The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water

Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, in dialogue with Francesca Tarocco and Cristina Baldacci, presents her latest book The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water, available in open access at this link, through a reading and conversation.

The event is co-organized with NICHE, the new Center for Environmental Humanities at Ca' Foscari University, and follows an arpentage-style reading group held within the ocean comm/unit/ty gathering event "Move Like the Ocean".

The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water is a monograph by Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, published by Routledge UK in the Environmental Humanities Series (2024). Bronwyn’s new book figures the Hydrocene as a disruptive, conceptual epoch and curatorial theory, emphasising water's pivotal role in the climate crisis and contemporary art. It traces wet ontological shifts in eco-aesthetics that are redefining our approach to water, and outlines a series of hydro-artistic methods relevant to creative engagements with watery bodies. Transcending anthropocentric, neo-colonial and environmentally destructive ways of thinking about water, the book argues for a return to the planetary notion of thinking with water.

Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris is an Australian and Swedish curator, writer and lecturer with expertise in the politics and poetics of eco-aesthetics. Based on Darug and Gundungarra Country, she is a Research Fellow and sessional academic at the University of New South Wales where she was also awarded her doctoral degree with distinction. Bronwyn maintains an independent curatorial practice, alongside published writing on art, water and ecology. She is the Curator for Climate Aware Creative Practices Network and her first monograph was recently released in the Routledge Environmental Humanities Series, titled The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water.