Edge Effects
@edgeeffectsmag.bsky.social
A digital magazine + podcast covering environmental and cultural change throughout human history from the Center for Culture, History, and Environment.📍 Madison, WI
🔗 edgeeffects.net
🔗 edgeeffects.net
Today on Edge Effects, Dongbay shares his exhibit, Synthetic Totems. "Creating in this state is not about seeking escape or repair, but about consciously dwelling within our shared pollution, tracing the strange beauty that still exists in death." ♻️ 🎨
Synthetic Totems: Art for the Anthropocene
Dongbay's "Synthetic Totems" combines fragments of nature with synthetic waste to spark reflection and connection in the Anthropocene.
edgeeffects.net
November 25, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Dongbay shares his exhibit, Synthetic Totems. "Creating in this state is not about seeking escape or repair, but about consciously dwelling within our shared pollution, tracing the strange beauty that still exists in death." ♻️ 🎨
Today on Edge Effects, @jensbenohr.bsky.social follows the wandering of nalca across continents in this thoughtful meditation on migration, belonging, and the porous borders between human and plant life. The world is a garden of migrants, he argues, of both plants and people. 🌿 🧳
Vegetal Diaspora and the Restless Life of Plants - Edge Effects
Conceptualizing plants as migrants with their own diasporas reveals their connection to imperialism and encourages an ethic of care.
edgeeffects.net
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Today on Edge Effects, @jensbenohr.bsky.social follows the wandering of nalca across continents in this thoughtful meditation on migration, belonging, and the porous borders between human and plant life. The world is a garden of migrants, he argues, of both plants and people. 🌿 🧳
Today on Edge Effects, Richard Watts, Maureen Ryan, and Danny Hoffman wade through the queer ecology and relations that characterize wetlands, shaped as they are by precarity and survivance. With clips from their forthcoming documentary, they take us to the Tambass wetlands of Mauritania. 🐊 🏳️🌈
What Can Wetlands Teach Us About Queer Relations?
The Tambass wetlands showcase the queer ecology and relations that characterize wetlands, shaped as they are by precarity and impermanence.
edgeeffects.net
November 13, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Richard Watts, Maureen Ryan, and Danny Hoffman wade through the queer ecology and relations that characterize wetlands, shaped as they are by precarity and survivance. With clips from their forthcoming documentary, they take us to the Tambass wetlands of Mauritania. 🐊 🏳️🌈
Today on Edge Effects, Joseph Leidy deciphers the cacophany of African grey parrot voices on Arab social media, from faithful recitations of the Quran to antagonistic banter. The parrots, he argues, speak to autonomy and play in multispecies companionships. 🗣️ 🦜
Parrots at Play in the Arab Soundscape - Edge Effects
The voices of African grey parrots on Arab social media speak to the birds' autonomy and the complex dynamics of multispecies companionship.
edgeeffects.net
November 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Joseph Leidy deciphers the cacophany of African grey parrot voices on Arab social media, from faithful recitations of the Quran to antagonistic banter. The parrots, he argues, speak to autonomy and play in multispecies companionships. 🗣️ 🦜
Hoy en Edge Effects Translation Tuesday, @katherinecheung.bsky.social reflexiona sobre la “Ceguera Vegetal”. Cheung sugiere que las artes escénicas podrían ser justamente lo que necesitamos para desacelerar un poco y comenzar a apreciar la vida vegetal que nos rodea. 👓 🌱
Ceguera Vegetal y 'Viendo' las Escalas Temporales de las Plantas
Katherine Cheung analiza nuestra ceguera hacia las plantas, la atribución de mente vegetal y el rol de las artes performativas en la comprensión de las escalas temporales de las plantas.
edgeeffects.net
November 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Hoy en Edge Effects Translation Tuesday, @katherinecheung.bsky.social reflexiona sobre la “Ceguera Vegetal”. Cheung sugiere que las artes escénicas podrían ser justamente lo que necesitamos para desacelerar un poco y comenzar a apreciar la vida vegetal que nos rodea. 👓 🌱
Today on Edge Effects, @natmesnard.bsky.social reflects on their new table top role-playing game Assemblages: the strange creatures players create for its imaginary multispecies universe and the meditation they elicit on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival in the Anthropocene. ♟️🍄
Role-Playing Queer Assemblages Amidst Capitalist Ruins - Edge Effects
Ecologically inspired role-playing game Assemblages is a meditation on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival.
edgeeffects.net
October 30, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Today on Edge Effects, @natmesnard.bsky.social reflects on their new table top role-playing game Assemblages: the strange creatures players create for its imaginary multispecies universe and the meditation they elicit on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival in the Anthropocene. ♟️🍄
Today on Edge Effects, Anya Kaplan-Harnett imagines the future from the perspective of a wind turbine. From its high vantage point over rural Illinois, the turbine bears witness to centuries of ecological and social change. 🪁🕰
Wind Turbine Elegy
An elegiac poem from the perspective of a wind turbine at Zumwalt Acres, a regenerative farm in rural Illinois.
edgeeffects.net
October 23, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Anya Kaplan-Harnett imagines the future from the perspective of a wind turbine. From its high vantage point over rural Illinois, the turbine bears witness to centuries of ecological and social change. 🪁🕰
Today on Edge Effects, Anissa Bejaoui peers into the smudged lens through which many of us see the multispecies world. The insect carcasses of windshield graveyards have a lot to tell us about the politics of care, the ethics of knowledge production, and the praxis of conservation. 🪰🧡
Squished Bugs and the Sticky Questions of Fieldwork - Edge Effects
Squished bugs tell us about the ethics and praxis of producing knowledge and imagining alternative multispecies relations.
edgeeffects.net
October 16, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Anissa Bejaoui peers into the smudged lens through which many of us see the multispecies world. The insect carcasses of windshield graveyards have a lot to tell us about the politics of care, the ethics of knowledge production, and the praxis of conservation. 🪰🧡
Today on the Edge Effects podcast, former managing editor Bri Meyer talks with writer and designer @brebec.bsky.social about her short stories and their themes of gender and environmental destruction. Our first ever bilingual episode is everything we hoped it would be and more! 🔪📚
Dark Fiction, Sinister Reality: A Conversation with Brenda Becette
Brenda Becette talks about the role of fiction in a our dystopic reality. Becette's short stories avenges women, children, and environment.
edgeeffects.net
October 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Today on the Edge Effects podcast, former managing editor Bri Meyer talks with writer and designer @brebec.bsky.social about her short stories and their themes of gender and environmental destruction. Our first ever bilingual episode is everything we hoped it would be and more! 🔪📚
¡Feliz martes de traducción! Hoy en Edge Effects, Nicolás Felipe Rueda Rey y Tomás Pino traducen el ensayo de
@monikaszuba.bsky.social sobre el tiempo profundo y las políticas de la descomposición. ¿Podemos comprender el cambio geológico y los residuos plásticos en nuestra corta vida? 🦴⏳
@monikaszuba.bsky.social sobre el tiempo profundo y las políticas de la descomposición. ¿Podemos comprender el cambio geológico y los residuos plásticos en nuestra corta vida? 🦴⏳
El Asunto del Tiempo
Monika Szuba pregunta cómo los humanos lidian con el tiempo profundo a través del examen de la vida fosilizada, la vida contemporánea y la vida sintética.
edgeeffects.net
October 7, 2025 at 6:07 PM
¡Feliz martes de traducción! Hoy en Edge Effects, Nicolás Felipe Rueda Rey y Tomás Pino traducen el ensayo de
@monikaszuba.bsky.social sobre el tiempo profundo y las políticas de la descomposición. ¿Podemos comprender el cambio geológico y los residuos plásticos en nuestra corta vida? 🦴⏳
@monikaszuba.bsky.social sobre el tiempo profundo y las políticas de la descomposición. ¿Podemos comprender el cambio geológico y los residuos plásticos en nuestra corta vida? 🦴⏳
Today on Edge Effects, former managing editor Bri Meyer explores the multispecies assemblages that built U.S. cities: how horses were mechanized to perform "cyborg" labor, how these multispecies relationships changed in the automobile era, and the lasting equine footprints in Madison, WI. 🐴🤖
Cyborg Horses, Urban Growth and the Changing Nature of Labor
Archives from Madison, Wisconsin show the role of mechanized horses, or equine "cyborg" labor, in the growth of U.S. cities.
edgeeffects.net
October 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Today on Edge Effects, former managing editor Bri Meyer explores the multispecies assemblages that built U.S. cities: how horses were mechanized to perform "cyborg" labor, how these multispecies relationships changed in the automobile era, and the lasting equine footprints in Madison, WI. 🐴🤖
Today on Edge Effects, poet Ann Fisher-Wirth collaborates with photographer Wilfried Raussert and a team of translators led by Sarli Mercado and @salianoche.bsky.social. This novel "gathering of voices" explores the interconnectedness of people and nature in urban environments. 🎨 📷
Visuals and Verse Across Borders
Photography of street art across the Americas inspires ekphrastic poems and translations in this unique, cross-national collaboration.
edgeeffects.net
September 25, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Today on Edge Effects, poet Ann Fisher-Wirth collaborates with photographer Wilfried Raussert and a team of translators led by Sarli Mercado and @salianoche.bsky.social. This novel "gathering of voices" explores the interconnectedness of people and nature in urban environments. 🎨 📷
Today on Edge Effects, Angelica Modabber discusses her exhibition, "Water and Oil." Through stunning photographs of peripheral spaces and faces, she explores the topography of memory in Iran: how ecological change, exile, and diaspora is ossified in the land and its inhabitants. 👣 📷
Snapshots of the Anthropocene in Iran
These photographers capture the complex layers of memory, ecological change, identity, and diaspora in the contemporary landscape of Iran.
edgeeffects.net
September 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Angelica Modabber discusses her exhibition, "Water and Oil." Through stunning photographs of peripheral spaces and faces, she explores the topography of memory in Iran: how ecological change, exile, and diaspora is ossified in the land and its inhabitants. 👣 📷
Today on Edge Effects, scholars from a range of disciplines share books/films they are most excited to teach this year on environmental futures and futurity. Their gift for our present, these recommendations span from science fiction to documentary, speculative poetry to historical exhibit. 📚💭
Faculty Recommendations: Environmental Futures and Futurity
Faculty recommend books, films, and exhibits that critically examine the construction, utility, and politics of environmental futures.
edgeeffects.net
September 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Today on Edge Effects, scholars from a range of disciplines share books/films they are most excited to teach this year on environmental futures and futurity. Their gift for our present, these recommendations span from science fiction to documentary, speculative poetry to historical exhibit. 📚💭
Today on the Edge Effects podcast, Laleh Ahmad speaks with Ramachandra Guha about his new book, Speaking with Nature (2024). They explore how identity and knowledge politics shape environmentalism and environmental history in India and around the world. 🇮🇳☀️ #envhum #envhist
Knowledge Politics and the Making of Indian Environmental History: A Conversation with Ramachandra Guha - Edge Effects
Ramachandra Guha discusses his new book, Speaking with Nature (2024), and the history of environmental thought in India.
edgeeffects.net
September 4, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Mia Werger's poetic fieldnotes and stunning drawings bring a powerful conclusion to our Companion Species series. While befriending feedlot cattle, Werger reflects on the more-than-human experience, surviving amidst hopelessness, and dreaming of a free tomorrow. 🐄🖤
Do Cows Appreciate Poetry? And Other Musings On Our Bovine Friends
These poetic fieldnotes on befriending feedlot cattle reflect on our broken food system and life under constraint.
edgeeffects.net
July 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Mia Werger's poetic fieldnotes and stunning drawings bring a powerful conclusion to our Companion Species series. While befriending feedlot cattle, Werger reflects on the more-than-human experience, surviving amidst hopelessness, and dreaming of a free tomorrow. 🐄🖤
Today on Edge Effects, Christopher Conz and Christina Balch mesh archival documents with art to humanize the migrant mining workers of southern Africa. Their exhibit draws attention to the systems of extractive capitalism that demonize migrants around the world. 📜🎨
Humanizing Migrants and Miners of Southern Africa - Edge Effects
This multimedia exhibit aims to humanize the stories of migrant mining workers of Southern Africa using archives and art.
edgeeffects.net
July 24, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Christopher Conz and Christina Balch mesh archival documents with art to humanize the migrant mining workers of southern Africa. Their exhibit draws attention to the systems of extractive capitalism that demonize migrants around the world. 📜🎨
Today on Edge Effects, @poisoniv3y.bsky.social draws parallels between contemporary libertarian visions and oceanic colonialism of the 19th century. Seasteading may seem like futuristic science fiction, but Robert Stevenson's The Ebb-Tide offers grave warnings about how this old idea plays out. 🛳️🏖️
Is Seasteading Another Word for Colonialism?
Libertarian's interest in seasteading parallels nineteenth century oceanic colonialism, as represented by Robert Stevenson’s The Ebb-Tide.
edgeeffects.net
July 22, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Today on Edge Effects, @poisoniv3y.bsky.social draws parallels between contemporary libertarian visions and oceanic colonialism of the 19th century. Seasteading may seem like futuristic science fiction, but Robert Stevenson's The Ebb-Tide offers grave warnings about how this old idea plays out. 🛳️🏖️
Today on Edge Effects, our Companion Species series continues with Benjamin Chin-Hung Kao's excavation of the history of bears in Japanese popular culture. From Indigenous symbol to colonial icon, these charismatic mascots belie Japan's violent political history.
The Dark History of Kitschy Japanese Bears
Despite their often-cutesy appearance, the bears of Japanese popular culture are part of the country's violent colonial history and present.
edgeeffects.net
July 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Today on Edge Effects, our Companion Species series continues with Benjamin Chin-Hung Kao's excavation of the history of bears in Japanese popular culture. From Indigenous symbol to colonial icon, these charismatic mascots belie Japan's violent political history.
Today on Edge Effects, Jerald Lim uses the twin cinema, a poetic form that originates from Singapore, to (re)present the perspectives and vibrancy of our plant companions. The rhizomatic structure of their poems help us imagine a world beyond dualism. 🍄🌳
Twin Cinema: A Poetics for Plant Companionship
Twin cinema, a poetic practice from Singapore, mimics rhizomatic entanglements and inspires alternative plant-human companionship.
edgeeffects.net
July 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Jerald Lim uses the twin cinema, a poetic form that originates from Singapore, to (re)present the perspectives and vibrancy of our plant companions. The rhizomatic structure of their poems help us imagine a world beyond dualism. 🍄🌳
A conniving, dog-headed god to the Aztecs and a cutesy "water puppy" in today's popular imagination, axolotls have a tumultuous history with humans. In today's Companion Species installment, Alex Ventimilla explores how these creatures trouble Western categories and dualisms. 🦎🐶
The God in the Aquarium
Axolotls trouble Western dualisms. As god, pet, and research subject, these creatures tell us about science, companionship, and futures.
edgeeffects.net
July 3, 2025 at 4:50 PM
A conniving, dog-headed god to the Aztecs and a cutesy "water puppy" in today's popular imagination, axolotls have a tumultuous history with humans. In today's Companion Species installment, Alex Ventimilla explores how these creatures trouble Western categories and dualisms. 🦎🐶
Today on Edge Effects, Nate Carlin is back with a review of six more of the latest nature-themed board games. What do these quintessential constructions of nature reveal about how we understand and relate to the environment? Nate plays with these ideas and more. 🌲♟️
edgeeffects.net/latest-envir...
edgeeffects.net/latest-envir...
Play Nature in These Six (More) Board Games
Nate Carlin is back to review six (more) nature-themed board games: the worlds they construct and the ecological stories they tell.
edgeeffects.net
June 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Today on Edge Effects, Nate Carlin is back with a review of six more of the latest nature-themed board games. What do these quintessential constructions of nature reveal about how we understand and relate to the environment? Nate plays with these ideas and more. 🌲♟️
edgeeffects.net/latest-envir...
edgeeffects.net/latest-envir...
Today on the Edge Effects Podcast, a special episode with SustainUW and professor Jim Feldman. We discuss the history of Earth Day in the United States, glimpse Earth Fest celebrations on campus, and underline embracing environmental protection beyond just April 22. 🌎 edgeeffects.net/earth-fest/
What Comes After Earth Day? - Edge Effects
Edge Effects and SustainUW collaborate to bring a glimpse of Earth Fest celebrations and underline environmental protection beyond one day.
edgeeffects.net
June 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Today on the Edge Effects Podcast, a special episode with SustainUW and professor Jim Feldman. We discuss the history of Earth Day in the United States, glimpse Earth Fest celebrations on campus, and underline embracing environmental protection beyond just April 22. 🌎 edgeeffects.net/earth-fest/
Reposted by Edge Effects
Why are people drawn to the other-than-human, sometimes to detrimental ends? I'm excited to share this piece on interspecies captiv(e-)ation:
Happy World Environment Day! Today on Edge Effects, Companion Species continues as Quinn Georgic uses the concept of captivation (or captive-ation) to unpack the mutual power that binds humans and primates together—from HBO's CHIMP CRAZY to fieldwork with lemurs. 🐒 edgeeffects.net/interspecies...
A Cage of One's Own? On Interspecies Captive-ation - Edge Effects
Quinn Georgic unpacks the concept of interspecies captivation through mutual power that binds humans and primates together.
edgeeffects.net
June 5, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Why are people drawn to the other-than-human, sometimes to detrimental ends? I'm excited to share this piece on interspecies captiv(e-)ation:
Today on Edge Effects, our Companion Species series dives into fishy companionship. Wading in the waters of Utah Lake, Teri Harman explores the history, resilience, and culpability of “invasive” carp in Utah Lake. Are carp the villains or victims of this story? 🐟
edgeeffects.net/invasive-carp/
edgeeffects.net/invasive-carp/
Carp as Villians and Victims - Edge Effects
Teri Harman considers resilience, fishy companionship, and the culpability of "invasive" carp in Utah Lake. Are carp villains or victims?
edgeeffects.net
June 12, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Today on Edge Effects, our Companion Species series dives into fishy companionship. Wading in the waters of Utah Lake, Teri Harman explores the history, resilience, and culpability of “invasive” carp in Utah Lake. Are carp the villains or victims of this story? 🐟
edgeeffects.net/invasive-carp/
edgeeffects.net/invasive-carp/