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Nanotechnology, Anthropocene, and Education: Scale as an Aesthetic Catalyst to Rethink Concepts of Child/Nature

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Research Handbook on Childhoodnature

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

This paper is based upon the inspiration that I find, as an artist and educator, among areas of nanotechnology, art, and pedagogy in response to the Anthropocene. The notion of scale is paramount to this research: through a shift in scale to include the very large and the very small, dichotomous thought is eschewed for a concept of life understood as continual, material process. This awareness affords a pedagogy of creative imagination about the world that can confront current anthropocentric habits and attitudes. The nanoscale space between the atomic force microscope and a single atom is related to the vast geological time of the Anthropocene so that these extreme scales can function as catalysts for artistic imagining. Furthermore, I consider these extreme, inhuman scales with respect to the child in/of nature. Specifically, I examine the Western, educational norms of nature understood as a benevolent backdrop to human rejuvenation. In doing so, I look to a Deleuze-Guattarian concept of intensity within a rhizomatic concept of measurement as an artistic strategy. Current life requires a shift in ontological understanding to first identify established assumptions about planetary relationships and, second, to experiment with novel views offered by emergent conditions and technologies. This can begin with a reconsideration of ideas about the child and nature. Educators are poised to influence how this version of human/non/inhuman relationality will develop. Changes in the ways we live among other species and with the inhuman Earth must take into account a more geologically and ecologically sensitive perspective, and cultural connections between the sciences and the arts can help promote this necessity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Patti Vera Pente

Authors
  1. Patti Vera Pente
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Correspondence to Patti Vera Pente .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Sustainability Environment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast Campus, Coolangatta, QLD, Australia

    Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles

  2. Department of Education, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Karen Malone

  3. Department of Education, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Elisabeth Barratt Hacking

Section Editor information

  1. Manchester Metropolian University, Manchester, UK

    David Rousell

  2. Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Dilafruz Williams

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Pente, P.V. (2020). Nanotechnology, Anthropocene, and Education: Scale as an Aesthetic Catalyst to Rethink Concepts of Child/Nature. In: Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A., Malone, K., Barratt Hacking, E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67286-1_91

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