Observatories over the Critical Zone: Monitoring and “thought exhibiting” art-lab ecological practices

The ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe was the setting for a two-decade-long collaboration between the curator and media theorist Peter Weibel and the sociologist Bruno Latour. The outcome of this partnership was four 'thought exhibitions' (Gedankenausstellungen), in which they aimed to update a curatorial reasearch approach that was also an exploration of display theory: Iconoclash (2002), Making Things Public (2005), Reset Modernity! (2016), and Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth (2020). The latter fulfilled not only Latour's well-known interest in climate issues but also signaled a reconfiguration of a specific area in the art-science relationship. The term Critical Zone refers to that thin outer layer of the Earth's surface, ranging from treetops to underground water, which is the site for fundamental life-supporting geochemical processes, but also the part that most suffers from anthropic impact. This fact forms the premise for the exhibition, which is conceived as a platform for the convergence of Latourian 'interconnections of actants', forcing the coordination of human and non-human relational agencies through planetary policies and advanced technologies. The selection of artworks was used as a commentary on the experience of representing climate emergency, employing the exhibition format to establish links between visual culture and the philosophy of science. Topics include Gaia theory, as theorized by James Lovelock under the influence of cybernetics, the lexicon of the Anthropocene, and the need for greater interdisciplinary consistency. The singularity of Latour's ecological approach lies in its inherent connection to the status of art, as he recognizes art's capacity to mediate public concepts in representation and politics. The Critical Zone is presented as a vulnerable environment-body, constantly monitored through machines, instruments, and the combined expertise of human sciences. And therefore, the evolution of artistic practices – within and beyond the exhibition – that refers to that: the specific operativity of New media art participates in this action, reinventing performative practices that closely resemble those of scientific observatories or laboratory outposts. Monitoring data, mobile labs and field research seems to replicate the role of the Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) – the international network of laboratories studying soil geochemical processes – reimagining a possible 'laboratory life' in the face of emergency.