Embodied Climate Change: Materiality, Language, Mediation, And The Legitimation Of The Unintelligible

Abstract

“Embodied Climate Change: Materiality, Language, Mediation and the Legitimation of the Unintelligible” examines the intersections of language, technology, and the human and nonhuman worlds through the example of climate change. I posit that human technology, specifically language and digital media, have codified the human and nonhuman worlds into a “mixed-reality” of virtual, actual, and potential lived experiences. These technologies have, for better or for worse, de-materialized local human embodiment and re-materialized it in the global sphere of a technological/natural-reality. The re-materialization shapes not only how humans locate themselves within the world but also how they approach and understand phenomenon like climate change.