State of Nature: Dialogues An Interdisciplinary Conference co-convened by Ravi Agarwal & Ranjit Hoskote produced by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai (digital + in-person) Conference

The aim of this three-day conference is to bring together a diversity of voices from across such disciplines as poetry, architecture, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, activism, and art-making. By generating a constellation of perspectives and frameworks representative of the most current, contemporary thought in such domains as ecopoetics, habitat conservation and social justice, State of Nature: Dialogues hopes to invite its audience, not only into a consideration of the ecological and political urgencies at large in our global present, but also into an awareness of discursive, artistic, research and organisational strategies that are being crafted to address them.

Among the themes that form the focal points of the conference are the narratives concerning the interwoven questions of ecology, labour, livelihood, political and cultural representation, power and culture in a multi-species framework; vulnerable landscapes, at risk from human overreach; forms of cultural consciousness being evolved to engage with ecocide, urbanisation, and the marginalisation of communities and locales; architectural and planning reorientations to deal with the impact of runaway urbanisation and infrastructural expansion; and endangered occupations and livelihoods, under threat from anthropogenic interventions that generate alienation, asymmetry as well as social and environmental toxicity.

THIS CONFERENCE IS TAKING PLACE BOTH IN-PERSON AS WELL AS DIGITALLY.

AUDIENCE SPACE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED, SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND PHYSICALLY |

PLEASE E-MAIL TO SHOWS@HARKAT.IN



Location: Library MMB, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai

Detailed Schedule

# DAY 1 (Thursday: 10 February 2022)

2:30 - 3 PM: Welcome | Dr. Berthold Franke, Regional Director, Goethe-Institut South Asia

3 - 3:15 PM: Introduction | Ravi Agarwal and Ranjit Hoskote

3.15 - 4.15 PM: KEYNOTE 1 | Michael Marder

4:30 - 6:30 PM: Panel 1: Narratives

Stories told and repressed/ yet to be told

This panel will reflect on forms of story and storytelling that convey experiences that have been repressed or disregarded, in turn embodying the overridden and overwritten claims of vulnerable groups and species to their lived environments; at the core of our deliberations are the closely interwoven questions of ecology, labour, livelihood, political and cultural representation, power and

culture in a multi-species framework.

Latika Gupta, S. Anand, Amitangshu Acharya, Anvita Abbi



6:45 - 8:45 PM: Panel 2: Habitats​

Vulnerable landscapes

This panel will reflect on vulnerable landscapes, together with the closely interwoven questions of ecology, labour, livelihood, and culture.

Pankaj Sekhsaria, Rahul Ranjan, Arunkumar HG, Heather Davis





# DAY 2 (Friday: 11 February 2022)

4 - 5 PM: KEYNOTE 2 | Ruth Padel

5:15 - 7:15 PM: Panel 3: Transformations

Forms of consciousness

This panel will reflect on artistic responses to the climate catastrophe and on the forms of cultural

consciousness that we must develop to engage with the effects of ecocide, urbanisation, the

oppression of vulnerable groups and landscapes – with implications for the vexed, interwoven

questions of habitat, labour, livelihood, and culture.

Vinita Agrawal, Achia Anzi, Nancy Adajania, Bhrigupati Singh



7:30 - 10 PM: Panel 4: Communities

Reorienting group relationships with place and change

This panel will reflect on how groups and communities re-orient their relationships with place and

change, in the midst of the epic upheavals of ecocide, runaway urbanisation, the infrastructural

monopolisation of vulnerable landscapes –

with implications for architectural practice, as well as the vexed and interwoven questions of

habitat, labour, livelihood, and culture.

Mustansir Dalvi, Anupama Kundoo, Prem Chandavarkar, Ratish Nanda, Parag Tandel





# DAY 3 (Saturday: 12 February 2022)

4 - 5 PM: KEYNOTE 3 | T J Demos

5:15 - 7:15 PM: Panel 5: Livelihoods

Endangered/shifting occupations

This panel will reflect on endangered and shifting occupations, at risk from large-scale anthropogenic

interventions, whether infrastructure, urbanisation, or the amplification of caste and ethnic differences in a contemporary grid of asymmetries.

Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Mukul Sharma, Rajyashree Goody, Kanchi Kohli



7:30 - 9:30 PM: Panel 6: Conclusions & Departures

Amruta Nemivant, Ravi Agarwal, Ranjit Hoskote

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND PHYSICALLY ) PLEASE E-MAIL TO SHOWS@HARKAT.IN



Venue
Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
K Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001, India