A BESTIARY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE is an illustrated compilation of hybrid creatures of our time, equally inspired by medieval bestiaries and observations of our damaged planet. Designed as a field handbook, it aims at helping us observe, navigate, and orientate into the increasingly artificial fabric of the world. Plastiglomerates, surveillance robot dogs, fordite, artificial grass, antenna trees, Sars-Covid-2, decapitated mountains, drone-fighting eagles, standardised bananas… each of these specimens are symptomatic of the rapidly transforming “post-natural” era we live in. Often without us even noticing them, these creatures exponentially spread and co-exist with us.

A BESTIARY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE seeks to capture this precise moment when the biosphere and technosphere merge and mesh into one new hybrid body. What happens when technologies and their unintended consequences become so ubiquitous that it is difficult to define what is “natural” or not? What does it mean to live in a hybrid environment made of organic and synthetic matter? What new specimens are currently populating our planet at the beginning of the 21st century?




Bestiary

A BESTIARY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE includes: 100+ original collages and handmade pointillist illustrations | 60 written observations on selected hybrid specimens & creatures | 11 long contributions, and original critical essays by leading experts.




TITLE

A Bestiary of Anthropocene

EDITORS

Nicolas Nova & DISNOVATION.ORG
contact[at]disnovation.org

DESIGN & ILLUSTRATIONS

Maria Roszkowska (DISNOVATION.ORG)

PUBLISHER

Set Margins' | ISBN 978-90-833188-4-4

FORMAT

256 pages, Paperback, 148×210 mm, silver ink on ultra black paper

SUPPORT

This book has received funding from the MSCA-RISE programme under grant agreement No 101007915.

CONTRIBUTORS

Aliens in Green
Geoffrey C. Bowker
Benjamin H. Bratton
Pauline Briand
Pierre-Olivier Dittmar
Matthieu Duperrex
Michel Lussault
Alexandre Monnin
Nicolas Maigret
Nicolas Nova
The Center for Genomic Gastronomy
Anna Tsing

CHAPTERS

Forewords
Kingdom of Minerals
Kingdom of Animals
Kingdom of Plants
Kingdom of Misc.
On Recombinant Commons
On Temporalities
On Artificiality
On Ferality
On Bestiaries
On Classification
On Life With Non-Living
On Negative Commons
On Planetary Indigestion
On Anthropogenic Landscapes