Lithium research in anthropology, art, and architecture: a dialogue on methods

On Thursday, 4 May 2023, Michelle Geraerts and Dr Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz, hosted lecturers and students of architecture from the Institute für Zeitgenössische Kunst (IZK) at the Technische Universität (TU) Graz, Austria. After a round of introductions, the members of the WOL team in Amsterdam presented some ideas and methods connected to their research in Norway and the People’s Republic of China. Then, Dr Rose-Anne Gush and Philipp Sattler, Assistant Professors from the IZK TU Graz, shared their experience with art-based research on lithium extraction. Gush and Sattler lead a course that is collectively investigating on the entangled relations between society, economics, and environment from an exploratory lithium tunnel in the Koralm mountains in Carinthia, Austria. The dialogue centred around the methodologies of ethnographic and art-based research. Amongst the most discussed points were the potential to explore the configuration of temporalities and how different histories of resistance, of human and non-human agencies, are manifested and intertwined with the expansion of the lithium industry. The website of the IZK TU Graz is a good resource to learn more about the many interesting explorations undertaken by our guests, like “how Does One Get to Own a Mountain?” or “When the Dust Unsettles”.