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Abstract

This publication presents the research result of 'the Anthropocene Project' at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. In the Anthropocene era - a geological age of our own making, what understood to be nature is made by man. A new perspective is needed to look at the dynamics of a new epoch. These volumes offer writings that discuss the topic through the three approaches: grain, vapor and ray - the particulate, the volatile and the radiant. Each of the first three volumes is devoted to one of the three textures, in which contemporary writers respond to historical writings. The fourth volume serves as a guide to the project as a whole.'Grain, vapor and ray are three mundane textures through which we (re)imagine Earth-shaping processes. As a thought exercise that bridges matter with matters, the three capture a composite image of material flows, energetic conversions, and human activities. In the situations emerging out of the metabolic dynamics between Humanity and Earth, at times invoked as "the Anthropocene," these three textures resonate everywhere transformation and perturbation are sounded: granular, vaporous, radiant. It is not possible to imagine one without sensing the rest, thus their entanglement weaves a continuous, flowing fabric informed by (our) histories of imagination. our variation that emerges out of such flux is this book.' - from flapped page.