Solar Drawings and Moving Shades: An Affective Aesthetics for the Urban Climatic Mutation
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Abstract
In a world saturated with planetary images that compel but rarely mobilize, we turn to solar drawings as an affective aesthetics for climate action. How can drawing attune us to changing landscapes while supporting transdisciplinary inquiries? We explored this in a workshop held in Barcelona in 2024, focusing on urban shades and extreme heat. At its core were anthotypes—solar drawings made with spinach emulsion—used to record the flickering presence of shades in different urban arenas. Thinking with anthotypes allows us to be affected by solar exposure as a planetary condition, reframing shades as inhabited or inhabitable regions. As we see it, these unstable records can become relevant forms of experiential research, activating embodied visual sensitivities to correspond to worlds undergoing climatic mutation through speculative explorations that seek to take overheated urban milieus into our own drawing hands.
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