Cosmograms are objects (sometimes thousands of years old) that represent cosmologies or worldviews. They exist in iconographic, narrative, performative and architectural forms, and are produced within scientific, spiritual and artistic contexts. Think, for example, of the urban maps of the Maya, which reflected their view of the cosmos, the spatial organization of the afterlife in Dante's Divine Comedy, or the contemporary speculative cartographies of Alexandra Arènes.
Cosmograms emphasize synthetic connection rather than analytical distinction, holism rather than specialization, the bigger picture rather than the part. To what extent can their connecting and speculative potential help us today to develop worldviews beyond the Capitalocene? This latter term is more accurate than the more common 'Anthropocene' to describe our current era. It shifts the emphasis from 'humans' as the instigators of ecological catastrophe to an economic 'system' — one that not only disrupts the complex web of life known as 'Gaia' but also generates social inequality among humans. In what sense can cosmograms contribute to resilient nature cultures? How can we give them artistic, dramaturgical and performative form? Can they, in addition to representing connections, also themselves connect, on a social level? How do cosmograms relate to a potential audience, a (temporary) community?
The research includes literature research, drawing workshops, master's seminars, lectures, publications and an artistic creation process between production and development: different versions of the narrative performance Moddertong.
