{"id":10577,"date":"2020-04-29T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T18:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=10577"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:20:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:20:17","slug":"image-ecologies-spiritual-polytropy-and-the-anthropocene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/04\/29\/image-ecologies-spiritual-polytropy-and-the-anthropocene\/","title":{"rendered":"Image ecologies, spiritual polytropy, and the Anthropocene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An article of mine<\/a> by that title has appeared in a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture<\/em><\/a> on “Popular Culture, Religion, and the Anthropocene<\/a>.” The article contains the theoretical core of the book I’m currently writing on image regimes. It builds on my work in cinema and media studies, philosophy and sociology of religion, and process-relational ontology. As such it packs a lot in, and I would welcome any feedback on it (by email<\/a> or comments below). As the book won’t be finished for a while, this piece is a good reflection of one of my current research directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The special issue grew out of a workshop at the National University of Singapore organized by John Whalen-Bridge, for which I’m deeply grateful. The issue has been skillfully edited by Whalen-Bridge and Lisa Sideris and includes articles by Sideris, Bron Taylor, and Luis Vivanco. It’s normally paywalled for 24 months, but the publisher has made the entire issue open access “for the foreseeable future,” so I would recommend that you read it while you can (if you don’t have institutional access to the journal). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article can be read and downloaded here<\/a>. My abstract reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article advances a four-fold contribution to theorizing the relationship between images, religion, and the Anthropocene. First, it proposes a \u2018process-semiotic\u2019 definition of the image as a sensorially perceptible form that mediates agential relations both between humans and between humans and the larger world. Second, it argues for a conception of religion and of spirituality that sees the world as varying on a scale between the \u2018polytropic\u2019 and the \u2018monotropic\u2019, where \u2018tropism\u2019 refers to the \u2018turning\u2019 toward sources of sustenance, relief, hope, authority, and the like. This turning is commonly, if not universally, accomplished with the aid of images. Bringing these ideas together, it then advances a typology of \u2018image regimes\u2019, each of which establishes relationships between understandings of images and of reality, relationships which can be traced across diverse religious and cultural contexts. Finally, it proposes a set of questions by which to bring ecocritical analysis to expressions of these image regimes in the emerging \u2018image-world\u2019 of digital culture, a culture that is coterminous, if not causally linked with, the growing recognition of the Anthropocene. It ends with a brief application of these questions to the Anthropocene Project, an art exhibition, film, and book project by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas De Pencier.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Note: If the article is not available when you are reading this, email me for a copy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article of mine by that title has appeared in a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture on “Popular Culture, Religion, and the Anthropocene.” The article contains the theoretical core of the book I’m currently writing on image regimes. It builds on my work in cinema and media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691847,689354],"tags":[123667,291,628348,16922,628346,628339,628338,628344,628345,4478,628342,350246,628343,123591,628341,628340,16875,628349,109055,628347],"class_list":["post-10577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-spirituality","category-image_nation","tag-anthropocene","tag-ecocriticism","tag-edward-burtynsky","tag-film-philosophy","tag-iconology","tag-image-ecologies","tag-image-ecology","tag-image-ontology","tag-image-regimes","tag-media-ecology","tag-philosophy-of-religion","tag-polytropism","tag-process-relational-ontology","tag-religious-studies","tag-sociology-of-religion","tag-spiritual-polytropy","tag-spirituality","tag-the-anthropocene-project","tag-three-ecologies","tag-visual-studies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2KB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10862,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/06\/26\/scenes-in-the-image-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":0},"title":"Scenes in the image-world","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Here\u2019s a preview in section headings of the book I\u2019m currently writing. 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It is\u00a0from the SCMS panel \"Post-Cinema and\/as Speculative Media Theory,\" featuring Steven Shaviro,\u00a0Patricia Pisters, and Mark Hansen. I discuss the archive, the cloud, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cinema_zone\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14209,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/08\/28\/new-lives-is-here\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":3},"title":"“New Lives” is here","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just gotten my hands on an advance print copy of The New Lives of Images, and it looks and feels wonderful to hold and handle. I'm quite happy with what Stanford University Press has done with the book -- the artwork, the typography, and the entire editorial and publication\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8699,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/03\/24\/and-what-im-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":4},"title":"… And what I’m reading","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Some books I've recently received and\/or am currently reading... If you'd like to review any of them for this blog, let me know. And if there are others published in the last year that should be on this list, let me know that too\u00a0(in the comments). Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"20160324_153919_resized_1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2016\/03\/20160324_153919_resized_1-155x275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11559,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/01\/29\/eco-humanities-seminar\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":5},"title":"Eco-humanities seminar","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I will be making parts of my \"Advanced Environmental Humanities\" course open to the EcoCultureLab community and a limited broader public. 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