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Giovanni Aloi

Professor, Adjunct

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Bio

Education: BA, 1997 Fine Art—Theory and Practice, Milan—S. Marta Fine Art College; PgD, 2003 Art History, Goldsmiths University of London; MA, 2004 Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths University of London; PGCE, 2008 Institute of Education, London; Ph.D., 2014 Goldsmiths University of London.

Books: Art & Animals (IBTauris: 2011); Antennae 10: A Decade of Art and the Non-Human (Antennaeproject/Forlaget248: 2017); Speculative Taxidermy: New Animals Surfaces and Art in the Anthropocene (Columbia University Press: 2018); Why Look at Plants? (Brill: 2018); Animal: An Exploration of the Zoological World (Phaidon: 2018), Botanical Speculations: Plants and Contemporary Art (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars: 2019), Lucian Freud Herbarium (NYC/London: Prestel).

Publications: Editor in Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture (2006–today); Co-editor of University of Minnesota Press series Art After Nature (2018–today); Various articles and reviews for FlashArt; ArtVoices; Whitehot Magazine; The Seen, Esse, Apollo Magazine. Awards: Literary Lions, SSHRC 2018; Diversity Infusion Grant, 2017; SAIC Faculty Enrichment Grant, 2016, 2017, 2019.

Essays in Edited Collections
"Roger Brown: Taxidermy and the Abyss of Representation" in Roger Brown: Virtual Still Lives’ (New York and Chicago: Museum of Arts and Design) pp. 44-47
"Spaces and Otherness in the Anthropocene," in Repair – Catalogue of the Australian Pavilion at the 16th International Biennale di Architettura, (Manuka: Australian Institute of Architecture) 2018
"In Conversation with Mark Dion: The Culture of Nature," in Human-Animal Studies, Volume III, (London: Routledge) 2018
"Tessa Farmer: Chasing fairies to escape science," in In Fairyland: The Work of Tessa Farmer, Ed. Catriona McAra, (London: Strange Attractor) 2017
"Human-Animal-Machine-Plant," in Imperceptibly and Slowly Opening, Picard, C. (ed.) 2016 (Chicago: The Green Lantern Press)
"Au-dela de L'abime: Pour une entomologie culturelle de la compassion," in Souffrance Animales et Traditions Humaines: Rompre le Silence, Desblanches, L. (ed.) 2014, (Dijon: Editions Univeritaires de Dijion), pp.101–119
"The death of the animal," in Zootanathologies, Ed. Marzena Kotyczka, (polish translation), 2014
"Tessa Farmer: Chasing fairies to escape science," in The Work of Tessa Farmer, Ed. Catriona McAra, currently being edited, will be published in Winter 2014
"On a wing and a prayer: butterflies in contemporary art," in The Handbook of Animal Studies, Eds. McHugh, S. and Marvin, G., Routledge, 2013
"Contemporary Fleurs du Mal," in Not a Rose, Ed. Heide Hatry, Charta, 2012
"Beyond the pain principle," in Beyond Human, Eds. Shakespeare, S. and Molloy, C. Continuum, 2012

Academic Essays in Journals (peer reviewed)
"Sorely Visible: Plants, Roots, and National Identity" in Plants, People, Planet, Vol.1 n.3, 2019, p.204-211
"Speculative Taxidermy: Inscribing Vulnerability" in Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, vol.27, n.2, Spring 2019, pp.187-210
"La Questione della Materialita’ Artistica nel Postumano" (The Question of Materiality in Posthumanism) published in Lo Sguardo: Rivista di Filosofia, www.losguardo.net, 2017
"Animal Studies and Art: Elephants in the Room" published as an extended editorial to the project "Beyond Animal Studies’ in March 2015—Antennae.org.uk
"Beyond the abyss", in Prétentaine, Ed. Sofia Bouratsis, (French Translation by Lucille Desblache), 2014
"Deconstructing the animal in search of the real", in Anthrozoo, Ed. Anthony Podberscek, Summer 2012
"Different becomings", in Art and Research, Ed. Ron Broglio, Volume 4. No. 1. Summer 2011
"The death of the animal" (adapted paper as delivered at The Animal Gaze symposium in November 2008) in Journal of Visual Art Practice, Vol. 9, n.1, 2010

Selected Reviews and Articles in specialist press
Feature Article: ‘Carolee Schneemann: Posthumanist Pioneer’ in Esse, issue 96, 2018, pp84-86
Feature Article: ‘Should museums display artworks that feature live animals?’ Apollo Magazine. May 29, 2018
Conversation: ‘Coming of Age’ a conversation with curator Caroline Picard, director of Sector 2337, Chicago. Published in Whitehot Magazine, November, 2017
Review: Damien Hirst's Return to the Art World is Perfectly Situated for Our Post-Truth Era, published in Whitehot Magazine, June, 2017
"Doris Salcedo: Under the Skin", published in Whitehot Magazine, June, 2015
"Gilbert & George: Scapegoating Pictures for London" in Whitehot Magazine, Nov 2014
"The Nature of the Beast", Ibid, June, 2013
"Everything was moving", Ibid, October, 2012
"The Apotheosis of Hirst", Ibid, April, 2012
"Tracy Emin: love is what you want", Ibid, June, 2011
"Ai Weiwei's Ghost", Ibid, June, 2011
"Orozco and the everyday object", Ibid, March, 2011
"Joana Vasconcelos: I will survive", Ibid, September, 2010
"Marc Quinn, Allanah, Buck, Catman, Chelsea, Michael, Pamela and Thomas", Ibid, May, 2010
"Chris Ofili", Ibid, January, 2010
"Anish Kapoor", Flash Art International and Flash Art Italia, Winter, 2009
"Damien Hirst—the blue paintings", Whitehot Magazine, November, 2009

Media
August 2017 Natural Histories, radio program for BBC4, main focus on live animals in the gallery space.
August 2016 'Conceptions of Plant-Life: An Interview with Caroline Picard, in Badatsports
June 2016 Natural Histories, radio program for BBC4, main focus on Lobsters in art.
March 2016 'Beyond Zoocentrism: An interview with Giovanni Aloi,' in Esse Magazine, n.87, Spring, pp.6-13. Interview by A. de Blois
June 2015 Natural Histories, radio program for BBC4, main focus on Damien Hirst and his use of animals in art.
June 2015 Milkweed Balloon Dispersal Project, CANTVprogram discussing Jenny Kendler's artworks sponsored by NRDC and aiming to raise awareness of the disappearance of monarch butterflies
July 2014 Free Thinking, radio program BBC3, main focus on animals and anthropomorphism in visual culture and literature. Aired on July 15, 2014
March 2014Animal Sounds, radio program on Resonance104.4fm, London, aired on April 4, 2014
January 2013 Royal Pets, TV documentary produced by Back2back Productions. Released in summer 2013
February 2010 Nature Calls, radio program on Resonance104.4fm, London as Invited Guest on the episode Interspecies special, aired on February 12, 2010
September 2009 Nature Calls, radio program, Resonance104.4fm, London as Invited Guest on the Bug in the Machine aired on June 9, 2009
August 2008 Consultant for BBC documentary involving animals in art: Nature of Britain, directed by Alan Titchmarch. Available on DVD—B000VA3JKW

Curatorial
Digital Animalities: This exhibition brings together the work of a number of international artists whose work mobilizes digital technologies to put in question the social uses, understandings, and experiences of animality in a context of technological intensification, environmental degradation and risk culture.

Water Works: Program of performances and artistic interventions in collaboration with NRDC (Natural Resource Defence Center) taking place at Chicago EXPO 22-25 September 2015.

Plants, Animals, Machine, Object!: Program of short films co-curated for Sector 2337, Chicago, 2015

Animals on Film: program of short films curated for ISAZ2012, Cambridge

Animal Acoustics:program in conjunction with the publication of Antennae's issue n.27 titled 'The Acoustic Animal,' 2014

Personal Statement

In September 2006, I founded "Antennae, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture". The publication combines a heightened level of academic scrutiny of the non-human in the arts, through an experimental format designed to appeal to wide audiences as well as academic communities. It provides a platform for the study of art and science and it encourages the overlap of the professional spheres of artists, scientists, environmental activists, curators, scholars, and general readers. My research focus is on the representation of nature in art with a specialization in the history of natural history and its influence on modern and contemporary art. I have published books on plants and animals and art and taxidermy. Over the past few years, my research has focused on the emerging conception of Anthropocene and its consequences on the field of Human-Animal Studies as well as Posthumanism more in general.

I have been working in Higher Education since 2005. Gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Post-compulsory Education at the Institute of Education in London, and being recognized by the Higher Education Academy as a Fellow Member, has deepened my understanding of educational methods and pedagogical requirements. As a result, implementing a wide range of different theoretical approaches, combined with consistent self-monitoring of class practice, has allowed me to become very confident in my ability to make lectures and seminars engaging, stimulating, informative, and academically sound.

My main goal is to enable all of my students to become independent and critical learners. Visual material is today more accessible and politically charged than ever, therefore my teaching substantially aims at developing an awareness of the ideological and socio-historical backgrounds which partake in the construction of today's visual vocabularies to enrich writing and artistic practices.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In 1839 a new means of visual representation was announced to a startled world: photography. Although the medium was immediately and enthusiastically embraced by the public at large, photographers spent decades experimenting with techniques and debating the representational nature of this new invention. This course focuses on the more recent history of this revolutionary medium. From the technological advancements that characterized the rise of photography in the commercial world during the 20th century, and the acknowledgement of photography as an artistic medium in its own right, to the digital revolution and its social media applications, we will consider the technological, economic, political, and artistic histories of photography through selected works of art and seminal critical texts.

This course considers photography in a global context. We focus on seminal texts and images in order to explore ethical, commercial, artistic, and political issues that make photography essentially important to our contemporary visual culture. The course explores broad range of photographic practices, techniques, and approaches including the work of Hannah Hoch, Martha Rosler, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Dawoud Bey, Gordon Parks, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, Shirin Neshat, Wolfgang Tillmans and many more. We regularly visit the collections of AIC and MCoP to enrich our class discussions with private print viewings and exhibition critiques.

Students are expected to share an image of their choice in response to the assigned weekly reading. These images are used in class discussion. There also is a final paper, a final presentation, and an in-class test.

Class Number

2334

Credits

3

Description

Taxidermy became the most important tool of knowledge of natural history museums during the Victorian period when it fascinated audiences with its hyperrealist aura. Yet, it was never considered a form of fine art. Today taxidermy has entered the gallery space, but not on the merit of its accurate realism. The opposite is true: unrealistic taxidermy is the symptom of a difficult relationship with nature and alterity that marks today's ecological and capitalist global crises.

Class Number

2273

Credits

3

Description

Plant?s perceived passivity and resilient silence have relegated the vegetal world to the cultural background of human civilization. However, the recent emergence of plants in the gallery space is an invitation to reappraise this relationship at a time of deep ecological and social crisis. This course focuses on plants to unravel histories of colonialism, address gender biases, racial discrimination, and social injustice. We explore how artists and scholars working at the intersection of art, science, philosophy, and indigenous knowledge are rethinking our relationships with plants in order to envision more sustainable and fairer futures.

This course proposes a rich, diverse, and multicultural perspective on the many roles plants play in our lives. It inlcudes lectures, close readings, screenings, museum visits, discussions, collaborative coursework, and contributions by Chicago-based organizations working with local communities and plants. The work of scholars and artist Yota Batsaki, Elain Gan, Vivien Sansour, Vandana Shiva, Mogaje Guihu, Anna Tsing, Monica Gagliano, Eduardo Kac, Jamaica Kinkaid, Derek Jarman, Wangari Maathai, Zayaan Khan, Kapwani Kiwanga, Maria Thereza Alves, Shela Sheikh, Michael Marder, Monica Galliano, Rashid Johnson, Uriel Orlow and many more will provide students with a comprehenisve and global and very contemporary perspective on the subject.

Coursework includes weekly reading responses, a formal/final research paper, a test, and a presentation.

Class Number

1057

Credits

3

Description

The art world is a complex ecosystem. What should one know about its geographical and ecological dimensions in order to pursue a rewarding career?
The rise of identity politics, diversity, and multidisciplinarity, as well as the growing
importance of collaborative practices, calls to abolish museums, and intensifying criticism of our cultural institutions' colonialist foundations, have made it more challenging than ever to navigate this rapidly changing landscape. This course deconstructs the romantic myth of the artist to foreground alternative and sustainable eco-models and systems of interdependency. Together, through the analysis of case studies borrowed from posthumanism and specualtive philosophy, we map the contradictions and paradoxes that today shape the relationship between artists, institutions, and the art market, to help practitioners of all kinds redefine their identities and reposition themselves in the contemporary art world.
The course will involve a range of sources and study materials including selected clips from films, novels, classic academic readings on the artworld, and current interviews with artists, curators, and museum directors. The course will address current urgent themes like social justice, equity, accessibility, marginalization, racism/sexism, institutional critique, etc. The work is based on my new book titled 'I'm not an artist: reclaiming creativity in the age of free content that will be published by Bloomsbury in Spring 2025. Important scholarly and professional voices included will feature: Sampada Aranke, James Elkins, Mark Dion, Timothy Morton, Anna Tsing, Donna Haraway, Mandy-Suzanne Wuong, Vivien Sansour, Edgar Heap of Birds, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Pamela Sneed, Anicka Yi, Cecilia Vicuna, Okwui Enwezor, Eyal Weizman, Robin Wall Kimmerer and many more.
Course work will include weekly reading responses, an essay, a report, and a presentation.

Class Number

2353

Credits

3

Description

This seminar considers past and present histories of 'visual culture' (a spectrum of representation including painting, photography, film, installation, performance, geological and geographical mapping, data processing, and journalism) which focus on the specific challenges posed by current political, ecological, and cultural crises. What new roles can art play in mapping and critically addressing the interconnectedness of the ever-so-fragile ecologies we inhabit? From the construction of posthuman identities through new and old media to the fragmentation of post-photography, the new reconfigurations of nature and culture, and the urgency posed by climate change and unprecedented diasporas, this seminar focuses on new conceptions of art as a political tool capable of outlining new trajectories in the absence of cultural certainties.

The course will focus on the key intersections of art and science from the 1700s through to today considering important philosophical traditions like Cartesianism and Kantian philosophy, thereafter moving on to explore issues of colonialism and decolonization of nature. The course focuses on the work of contemporary artists and scholars who have actively engaged in the definition of the anbthropocene and its new aesthetic models designed to reimagine our relationship with the non-human through new perspectives on gender, race, and interconnectedness. Coursework will involve weekly reading responses in the form of Canvas discussions that will be elaborated in class and a final major project.
Readings include: Haraway, D. J. (1984) `Teddy bear patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of
Eden, in Social Text, n. 11, Winter, pp.20-64

Class Number

1137

Credits

3

Description

Materials link past and present histories in original and compelling ways, connecting different cultures, geographies, and identities. No longer the passive media that artists breathe life into, today materials are always political: active participants in the ongoing negotiations involved in the envisioning of cultural and ecological sustainable futures.

In this course, we deconstruct past and present histories of materiality in art, exploring agency, memory, and identity in the broader context of the power relations that shape these archetypal concepts. Through the philosophical lenses of Queer Ecologies, Indigenous Knowledge, Black Humanities, Anthropocene Studies, and New Materialism, among others, we will navigate the cross-currents of artistic disciplines, media, and ethics that currently redefine political discourses at a time in which all of us are reconsidering the nature of truth, the factual foundations of our histories, and the validity of bearing witness.

Class Number

1136

Credits

3

Description

This course is designed to help students situate themselves in the broader context of contemporary theoretical discourses and practices. This is an essential component of a graduate thesis. Students will undertake independent research, source a broad range of references drawn from the approaches and outputs of artists, philosophers, and other culture-makers, will synthesize complex information, and partake in asynchronous and synchronous discussions for the purpose of competently and critically theorising their own practices. Periodic deadlines help students organize their workflow, from the proposal and outline to the drafting stages. While since the early 2000s, Giovanni Aloi has been deeply involved in the fields of animal-studies, critical plant studies, ecological studies, and Posthumanism, he is also able and willing to supervise students working on a variety of topics. Students will be able to explore creative writing approaches, although, in all instances, a thesis must include a thoroughly researched and theoretically grounded, extensive introduction. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in the Low-Residency MFA Program.

Class Number

2022

Credits

3