A human artist in a posthuman world: Reflections on artmaking and deskilling in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This paper discusses the work of the Polish artist Diana Lelonek as an investigation of a possible skillset for the Anthropocene-era artist. An outline of the reflection on deskilling in arts serves to illuminate the process whereby artistic skills are dismissed in favour of other skills. The main argument is that the transformation of the idea of artmaking in late capitalism has accelerated in recent decades with the advent of environmental humanities and posthumanism, which posit the necessity of formulating a vision of artistry that moves beyond the artist’s human perspective in order to include non-human subjects. The text refers also to the theory and practice of sustainable design to show that the idea of deskilling as a strategy for the Anthropocene intersects among many disciplines.