Designer and research Christopher Alton will join us on February 27 to discuss Beyond Extraction, a collective of researchers, writers, artists, and activists, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, who have come together to critically investigate and resist Extraction in its various forms. They seek to create venues and platforms for the voices, stories, struggles, and techniques that confront the imperial promises of industry and extractive modes of social organization.
Speaker: Christopher Alton is a designer and researcher with a focus on mine afterlives and critical conservation related to mining, interested in how territories are communicated and transformed across and through extractive infrastructures and landscapes. As a PhD candidate at Waterloo University, he is developing a historiography of Canadian land use planning through the lens of material movement, and he has taught courses at Waterloo, Toronto Metropolitan University, and with the Centre for Biocultural Landscape and Seascape (CBLS). With OPSYS Landscape Infrastructure Lab, he was project manager and lead researcher for the Canadian Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He is a co-founder of the Beyond Extraction collective.
Actions
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Recognize the narratives between landscaping and extraction
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Promote critical energy literacy and Canadian institutional mining knowledge
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Understand that colonialism and extraction go hand-in-hand
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Use our resources in art and imagination
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Communicate through art to others when discussing extractivism
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Engage in conversations related to the impacts of and resistances to Canadian mining projects
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Familiarize yourself with PDAC and draw attention to the inner workings of the extractive industry and its global networks
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Check back regularly with Beyond Extraction
- Sign up for Mining Watch newsletter to stay informed of Canadian Mining
- Join the movement!
- Research how your local museums might be reenforcing colonial narratives
- Follow Beyond Extractions on Instagram for more information