Throughout “Vibrant Matter”, Jane Bennett talks about vitality which she defines as “the capacity of things- edibles, commodities, storms, metals- not only to impede or block the will and designs of humans, but a […]
Artist Robert Smithson’s writing about his photography in “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey” reminds me of several of the readings about ruins, in particular Andreas Huyssen and Anik Fournier. I rem […]
William Cronin’s statements in “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” feel bold, but surprisingly he does seem to back them up convincingly. The idea that he’s […]
I find Sedgwick and Moon’s linking of waste and fat to be somewhat convincing. Particularly in how they pull the examples of bodies as waste and waste as food from their explanation of John W […]
Margaret Nagle’s use of academic theorists in her writing in “Garbage Faeries” supports her points by helping to dramatize or sensationalize (although those words might have too strong of a conno […]
Andreas Huyssen’s article raises some interesting questions about how nostalgia goes against modernity by putting progress at risk, how longing and critical thinking are not opposed to one another and […]
Gidwani states in Thesis 3 that “at certain political moments, projects of capitalist value come to view commons as as an impediment and construct it as “waste,” weighted down by the double pejorative, moral […]
As pointed out by Walter Benjamin, Baudelaire’s European modernist views of waste and artistic composition are mirrored by the ragpicker from his poem “The Ragpicker’s Wine”. “The poet finds the refuse of societ […]
I do agree with Reno’s summary of Douglas. Reno feels that Douglas is saying that things are viewed as pollutants because of their social classification and humans who define waste or pollutants as such, then s […]
I make sense of Yaeger’s piece by thinking of how industrial revolutions and technological advancements have changed society and that accounts for why trash has replaced nature in many modern works of art. I’m int […]
