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anthropocene art / art of the anthropocene

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Paolo Bacigalupi by Matt Caldwell Imagine reading a novel based on dystopian fiction that has you captivated, sitting on the edge of your seat for hours. You become precariously perched there, similar to the cliffhangers that keep you entranced. Such a novel could be similar to the Hunger Games franchise by Suzanne Collins, a series that has taken much of the world by storm in recent years. It seems trivial to think that such a book could be meant for more than just entertaining the fantasies of teenager's minds. Yet it is possible to advocate for an issue through entertainment. For example, the ALS ice bucket challenge was a popular fad that had people dumping freezing buckets of ice and water on themselves and challenging others to do the same over social media for the purpose of raising money and awareness for the issue. Looking at the celebrity culture that embodies American society at the moment, it may seem a little more obvious that this technique of advocacy through entertainment has real merit behind it. Paolo Bacigalupi is an American author who utilizes this method effectively, using his platform to discuss environmental and cultural issues involving the era of the Anthropocene. Speaking from experience, I can say that his work is fascinating and well worth the read. Don't just take my word for it, his works have won a multitude of many different awards such as the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Michael L. Printz Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and a finalist for National Book of the Year award. Because of the credit that Bacigalupi has earned as an author and the use of his platform to address anthropocentric environmental issues, I categorize him as an Anthropocene Artist.

Who is Paolo Bacigalupi?

To me, Paolo was one of my favorite authors of the past few years. I've read a lot of what he's written and his novel Ship Breaker is part of my own personal collection. As an author, I see Paolo as a writer known for his short stories and novels with themes of biopunk and dystopian fantasy. But my experience with Paolo might be a little different than yours, so here's a short biography about him so you can learn more.

Paolo was born August 6, 1973, in Colorado Springs, CO to Tadini and Linda Bacigalupi. There, he was raised on a 15 acre farm until he attended Oberlin College where he majored in Chinese. His studies took him around the world to places such as India , Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Paolo graduated with a B.A. in 1994 and married his wife, Anjula Jalan, in 1998. He began writing and in 2008 some of his short stories were collected in Pump Six and Other Stories. In 2009, Bacigalupi had a breakthrough novel in The Windup Girl, which accumulated national attention and vaulted him to the spotlight of his genre. The Windup Girl won Bacigalupi a Hugo Award among many others and paved the way for many of his other books. Currently, Bacigalupi resides in Paonia, CO and continues his writing career.

If you want to learn more about Paolo, you can check out his website here and there's a link to an interview where he talks about science fiction and morality to the right.

Defining the Anthropocene:
The term "Anthropocene" has only surfaced in recent years. It was first mentioned by Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate, who popularized it in 2000. Since then it has become an environmental buzzword, linked to anthropocentric climate change and other environmental issues (Smithsonian). Breaking down this concept is still a little subjective, but naming Paolo as an Anthropocene Artist, involves letting you know what I believe the Anthropocene to be. To me, the Anthropocene is a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. From this definition, it is easy to see in today's modern society that we are living in the Anthropocene where humans are more dominant and invasive than ever. A proposed Sixth Mass Extinction is being credited to humanity's interaction with the Earth, sea levels are rising, and greenhouse gas emissions have skyrocketed since the '50s and remain higher than ever. If you still have doubts, I would suggest checking out this article that references how new geological epoch is defined (Carrington).
What Does it Mean to be an Anthropocene Artist?
Starting from my definition of the Anthropocene, I propose that Anthropocene art is an interdisciplinary art form that addresses the nature, scale, and extent of interactions that people have with Earth processes and systems. Through these interactions, it also addresses how such alterations can have profound effects on, and implications for, human society. In doing so, Anthropocene art makes clear the connection between humanity and the radical changes in the environment. This is an important topic because, as the scale and pace of human interactions with Earth systems have intensified in recent decades, understanding human-induced alterations in the past and present is critical to our ability to anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to changes in the future (Butler). Within the scope of their practice, Anthropocene artists work in a variety of modes, ranging from critique to practical demonstrations and shading into other current tendencies like social practice, relational aesthetics, environmental activism and systems theory. Eco-artists express the hope that art can point the way to a more ecologically sustainable future.

Paolo as an Artist of the Anthropocene:
One artist that I believe upholds my definition of what it means to be an Anthropocene artist is Paolo Bacigalupi. A lauded novelist, Bacigalupi writes science fiction and fantasy often set in a dystopian future. Within many of his works the nature of the Anthropocene and its relationship to humanity is explored through setting and conflict. The nature of a dystopian novel seems to characterize this well, showing the implication that the Anthropocene could, and quite possibly will, have on our future world (Lepore). This fits the nature of my definition of Anthropocene art by directly address the nature of human interactions with the environment and showing the resulting implications. In short, Bacigalupi’s work provides a basis for commentary and a call to action to remedy many of the malaises of the Anthropocene within stories that keep readers on the hook. Again, his website can be found here where you can learn more and see examples of his work (Windup).
Exploring a Few Works:
Let's take a look at a few of Bacigalupi's works to see the overarching themes and concepts that Paolo works with as an Anthropocene Artist.
Ship Breaker
My favorite novel from Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker is a dystopian fiction novel in a series with The Drowned Cities. An engaging story about America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, it was National Book of the Year Finalist. It followed the life of Nailer and his journey after a hurricane leads him to an important discovery. Without ruining the rest novel for you, a more in-depth summary can be found here.

In Ship Breaker, Bacigalupi provides a thrilling reading experience in which the conflict is created and centered on the future that can occur without drastic change in taking care of the environment. He prompts thought and discussion on how humanity shapes the world around us and how that could lead to environmental catastrophe.
The Windup Girl
His debut novel, The Windup Girl, made Paolo only the second person to win the Hugo Award for science fiction with their first novel. Follow along with Anderson Lake, a Calorie Man who searches for food thought to be extinct. Along his journey he meets people who challenge his perception of the world around and learns about the cost the world brings to some. Learn more about it on its own website here.
One of the important topics explored in this novel has to do with Emiko, who is what most would consider to be the by-product of a scientific experiment. She was engineered and bred for a specific function, but is found abandoned by Anderson. The struggles that the two encounter show a lot about the direction that science takes. More importantly, it serves to make a statement about the impact that humanity has on Earth. More so than Ship Breaker, which focuses on environmental catastrophes and their cost, The Windup Girl, makes a statement on how powerful humanity has become and how often humanity can be its own worst enemy.
The Tamarisk Hunter
One of Bacigalupi's short stories, this may have the most obvious message out the works I'm presenting to you. In this novel, situated in the Western US, likely Arizona or Utah, a drought serves as a primary reason for conflict. A tamarisk hunter is someone who finds these "salt cedars", planted in the United States to fight erosion, and destroys them.

First off, it is painful obvious just from the title of the story that anthropocentric climate change is the reason for this story. It leads to a statement as to how the drought and many other bad things were created by humanity. This explores the potential impact that anthropocentric climate change could have in all its devastating glory (Miller). A story about resources and the environment, The Tamarisk Hunter, makes a blunt statement about how we are going to be the only ones to blame for the Earth's degradation.

Works Cited
Bacigalupi, Paolo. "Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi." Beetiful Webs for Authors. Dec. 8, 2017. http://windupstories.com/

Bacigalupi, Paolo. “I’m With the Bears.” The Tamarisk Hunter. Verso, 2011.

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker. Little, Brown and Co., 2010.

Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Drowned Cities. Little, Brown, and Co., 2013.

Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Windup Girl. Nightshade Books, 2009.

Butler, Colin D. "Sounding the Alarm: Health in the Anthropocene." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 13, no. 7, 30 June 2016. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/ijerph13070665.

Carrington, Damian. "The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age." The Guardian. Dec. 8, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth

"The Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins" Scholastic.com. Dec. 8, 2017. http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/

Lepore, Jill. “The New Yorker.” A Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction. 5 June 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/a-golden-age-for-dystopian-fiction

Miller, Todd. Storming the Wall : Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security. San Francisco, CA : City Lights Books, [2017], 2017. Open Media Series. EBSCOhost, libproxy.xu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db= cat01905a&AN=ohiolink.b38578477&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Stromberg, Joseph. “Smithsonian.com” What Is the Anthropocene and Are We in It? Jan. 2013. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/

https://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/filter-99-percent-bpa-out-your-water-just-30-minutes

http://renatures.com/landscape-precious-earth-beautiful-canyon-antelope-photo-gallery/