Books by Cristián Simonetti
This edited volume seeks to explore and shape ways of thinking about the earth, bodies and materi... more This edited volume seeks to explore and shape ways of thinking about the earth, bodies and materials through surfaces. It argues that to encounter the social by way of surfaces has the potential to transgress settled boundaries of matter and meaning and to emphasise the ways by which life becomes and grow. The collection emphasises the transformational capacities of surfaces by folding together ten contributions across five continents and seven countries in correspondence with the scientific practices of archaeology, neuroscience and psychology, the creative practices of architecture and design, the skilled crafts of basketry, bookbinding, knitting and taxidermy, and the ritual practices of fertility and mortuary cult.
Routledge, 2018
Sentient Conceptualisations is about how scientists studying the past understand time in relation... more Sentient Conceptualisations is about how scientists studying the past understand time in relation to space. Simonetti argues that the feelings for depths and sur- faces, arising from the bodily movements and gestures of scientific practice, strongly influence conceptualisations of space and time. With an anthropological eye, Simonetti explores the ways archaeologists and those from related disci- plines develop expert knowledge in varied environments. The book draws on ethnographic work carried out with Chilean and Scottish archaeologists, working both on land and underwater, to analyse in depth the visual language of science and what it reveals about the relation between thinking and feeling.
Papers by Cristián Simonetti
In C. Howe, A. Moore and J. Diamanti (eds) Solarities. Elemental Encounters and Refractions. Punctum Books., 2023
Concrete is a material that substantiates key contradictions of contemporary urban life. This ant... more Concrete is a material that substantiates key contradictions of contemporary urban life. This anthropic rock, the most abundant in earth history, not only materializes modern narratives of progress but is currently a candidate to mark the onset of the Anthropocene. Moreover, contrary to how it has been traditionally portrayed by the industry, as a synthetic product of modern ingenuity, concrete results from a deep planetary relationship between the Earth and the Sun; the very same relationship that has made the existence of life in this planet, as we know it, possible, including humans. Attending to contemporary dystopias of Chile’s neoliberal experiment in Santiago, this chapter addresses the importance of the relationship between sunlight and concrete for understanding the human condition in the Anthropocene.
Revista 180, 2023
El concreto o hormigón es el material que más significativamente marca el habitar humano en estos... more El concreto o hormigón es el material que más significativamente marca el habitar humano en estos tiempos de crisis ecológica. No solo su producción contribuye directamente al calentamiento global, sino que, al mismo tiempo, es el material antrópico más abundante de la historia del planeta y, por tanto, un candidato para marcar el origen estratigráfico del Antropoceno: una nueva época geológica propuesta para identificar a lo humano como fuerza geológica dominante. Sin embargo, el hormigón ha contribuido simultáneamente a materializar, más que ninguna otra sustancia, las aspiraciones que la modernidad ha buscado levantar contra la naturaleza, trazadas por tensiones entre aquello natural y artificial, geológico y humano, orgánico e inorgánico, sólido y fluido. Este artículo esboza estas tensiones con el objetivo de repensar la narrativa de trascendencia de la modernidad, para señalar que el concreto distaría mucho de ser una sustancia puramente sintética, suspendida más allá de las transformaciones materiales de la historia de la tierra. Abrazar la historia geológica de materiales de construcción como el concreto ofrece nuevos horizontes para la arquitectura y su educación, sensibles a los desafíos que la crisis ambiental impone a la humanidad.
In Christoph Rosol and Giulia Rispoli (eds) Anthropogenic Markers: Stratigraphy and Context, 2022
We are live in room number 2022 of the venerable International Court of Stratigraphic Arbitration... more We are live in room number 2022 of the venerable International Court of Stratigraphic Arbitration where two esteemed scholars—an archaeologist and an anthropologist— appeared before the jury. On trial is the question whether concrete, the unparalleled material, is indeed an admissible marker for defining the onset of the Anthropocene. Here is a record of the first day of the hearing.
Theory Culture and Society, 2021
This issue opens an inquiry into the tension between solidity and fluidity. This tension is ingra... more This issue opens an inquiry into the tension between solidity and fluidity. This tension is ingrained in the Western intellectual tradition and informs theoretical debates across the sciences and humanities. In physics, solid is one phase of matter, alongside liquid, gas and plasma. This, however, assumes all matter to be particulate. Reversing the relation between statics and dynamics, we argue to the contrary, that matter exists as continuous flux. It is both solid and fluid. What difference would it make were we to start from our inescapable participation in a world of solid fluids? Is solid fluidity a condition of being in the midst of things, or of intermediacy on a solid-fluid continuum? Does the world appear fluid in the process of its formation, but solid when you look back on things already formed? Here we open new paths for theorizing matter and meaning at a time of ecological crisis.
Theory Culture and Society, 2021
A tension between solidity and fluidity tends to divide the sciences and the humanities along lin... more A tension between solidity and fluidity tends to divide the sciences and the humanities along lines that define what is hard and soft in knowledge. This divide relates to similar dichotomies, between exteriority and interiority, material and spiritual, homogeneity and heterogeneity, matter and form, all of which have been partially mapped in Western thinking onto a traditional separation between earth and sky. Yet particular forms of knowledge sit uneasily within these tensions, a paradigmatic example of which is an understanding of solids as 'viscous fluids'. This article explores the concept of viscosity, attending to how it has impacted on understandings of matter, as well as broader social and cultural issues. It does so, particularly, by looking into the scientific study of ice, a material that has historically been regarded as solidfluid, to argue that life and sociality remain possible only in so far as matter that is viscid allows solid and fluid states to mingle.
Theory, Culture & Society, 2021
In our discussions around the theme of solid fluids, we often resort to everyday words, many of t... more In our discussions around the theme of solid fluids, we often resort to everyday words, many of them of ancient derivation and rich in association. We have decided to make a list of some of the words that come up most often-barring those that already figure as the principal characters of individual contributions-and to distribute among ourselves the task of writing a sort of mini-biography for each. The resulting lexicon with 19 entries, ranging from 'cloud' and 'concrete' to 'wave' and 'wood', serves as a conclusion to the collection as a whole.
L. Valera and J. C. Castilla (eds.), Global Changes, Ethics of Science and Technology, 2020
The Anthropocene-term proposed by the scientific community for the current geological epoch to si... more The Anthropocene-term proposed by the scientific community for the current geological epoch to signal humans as a leading geological force in earth history-has open intense debates across the sciences and humanities, in that the traditional gap between natural and social phenomena, occurring respectively at slow and fast temporal rates, have been questioned. Despite the enthusiasm, an irre-solvable conceptual limitation marks the term. Irrespective of the very heterogene-ity-human and other-than-human-that is currently at risk in this new epoch, the term often refers to a universal male human, sitting above nature. Humans are to be found simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, which risks diluting environmental responsiveness. This global dilemma resonates with the epistemic distance on which knowledge of the Anthropocene is constituted, which requires achieving a cosmic view on earth at the expense of ecological intimacy. Such cosmic view resonates, in turn, with the place the built environment affords humans, as ex-habitants of the earth. Yet, life-human or any other-is not lived on the exterior of a globe but in the Earth, nurtured by sensory attunements to the material transformations of an environment in constant becoming. Acknowledging the immanence of life, this chapter argues, requires a redefinition of what it means to be human. It is through this immanence that environmental responsiveness remains possible in a world in crisis. The chapter concludes by distinguishing responsibility from responsivity, two contrasting modes of engaging with environmental change, defined respectively as a retrospective act resulting from the achievement of epistemic distance and a forward-looking capacity related to knowing intimately the ongoing transformations of the environment.
AIRB, 2020
El Antropoceno —término acuñado recientemente para designar a la época geológica ac- tual— se enm... more El Antropoceno —término acuñado recientemente para designar a la época geológica ac- tual— se enmarca en la pregunta por el impacto de lo humano a escala planetaria. Dirigido al mismo tiempo a todos y a nadie, el Antropoceno pareciera interpelar a un humano global, imposible de hallar en ninguna parte. Dicha narrativa coincidiría con la tendencia general de la ciencia moderna en torno a un distanciamiento epistémico de la naturaleza. Esta na- rrativa entraría en tensión con el modo en que el conocimiento geológico se funda. Partien- do de trabajo etnográfico con geólogos involucrados en la extracción de caliza —ingredien- te central en la producción de cemento, el aglutinante del concreto— este artículo reflexiona sobre el modo en que aquellos expertos en historia de la tierra son afectados por las trayec- torias de los materiales que estudian. Contrario a la desafección que la imagen del Antro- poceno comporta, este trabajo muestra cómo geólogos —al igual que los ingenieros y mi- neros con los que colaboran— tienden a resonar afectivamente con las trayectorias de los materiales que estudian. Esto coincidiría con el modo en que los geólogos se refieren a las propiedades de la tierra, haciendo referencia al cuerpo, lo cual se remontaría a los inicios de la disciplina, dando cuenta de una intimidad epistémica entre tierra y cuerpo en el conoci- miento geológico.
M. Anusas and C. Simonetti (eds) Surfaces. Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth., 2020
Important sciences conceptualise their practice as an exploration into a hidden past, removing su... more Important sciences conceptualise their practice as an exploration into a hidden past, removing surfaces downwardly, in response to their prior vertical accumulation. Common initially to the geosciences, this view has been adopted through the twentieth century by the humanities and social sciences. Drawing on ethnographic work with scientists who excavate the past with an analysis of the visual language of disciplines that adopt a stratigraphic view of time – including anthropology, history, psychology, philosophy and neurology – this chapter traces key debates in the history of science, showing how knowledge came to be enclosed by surfaces, providing a frame for discussion amongst rival approaches.
Theory, Culture and Society, 2019
The Anthropocene is seen by many scholars across the sciences and the humanities as a tool for po... more The Anthropocene is seen by many scholars across the sciences and the humanities as a tool for political action. Yet the validation process for this term appears to be extremely conservative. According to geologists' leading efforts to formalize the term, signals need to petrify in stratigraphic sequences in order to become candidates to mark the start of the Anthropocene. I argue that this emphasis results from a fossilized view of becoming, where time is seen as a punctuated accumulation of solid surfaces that are accessible only in retrospect. I show that this petrified view of change relates to a tendency to divorce earth and sky, which currently divides the practices of humanities scholars and geologists, as well as those of earth system scientists and stratigraphers collaborating on the formalization of the Anthropocene. Challenging this tendency, I conclude, requires opening up earth's history to the more-than-solid flows of environmental change.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2019
As the scientific distinction between climate and weather suggests, knowledge about climate is su... more As the scientific distinction between climate and weather suggests, knowledge about climate is supposed to be beyond indigenous people's everyday experience of the environment in that it requires a long-term record. Based on ethnographic work among geoscientists in Scotland and West Greenland, I show that practitioners of this discipline have mastered the craft of turning 'visible' what is 'invisible' to the senses by playing with shorter time scales. In thinking and communicating about the past, geoscientists would compress and accelerate long-term environmental processes, often at the cost of dissociating them from processes occurring at shorter timescales, particularly the adaptation of living organism. Attending to the historical circumstances around the development of this skill, I argue that it relates to an ideal of objectivity in science that corresponds with an optical understanding of time, inspired by the image of the telescope. Challenging the distinction between climate and weather, and the epistemic distance on which it rests, I discuss recent approaches in environmental anthropology that uncritically have adopted this distinction to distinguish indigenous knowledge of the environment from climate science. Attending to research with indigenous peoples of the Arctic, I conclude by speculating on alternative ways of understanding climate knowledge, beyond the climate-weather distinction.
In S. Souvatzi, E Baysal and A Baysal (eds) Time and History in Prehistory. London: Routledge, 2019
Notions of scale in prehistoric archaeology mingle with optical views of time and space, borrowed... more Notions of scale in prehistoric archaeology mingle with optical views of time and space, borrowed from astronomy’s expansion of the universe, on which early modern geology modeled its expansion of earth’s history. Optical tropes would be sustained by traditional Western ocularcentrism, which modern philosophy enhanced after partially mistrusting and subsequently empowering the senses using optical technology. In this narrative, access to long-term processes comes at the cost of everyday perception, which has historically created tensions between prehistoric archaeology and disciplines working at shorter time-scales, including anthropology and history. Nonetheless, time concepts in archaeology speak only of a partial departure from sensory experience.
Environmental Humanities, 2019
DOMUS, 2019
The development of timber structures for tall buildings is a strategic measure to reduce the envi... more The development of timber structures for tall buildings is a strategic measure to reduce the environmental impact of the construction industry, in view of a demand for housing that is expected to surge by 2030
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2018
Recent environmental changes have sparked off unprecedented dialogues between practitioners of th... more Recent environmental changes have sparked off unprecedented dialogues between practitioners of the earth sciences and the humanities – dialogues which defy some of the basic assumptions underpinning western science. However, a gap still persists between natural scientists and scholars in the humanities in their tendency to concentrate respectively on solid matter and fluid meaning. This article seeks to close this gap by paying attention to glacial ice and concrete, materials often taken to mark, respectively, the onset and culmination of human history. Historically, ice and concrete have been regarded as solid fluids. We argue, however, that both are caught in a punctuated understanding of change that turns fluidity and solidity into mutually exclusive properties, thus rendering the solid fluid as an oxymoron. The article concludes by comparing this " oxymoronic syndrome" with the ways in which the Inuit of West Greenland experience their cryogenic landscapes as nurturing environments in constant becoming.
Environmental Humanities, 2018
In this choral essay we, an assorted group of academics interested in inorganic life and matter, ... more In this choral essay we, an assorted group of academics interested in inorganic life and matter, explore a mode of thinking and feeling with our objects of inquiry-chemicals, waste, cement, gas, and the "project" as a particular form of circulation and enactment of materials and things. To experiment with alternative modes of knowing, we went to Pu-chuncaví, the largest, oldest, and most polluting industrial compound in Chile, to encounter the inorganic through and with its inorganicness and to attend to the situated, historicized, and political composition of both our materials and our experiences. Thinking of this as a collective provocation, we do not rehearse a conventional argument. Its parts are connected but only partially. There is no dramatic arc but rather an attempt at composing an atmosphere through which our thought and feelings are invoked. We have made visible the authorship behind each of the stories recounted here to celebrate the multivocality of our collaboration and to rehearse a nonabstracted mode of attention to Puchuncaví and the inorganic forces and entities we encountered there. We connect our irritations and speculations with the Anthropocene precisely as a way of summoning the multiple violences, many of them of planetary reach, that have to be denounced when situating our knowledge practices in Puchuncaví. Thinking about the ethico-political challenges of research in territories that have been, and are being, transformed under the weighty history of contamination and that are lived in and lived with by generations of beings (human and otherwise), we call in our concluding remarks for an enhanced pedagogy of care born of our inherited pasts and of engagement, interest, and becoming as response-ability.
Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, 2018
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Books by Cristián Simonetti
Papers by Cristián Simonetti