Dune Vol. 004 n. 001 – “Biosphere”

Ecology is the science of the biosphere, the study of material relations and flows. At its root, the principle that everything is connected and that forms of life – human, nonhuman, subhuman – are dialectically and inextricably bound together. Such ties are examined here in a series of essays and conversations that tell stories of ecology, political economy, speculative design and ecodesign, tackled from multiple disciplinary perspectives and favoring activist positions. Broadening its gaze, the seventh issue of Dune intends to investigate the aesthetic, cultural, social, and political dimension of sustainability, in an attempt to provide the methodological tools and contents needed to approach this concept and to analyze and uncover new meaning in it. The issue also recognizes the central role of fashion studies, sensitive to the relations between fashion and the ecological transition toward a reassessment of systems of production and the mingling of the craft and industrial dimensions.

The reflections of Édouard Glissant have led the editorial board to think in inclusive and interlocutory terms, without resorting to assertions and convictions but pursuing instead an idea of “archipelagic thinking” that does justice to the multiplicity of the biosphere. Glissant declares: “Agree not merely to the right to difference but, carrying this further, agree also to the right to opacity that is not enclosure within an impenetrable autarchy but subsistence within an irreducible singularity. Opacities can coexist and converge, weaving fabrics. To understand these truly one must focus on the texture of the weave and not on the nature of its components.”