Disturbing Conservation
ReImagining The Universal Declaration of More Than Human Rights

What is the future of ecological conservation? How might we, as non-experts, care for the ocean and all its inhabitants? And what other kinds of stories might be needed moving forward?

Disturbing Conservation :ReMapping The Avencas MPA is the beginning of an alternative Interpretation Centre for the Avencas Marine Protected Area (MPA). The project is designed to question critically and creatively what role cultural institutions might play in ecological conservation initiatives? And how the public can reconsider their responsibility and relationship to Marine Protected Areas?

In the workshop, together we will create a new display for the Interpretation Centre that works to think about the future of care and the ocean. Using the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ as a departure point, we will unpack what it means to enshrine the rights and freedoms of all organisms of the ocean. We will learn about and draw on ideas from queer ecology, science fiction and systems theory to adopt an ecologically interdependent, bottom-up and non-anthropocentric approach to marine conservation.

The workshop is aimed at postgraduate and research students across design with an interest in ecology, critical design and science fiction.

Workshop facilitators (online): Dani Admiss and Gillian Russell
Workshop facilitator (on-site): Craig Jeffcott

Bring a sketchbook, laptop or tablet.
In advance, please read Timothy Morton’s "Queer Ecology" (made available after registration).