++Cancelled++ Changing Natures. Collecting the Anthropocene together.

Collecting the Anthropocene together

How do collective and individual memories shape our relationship to the environment, especially in the era of climate change? What do personal and local traces of changing nature — such as everyday objects, mementoes, and historical documents — tell us about contemporary global transformations? How can we integrate the knowledge of different actors and communities into natural history collecting practices?

The project “Changing Natures”, organized by the “Museum für Naturkunde Berlin”, the “Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle Paris” and with the participation of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)”, seeks to integrate personal, local, and cultural knowledge relating to human influence on nature into contemporary natural history collections. The project focuses on individual perspectives on human-made environmental transformations.

“Changing Natures” is underpinned by the belief that previously untold stories of environmental transformations can help us respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene and to strengthen social and ecological sustainability. In the panel, researchers from SCRIPTS want to discuss several questions: What things from the past can tell us stories about these changes? What do they tell us about the relationship between nature and society? What are the perspectives of this emerging collection on global transformations, like climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the lack of sustainability? And more in general, what do this knowledge, citizen science, and objects tell us about how the ecological transformation challenges liberal societies? Do these untold stories present strategies for the contested liberal models or new opportunities for action?

Reflecting this aspiration, the collection links the local experiences of individuals with collective perceptions, and memories of the past with reflection on our global future. Harnessing citizen science, “Changing Natures” is an open and innovative experiment in collection-building that embraces different perspectives and invites diverse voices to have their say. The project reflects a new approach to science which assumes that the generation of knowledge is a collaborative enterprise. It is driven by an exchange between society and research.