Abstract
This chapter introduces the topic of ruin porn, and the many issues and ambiguities that surround it; I discuss the fascination that society has with decay, and its place in cultural, historical, philosophical and economic discussions. As an aesthetic movement, ruin porn provokes much criticism as an exploitative notion that turns personal loss and decay into artistic work. But ruin porn is also a useful way in which to critique the relationship between humanity and its future. This chapter also examines the connections between ruin porn, capitalism, and the Anthropocene, arguing that the phenomenon of ruin porn potentially signals the demise of capitalism while challenging the anthropocentric discourse that defines contemporary academic discussions.
The original version of this chapter was revised: Grammatical error in the opening quote has been corrected. The erratum to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93390-0_13
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Notes
- 1.
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1973), 17.
- 2.
Siobhan Lyons, “Debbie Does Decay: What Ruin Porn Tells Us About Ruins—And Porn,” The Conversation, August 18, 2015, https://theconversation.com/debbie-does-decay-what-ruin-porn-tells-us-about-ruins-and-porn-45776.
- 3.
Walter Benjamin , The Origin of German Tragic Drama (London and New York: Verso Books, 1998), 177–178.
- 4.
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 256–266.
- 5.
Joanna Zylinska, Nonhuman Photography (Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 2017), 94.
- 6.
Jason McGrath, “Apocalypse, or, the Logic of Late Anthropocene Ruins,” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, no. 10 (March 2014), http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-10 117.
- 7.
Zylinska, Nonhuman Photography, 94.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Tong Lam, Abandoned Futures: A Journey to the Posthuman World (Darlington: Carpet Bombing Culture, 2013).
- 10.
Thomas Morton, “Something Something Something Detroit,’’ Vice Magazine, August 1, 2009, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppzb9z/something-something-something-detroit-994-v16n8.
- 11.
Richard B. Woodward, “Disaster Photography: When Is Documentary Exploitation?” ArtNews, February 6, 2013, http://www.artnews.com/2013/02/06/the-debate-over-ruin-porn/.
- 12.
Richard B. Woodward, Disaster Photography, 2013.
- 13.
Dora Apel , Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2015), 20.
- 14.
Sterling, Bruce. ‘Reboot 11 Closing Talk’. Copenhagen, June 25, 2009. Transcript by Sonja Schöpfel. Wired, February 25, 2011. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/transcript-of-reboot-11-speech-by-brucesterling-25-6-2009/.
- 15.
Maria Tumarkin, Traumascapes (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2015).
- 16.
Iain Sinclair and Emma Matthews Habersham, White Goods (Uppingham: Goldmarks, 2002), 22.
References
Apel, Dora. Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2015.
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press, 1973.
Benjamin, Walter. The Origin of German Tragic Drama. London and New York: Verso Books, 1998.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Lam, Tong. Abandoned Futures: A Journey to the Posthuman World. Darlington: Carpet Bombing Culture, 2013.
McGrath, Jason. “Apocalypse, or, the Logic of Late Anthropocene Ruins.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, no. 10 (March 2014). http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-10.
Sinclair, Iain and Emma Matthews Habersham. White Goods. Uppingham: Goldmarks, 2002.
Sterling, Bruce. ‘Reboot 11 Closing Talk’. Copenhagen, June 25, 2009. Transcript by Sonja Schöpfel. Wired, February 25, 2011. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/transcript-of-reboot-11-speech-by-brucesterling-25-6-2009/.
Woodward, Richard B. “Disaster Photography: When Is Documentary Exploitation?” ArtNews, February 6, 2013. http://www.artnews.com/2013/02/06/the-debate-over-ruin-porn/.
Zylinska, Joanna. Nonhuman Photography. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 2017.
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Lyons, S. (2018). Introduction: Ruin Porn, Capitalism, and the Anthropocene. In: Lyons, S. (eds) Ruin Porn and the Obsession with Decay. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93390-0_1
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