (if applicable) in PDF format (in 12pt font) or a two-page PDF with images if you are proposing an artist presentation or performative intervention.

To submit : https://yakari.polytechnique.fr/gsw/rules