First-Year Interdisc. Sem: Underworlds: Science, Art, and Metaphor of Liminal & Subterranean…

Catalog description

The planetary, the human body, and subterranean spaces are deeply entwined. Underground spaces are repositories of death, burial, toxic waste, and secrets. They are also spaces of safety, resilience, adaptation, survival, treasures, and imagination. To explore these varied associations, we will examine the deep time depth that archaeology and paleontology give to our understanding of the role caves played in human pasts. We will draw upon recent scientific publications in the interdisciplinary study of speleology (which combines geology, hydrogeology, biology, and cartography) to understand cave formation and will examine the narratives of cave entrapments and rescues. We will query the scientific limitations of imaging the inner Earth using current technologies and the alteration of human perception underground. We will also think through the metaphors of underground movements and subcultures via academic publications, work by contemporary artists, speculative fiction, poetry, ancient sources, artifacts, and film. These movements can have close associations with race, sex, subversion, the occult, refusal, and forms of resistance. What is it that draws the Underground Railroad, the writing of early American insurgencies, clandestine NYC publications such as the Rat, subway art, and work by artists like AIDS activist David Wojnarovicz into conversation with geophysics? What lies beneath the surface is a sense of wonder, possibility, and the unknown as we try to comprehend the physical and conceptual importance of the Earth.