The Hyphen Collective has launched the first half of the third issue of Hyphen Journal. Titled Ecologies 3.1, the issue takes its cue from Félix Guattari’s idea of ecology as expanded from its mooring within environmentalism to include the psychological, the social and the environmental.
The issue reflects a wide range of responses, on themes such as the critique of consumer capitalism and its ever-expanding waste production, to poetic reflections on the Covid pandemic and the question of the wider role of the artist as bystander and essential activist in the global environmental crisis. Many of the issue’s contributions are rooted in material practices and experiences: from slow walking as a disruptive methodology in Lydia Halcrow’s ‘Tread lightly on the earth beneath’, to Manuela Johanna Covini’s immersive web project ‘The New Village Project’, inspired by the artist’s move to a sparsely populated rural community during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hyphen Journal aims to facilitate reflections on research as practice and practice as research and to accommodate examples of practice and writing which do not typically fit within the conventions of academic journals. Its online open-access format allows for the development of a platform through which innovative and experimental forms of academic and artistic discourse can be combined and shared.
The issue was launched with a colloquium in March earlier this year, held alongside the Hyphen Collective exhibition ‘Cloud Sediments’ – part of a series of events held at Ambika P3 in conjunction with the first iteration of Ecological Futurisms. The colloquium was moderated by CREAM PhD alumni monika jaeckel and Matthias Kispert and included talks and presentations by Hanjo Berressem, Manuela Johanna Covini, Andrew Goodman, Lydia Halcrow, Renan Porto, Caio Silva and Japhy Wilson, amongst others.
Due to the number of high-quality submissions, the issue is being spread over two parts, with the second instalment anticipated for publication in early autumn.
The Hyphen Collective is an interdisciplinary platform for critical thinking and practice-based research, convened by PhD researchers and alumni from the University of Westminster. More information and previous issues of Hyphen Journal are available on the Hyphen Journal website: www.hy-phen.space/journal. The collective welcomes PhD researchers from all disciplines to join and get involved in the journal, exhibitions and events. If you would like to contribute to one of Hyphen’s activities, please write to: hyphen.editorial@gmail.com