The research project comprised three interdisciplinary workshops examining the material, ecological, and symbolic traces of the Anthropocene from media theory, artistic, and historical perspectives. The focus was on how infrastructures, sediments, and submerged forms of knowledge bear witness to human-made climate change and ecological crises.

With regard to infrastructures, the first workshop „Records of Disaster“ (2022) discussed the fragility of, and the political dimension to, global supply networks, which are increasingly being called into question by environmental disasters, while discussing artistic and scientific strategies for making them not only visible but affectively comprehensible. Focusing on “submerged modes,” the second workshop „Sub(e)merging“ (2023) explored resistant forms of life and knowledge that counter extractive regimes and offer alternative aesthetic, political, and media perspectives. And with the concept of sedimentation and the dynamics of deposits,  the third workshop „From Debris to Sediment“ (2025) reflected on the geologic impact of recent media cultures and cycles of metals, minerals and plastics.

Through the three workshops and resulting publications, funded by MWK and UGO, the project articulated a critical and practice-oriented interest in the material legacies and structural conditions of a world in transition. It explored how art, media and science can respond to, make visible and help shape complex ecological and social processes.