Nonhuman Witnessing
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Published:January 2024
The introduction, “Nonhuman Witnessing,” provides an overview of the conceptual framework and core argument of the book that nonhuman actors and processes engage in witnessing. It provides an account of the interlocking crises of increasingly autonomous war, data and algorithmic enclosure, and climate catastrophe. It situates the book in relation to key theoretical concepts of mediation, affect, ecology, testimony, trauma, witnessing, and the nonhuman. By locating the writing of the book in settler colonial context, the introduction also positions the book and its author in relation to First Nations history and knowledges. Through a close engagement with selected scholarly texts, the introduction shows how the book contributes to existing debates about witnessing, testimony, forensics, and the role of art and aesthetics.