Beyond the Human: Digital Visual Media in Anthropocene Discourse

This presentation explores the role of visual digital media in shaping Anthropocene imaginaries through the works of Robert Sochacki, Karolina Sobecka, Rosalie, and the collaborative project by Corrie Francis Parks and Kelley Bell. By engaging with digital and visual media, these artists create immersive, speculative environments that challenge existing representations of nature, species extinction, and post-human landscapes. Sochacki’s Domesticated, for example, uses a simulated post-apocalyptic setting to visualize a world after human impact, using digital media techniques to blur the lines between fiction and reality. The installation becomes a mediatized space where the audience negotiates new, contingent worldviews about life beyond capitalism and human expansion. Karolina Sobecka’s Wildlife utilizes digital projection technologies to insert a disappearing tiger into the urban environment, directly critiquing the human-mediated destruction of animal habitats. The fleeting appearance of the tiger invites viewers to reflect on the Anthropocene’s impact, using the cityscape as a canvas for protest and awareness. Similarly, Rosalie’s Marathon der Tiere (marathon of animals) and Parks & Bell’s Projected Aquaculture use large-scale visual projections to engage with ecological crises and regeneration narratives. These works highlight how digital visual media can function as “mediascapes” (Appadurai), offering imaginative horizons that shape public discourse on human-nature relationships. The presentation will address the following questions: Which aesthetic strategies and social conventions are employed to frame these visual worlds? And how do the artists position themselves and their audiences within public discourses on ecological awareness and activism through their use of digital media?