ABSTRACT
It is necessary to have planetary strategies that can operate in an ontological figuring of the planetary climate crisis. By focusing on the hydrological cycle of water that moves through all bodies of water, the Hydrocene centres on the vital role of eco-visionary artists in the climate crisis and their ability to sense the climate crisis as embodied and relational. The introduction reimagines the hydrological and hydrosocial cycle in the Hydrocene, as well as placing the theory of the Hydrocene as part of my expanded curatorial practice. This introduction discusses ‘entangled methodologies’ in practice and theory, while summarising the watery case studies of river, swamp, ocean, fog and ice. The introduction also explains the book’s regional focus of the Nordic and Oceanic, ending with the definition of the Hydrocene as conceptual epoch and disruption in the blue humanities. This book focuses on the artists of the Hydrocene who create unique hydro-artistic methods for sensing the climate crisis as embodied, and think with water as a material and metaphorical companion and potential collaborator. This artistic and curatorial expansion of form and method can be understood as directly linked to a greater understanding – culturally, socially and politically – of the growing urgency for aqueous climate justice.
