Challenge #4
Thermal Thinking: Beyond the Representation in Research
Problem Statement:
Climate change drives debates on adapting to a world transformed by heat. Rising carbon levels are changing environments, creating global acclimatization “experiments” by humans. Adaptation may need evolutionary time scales, but changes could also be surprisingly rapid, causing radical transformations within our lifetimes.
Challenge description:
Today as the climates move across geographies caused by the temperature spikes we notice a shift in understanding of relationships between bodies and environments. We feel the following questions are important:
- How can we relate to the changes such as the weather that is becoming ever more extreme and deadly by nature, under the impact of a warming planet?
- How to adapt to the world changed by heat and the change to the planetary environments in the long-term perspective?
- What radical changes will take place potentially in our lifetimes?
- How can we reconnect again with heat as a way through which we exchange materially with environments and which transforms not only how our bodies feel, but the way we think?
During the fellowship we plan to look into aspects connected to heat, we will explore climate crisis, extension of power – regimes, practices of care and healing, traditions and cultural rituals of extreme thermal exposure developed as a source of remedial and often spiritual practice. We need to reconnect again with heat as a way through which we exchange materially with different species, environments and which transforms not only how our bodies feel, but the way we think about our being in global ecosystems.
Residency characteristics:
The fellowship is supported by the LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art, a leading cultural institution in Poland. Since 2011, the Art+Science Meeting has explored intersections of art, science, and technology through exhibitions, conferences, seminars, workshops, and residencies. With an interdisciplinary approach, we have built a strong network within academia and among independent thinkers.
The fellowship’s methodology will be collaboratively developed by the artist, scientist, LAZNIA CCA’s curatorial team, and LCC members, keeping the process open to new ideas and shaped by regular discussions between the participants. At least two physical meetings are planned, potentially at CCA LAZNIA, a lab, or another relevant location. The results of the fellowship are intentionally undefined to allow flexibility, with a group exhibition scheduled for early 2026 to present the outcomes in various forms, such as performances, videos, installations, or other formats chosen by the participants.
The scientist’s role is open-ended, inviting contributions of expertise, thoughts, reflections, and ideas to this collaborative, interdisciplinary project, fostering creativity and innovation in the intersection of art and science.
Established artist bio:
Karolina Sobecka
Karolina Sobecka is an artist and researcher interested in imaginaries of post-natural landscapes, histories of ecosystem ecology and their legacies in today’s climate governance. Her projects often engage with scientists and practitioners working with ecology, economy and media. Karolina’s artwork has been shown internationally, from the Queens Museum NY, to National Art Museum of China, to ZKM Karlsruhe, Transmediale Festival, and Haus Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and has received numerous awards, including from Creative Capital, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Princess Grace Foundation. Karolina has a PhD from Kunstuniversität Linz, in 2021-23 was a Visiting Predoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and is currently a researcher at the Institute for Experimental Design and Media at HGK Basel.
LCC:
Astrida Neimanis
is a cultural theorist working at the intersection of feminism and environmental change. Her research focuses on bodies, water, and weather, and how they can help us reimagine justice, care, responsibility and relation in the time of climate catastrophe. Her most recent book, Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology is a call for humans to examine our relationships to oceans, watersheds, and other aquatic life forms from the perspective of our own primarily watery bodies, and our ecological, poetic, and political connections to other bodies of water. Astrida’s research practice includes collaborations with artists, writers, scientists, makers, educational institutions, and communities, often in the form of experimental public pedagogies. Her writing can be found in numerous academic journals and edited collections, artistic exhibitions and catalogues, and online media. She is currently Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at UBC Okanagan on unceded syilx territory.
Professor Ewa Bińczyk
works at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. She deals with the rethoric of the Anthropocene, environmental philosophy and ecological economics of degrowth. She is the author of several books. The Epoch of Man. The Rhetoric and Lethargy of the Anthropocene was nominated for the Dlugosz Prize in Poland and also indicated as one of the “20 books to read in the 21st century” in 2019. In 2022, the book was published in Russian, in 2023 in Ukrainian. Scholarship holder of the Fulbright Foundation (2007). She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University (Department of History of Science) in 2016. In 2021, she co-hosted the seminar at the European Forum in Alpbach, Austria. She is the Member of the Council of Greenpeace Polska, the Forecast Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Council of Experts of the Climate Coalition in Poland and the Council of the Climate Education Foundation. She cooperates with the Foundation for the Student Aid Fund (Eco-coalition for Eco-University).
Anita Lewandowska
graduated in Chemical Oceanography at the Faculty of Oceanography and Geography of the University of Gdańsk. She is a scientist, academic teacher and tutor. Since 2012 she is a professor of the University of Gdańsk. Her scientific interests revolve around pollution of the natural environment, especially the atmosphere, and processes occurring at the sea-atmosphere interface. Her research priorities include identifying the causes of air and sea pollution and the resulting consequences for the natural environment. She is interested in the role of pollution in shaping climate change, as well as their impact on organisms living in the sea, human health and their quality of life. Anita Lewandowska’s achievements include nearly 100 publications and scientific essays on national and international scale. She participated in the organization of numerous seminars, symposia, scientific and teaching conferences. She was a delegate of the Ministry of Science and Informatization in the Management Committee COST 729 and a partner in many scientific projects. Since 2018, she is an expert of the International Maritime Organization in the national section for prevention and response to PPR pollution. She actively cooperates with the scientific community in Poland and around the world. In 2020, she became a member of the accreditation committee and an expert in the Accreditation of Study Programs at the World Maritime University (Malmö, Sweden). As part of cooperation with the industry (WIRan Sp. z o. o.), she carries out research on the implementation of a universal device for measuring air quality. From the beginning of her scientific career, she has also been associated with the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Regional Atmosphere Monitoring Agency Foundation. She is very keen on promoting learning and personal development among the young generation and teachers. She supervised several dozen master’s and licentiate students as well as two doctors. She also took an active part in creating Tutoring at the Faculty of Oceanography and Geography of the University of Gdańsk. In addition to the UG Rector’s Awards, in 2015, she was awarded the National Education Medal, in 2018, she received the Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz distinction of Teacher of the Year and in 2024, she received a silver cross for merits.
Residency hosting institution
Laznia Contemporary Arts Center (CCA), Poland
Country
Poland
Keywords
Heat, Climate crisis, Power, Healing, Resistance, Decolonisation, Transformation reconnection
Relation innovation areas
Transformation, Archive of collective knowledge, Decolonization practices, Post natural landscapes
Established artist
Karolina Sobecka
Jury days:
Between November 15th and 20th