Greeting the Anthropocene: Everyday Designs for Extraordinary Times

an illustrated lecture by Craig Campbell (University of Texas at Austin)

One of the greatest challenges facing human survivance is the capacity for us to adequately communicate issues of vital importance with one another. The importance of communicating the dangers resulting from unfolding climate collapse is perhaps the most vital issue to be communicated. To respond to this task, there are calls for better storytelling, for better science education, for radical forms of political becoming. Greeting Cards for the Anthropocene suggests a more minor but even more pervasive tack by fostering political and civil speech through one of the most banal, unlikely, and ubiquitous cultural forms: the greeting card. Just as scientists labor to develop better data and urgent solutions, just as activists work to raise awareness, we seek to develop tools to put in the hands of everybody to better cultivate the communication of climate change (including those who are just coming on board to recognizing the urgency of our predicament). This project leverages Anthropology, Rhetorical Studies, and Design to cultivate forms of communication for sharing awareness and sentiment. We wager that this sharing occurs not through traditional means of argumentation but through greeting one another with and through the problems we face.

https://www.greetingcardsfortheanthropocene.net/