Research

P.I. Pietro Daniel Omodeo and Francesca Rosso

Starting in December 2024, this research project addresses the environment between philosophical conceptualization and environmental aesthetics. Its background problematizes concepts such as “world” and “environment” and the opposition between “natural” and “cultural”. The starting point is the recognition that the dichotomies between culture and nature, natural sciences and humanities, as well as their respective epistemological ideals need to be reassessed as a consequence of the environmental crisis and the Anthropocene debates.
As part of the IUSS Pavia national PhD program in Sustainable Development and Climate Change (PhD-SDC), in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the UNESCO Chair on Water Heritage and Sustainable Development in Venice, and VeGAL (Agenzia di sviluppo del Veneto Orientale), a PhD project of 2024 investigates the cultural experience of water through labor. It addresses the epistemology of traditional fishing activities, including practical and tacit knowledge. Located at the crossdisciplinary confluence of historical epistemology, environmental humanities, and the environmental sciences, this PhD reassesses forms of knowledge and practices that have permitted lasting societal interactions with the environment. These are currently under threat owing to multiple crises, especially climate change. By mapping significant cases, this PhD aims to establish a broad cognitive basis for the comprehension of water ecologies and their natural-cultural history. Such comprehension can reorient the management of resources towards a more sustainable paradigm, in line with the SDGs and the UNESCO water programs (IHP and WWAP). The research of this PhD is inserted in the framework of the UNESCO Chair on Water Heritage and Sustainable Development in Venice and and its collaboration with VeGAL aims to support the candidature of artisanal fishing in the Venice Lagoon as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The main research lines are the following ones:

• a recontextualisation of the topic of animal-human relations.
• a reflection on the Anthropocene according to a non-dichotomic approach.
• a revival of environmental aesthetics and an examination of “eco-aesthetics” critical of environmental exploitation.

The Max Planck Partner Group in Venice, The Water City: The Political Epistemology of Hydrogeological Praxis (partner of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science – Berlin), is associated with the UNESCO Chair, as well:

The Partner Group The Water City brings the city and the environments of Venice into focus as the basis for historical and comparative studies on global geo-anthropological processes. It takes into account the multi-faceted reality of a ‘hydropolis’, which has always constituted a crossroad of environmental, cultural, political, economic, and migratory phenomena. Moreover, comparative historical and cross-cultural cases are developed through exchanges with German, American and Indian scholars working on kindred projects.

The Water City  

"EarlyGeoPraxis - Positioned Cosmology in Early Modernity: The Geo-Praxis of Water-and-Land Management in Venice" is a project associated with the UNESCO Chair. 

It addresses the cosmological embedment of geological praxis in the early modern period (15th-18th century) by focusing on the ‘water city’, Venice, as a case study for the comprehension of the relationship between nature and civilization.

EarlyGeoPraxis  

The TBA21–Academy Residency Program in Venice is designed to allow an in-depth exploration of the Venice Lagoon's ecologies, connecting a network of local partners and experts with situated artistic inquiry. Over the course of nine months, the three selected artists: Carlos Casas, Nandita Kumar, and Adelita Husni-Bey, will develop new artistic commissions focused on the lagoon's ecosystem and its multi-species inhabitants, investigating the role of the ports from different perspectives.
The residencies are organized by TBA21–Academy within the framework of the S+T+ARTS 4WaterII, an initiative of the European Commission, with the support of Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung (KDM) and with the collaboration of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, NICHE Centre for Environmental Humanities, CNR-ISMAR, ETT, and Venice International University. This year marks TBA21's second collaboration with the European Commission initiative as a Member of the Consortium, building on our shared dedication to instigating artist-led, and transdisciplinary projects investigating more regenerative ways of coexistence. 
 

TBA21  

“The Historical Cosmology of the Biosphere in the Anthropocene” an exchange project between Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Département de philosophie (PI Charles Wolfe), and Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (PI Pietro Daniel Omodeo) funded by the Chaires Franco Italiennes / Cattedre Italo Francesi 2025.