Robin, Libby, and Cameron Muir. “Slamming the Anthropocene: Performing climate change in museums.” reCollections 10, no. 1 (April 2015).
https://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_6_no_2/commentary/global_challenge_of_climate_change.
In this paper, we review some recent international museum and events-based ideas emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene, the proposition that the Earth has now left the Holocene and entered a new epoch: The Anthropocene (or Age of Humans). The Anthropocene is defined by changes in natural systems that have occurred because of the activities of humans. It is an idea that emerges from earth sciences, but it is also cultural: indeed the geological epoch of the Holocene (the last 11,700 years) marks the period in which most of the world’s major civilisations and cultures have emerged; it includes both the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions. To assert that the planet has moved ‘beyond the Holocene’ is to assert that humanity (indeed all life) has entered a new cultural and physical space that has not been previously experienced. Questions of how humans live in a planet with changed atmosphere, oceans, land systems, cities and climates are moral as well as physical. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described climate change as the greatest human rights issue of our times. (Excerpt from the article)
© Libby Robin and Cameron Muir 2015. Click here to view the article.
reCollections is an independent, peer-reviewed journal from the National Museum of Australia. It focuses on two main areas: museology and museum practice; and the history and interpretation of objects and the social and environmental history of material culture. It welcomes contributions relating to the role of museums in society, museum practice, and the history, collection, interpretation and display of museum collections. Articles should relate specifically to Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, or confront issues that are broadly relevant to museums or material history.
- Möllers, Nina. “Cur(at)ing the Planet—How to Exhibit the Anthropocene and Why.” In: “Anthropocene: Exploring the Future of the Age of Humans,” edited by Helmuth Trischler, RCC Perspectives 2013, no. 3, 57–66. Trischler, Helmuth (ed.). https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/5603.