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In Nonhuman Witnessing Michael Richardson argues that a radical rethinking of what counts as witnessing is central to building frameworks for justice in an era of endless war, ecological catastrophe, and technological capture. Dismantling the primacy and notion of traditional human-based forms of witnessing, Richardson shows how ecological, machinic, and algorithmic forms of witnessing can help us better understand contemporary crises. He examines the media-specificity of nonhuman witnessing across an array of sites, from nuclear testing on First Nations land and autonomous drone warfare to deepfakes, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic investigative tools. Throughout, he illuminates the ethical and political implications of witnessing in an age of profound instability. By challenging readers to rethink their understanding of witnessing, testimony, and trauma in the context of interconnected crises, Richardson reveals the complex entanglements between witnessing and violence and the human and the nonhuman.
In Nonhuman Witnessing Michael Richardson argues that a radical rethinking of what counts as witnessing is central to building frameworks for justice in an era of endless war, ecological catastrophe, and technological capture. Dismantling the primacy and notion of traditional human-based forms of witnessing, Richardson shows how ecological, machinic, and algorithmic forms of witnessing can help us better understand contemporary crises. He examines the media-specificity of nonhuman witnessing across an array of sites, from nuclear testing on First Nations land and autonomous drone warfare to deepfakes, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic investigative tools. Throughout, he illuminates the ethical and political implications of witnessing in an age of profound instability. By challenging readers to rethink their understanding of witnessing, testimony, and trauma in the context of interconnected crises, Richardson reveals the complex entanglements between witnessing and violence and the human and the nonhuman.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Nonhuman Witnessing 1
1. Witnessing Violence 37
2. Witnessing Algorithms 80
3. Witnessing Ecologies 112
4. Witnessing Absence 150
Coda. Toward a Politics of Nonhuman Witnessing 174
Notes 185
Bibliography 207
Index 229
Michael Richardson is Associate Professor of Media and Culture at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and author of Gestures of Testimony: Torture, Trauma, and Affect in Literature.
“The work of Michael Richardson is like a four dimensional
cartography to navigate the hyperaesthetics of our
post-photographic present.”
*Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of
Truth*
“Foregrounding the ethical dimensions of the convergence between
the fields of security and ecology, Michael Richardson explores
whether witnessing is taking place beyond the boundaries of the
human. By making a fantastic case for the reversal of the humanist
concept of witnessing, Richardson impacts what kinds of research
questions can be asked across the disciplines.”
*Savage Ecology: War and Geopolitics at the End of the World*
"Richardson examines what it means to bear witness in the modern
world. In an era of escalating geopolitical tensions and
instability, impending climate disaster, and technological
transformation with artificial intelligence, the book makes a case
for expanding our conception of what forms witnessing can
take."
*University of New South Wales Sydney*
"Nonhuman Witnessing is ingeniously structured and beautifully
written, and for geographers concerned with questions of testimony
and trauma it provides a provocative and original rendering of
witnessing as a concept, while the array of examples and
theoretical arguments speak directly to geographical work on
violence, (non)relationality, the Anthropocene and more."
*Social and Cultural Geography*
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