Temporary continent.

Temporary continent. maps the unstable tributaries of contributions, reflections, and media arising from Mississippi. An Anthropocene River (organized by Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW over five Field Stations and the New Orleans River Campus September thru November) and its research procession. Landmasses, carved out by margins, borders, and rifts, are understood to be provisional and fleeting—continents, but temporary—be they political, social, or tectonic. The project creates varied tributaries of contributions, reflections, and media arising through a collaboration between two experimental publishing collectives, continent. and Temporary Art Review, both concerned with the amplification, modulation, and circulation of community voices on both sides of the Atlantic, and beyond.

The Mississippi. An Anthropocene River project is bookended by two American locales: Lake Itasca, the source or headwaters of the Mississippi River, and New Orleans, lying about one hundred river-miles upstream of the river’s mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. Between these points of origin and emanation, a range of activities and perspectives precipitate via the activities and activators at the field stations of Mississippi. An Anthropocene River. Temporary continent. initiates encounters, interviews, and media collection as the route is traversed.

Flanking the river journey by engaging online and off with field stations along the way, from north to south and “source” and “mouth,” the project gathers materials, face-to-face exchanges, and representative media as aggregated interviews and photography, audio and text. Framed as the voice of a temporary continent—materially, geographically and mythically constituted—the project joins the dynamic, processual, and always flowing Mississippi River, to populate an estuary of media streams evolving from a turbulent river and river project. The flows of this continental river provide tangency and connection with the field stations and participants of the Anthropocene River, collated and expanded into critical, material acts of public making.

For Temporary continent., we invite contributions in the form of photos, audio and short texts relating to the Mississippi. An Anthropocene River. events and topics to be considered for FIELD NOTES and other streams September – November 2019. A limited number of longer texts, audio and videos may also be considered. 

Field Station 1, Minnesota/Wisconsin (Sept 20 – 21)
Sediment, Settlement, Sentiment: The Machinic River

Field Station 2, La Crosse, Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois (Sept 25-29)
Anthropocene Drift

Field Station 3, St. Louis and surroundings, Illinois/Missouri (Oct 4-8)
Anthropocene Vernacular. Industry, Indignity, and Empire

Field Station 4, Illinois/Kentucky (Oct 11 – 13)
Confluence Ecologies

Field Station 5, Memphis, Tennessee, Natchez and Jackson, Mississippi (Oct 19, 23, 26)
Commodity Exploitation

Field Campus: New Orleans (Nov 9-16)
The Human Delta

Please send all contributions and inquiries to editor@temporaryartreview.com.