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Venice 2025 – UNDERCURRENTS: Metabolic Infrastructures of Survival

find the full programme below!

On Monday morning, attendees slowly made their way to Venice’s old town — most of them slightly jet-lagged from late-night flights. By 9 a.m., the city had settled into that perfect mix of calm and inspiration, setting the scene for us to come together, share ideas, make connections and get some real thinking done. We were all ready and excited to start our EASA biannual workshop, organised together with other two EASA networks: EnviroAnt – Environment and Anthropology – and HOLB  – Human and Other Living Being.

UNDERCURRENTS: Metabolic Infrastructures of Survival was hosted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice—a setting that was anything but incidental. What better place to explore the themes of our workshop than a city that offers countless examples of how natural environments are shaped by living beings as they strive to create ecologies and infrastructures suitable for everyday life?

Day 1

To welcome us were the Networks convenors: Umberto Cao (EAN), Cormac Cleary, Pauline Destree & Zeynep Oguz (EnviroAnt), Elena Stecca, Amelia Veitch & Valentina Bonifacio (HOLB). The grand Auditorium Santa Margherita, adorned with its historic paintings, warmly welcomed attendees as they settled into their seats, eager to dive into the exciting programme ahead. Three days filled with panel presentations, interactive workshops, audio-visual performances and fieldtrips.

No time was wasted though – by 9:30 we were already delving into the flesh of our workshop. The morning panels opened up rich conversations around the entangled relations between species, energy, and environments. We explored how infrastructures—both visible and hidden—shape and are shaped by multispecies interactions, ecological pressures, and political tensions. From landscapes transformed by care and neglect to the temporal rhythms of electricity and resistance, the discussions set the stage for deep, grounded, and sometimes provocative opportunities to debate.

The presentations unfolded amidst the subtle industriousness of Luciana Frau, who was quietly setting up her ongoing exhibition To Mold —a series of photographs and installations—around us as we talked. Her work, emerging in real time, gently echoed many of the themes we were discussing, adding a layered, tactile presence to the space.

An interactive afternoon followed, with workshops that invited participants to experiment, reflect and create together. Through play, making and writing, we explored how ecological crises, supply chains and multispecies futures can be approached not only analytically, but also affectively and collaboratively. These sessions offered a more hands-on engagement with the workshop’s themes, sparking lively exchanges and unexpected connections across disciplines and practices. Some of us even made keyrings from the rubble of Turkey 2023’s earthquake while reflecting on how waste is socialise and given new life after catastrophes.

The afternoon continued with a rich and evocative audiovisual program, offering multisensory perspectives on ecological entanglements across diverse landscapes. From northern mining towns and Mediterranean wetlands to Florentine parks and coastal lagoons, the films and presentations traced how human and non-human lives become intertwined through extractivism, displacement, care and resistance. The directors’ Q&A brought the pieces into dialogue, deepening reflections on the aesthetic and political dimensions of multispecies storytelling. The evening closed with an immersive soundscape from the Venetian Lagoon—an embodied reminder of the very environment surrounding our workshop.

Day 2

On Day 2, we gathered in the beautiful Aula Baratto, overlooking the Grand Canal. We were joined by two special guests, Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe from Rice University, whose work has been foundational in shaping conversations around energy, infrastructure and more-than-human worlds. The morning panels opened with reflections on atmosphere, immersion and the sensory dimensions of being in place—followed by sharp insights into the metabolic logics of contemporary infrastructures, from petrostate politics to speculative green energy futures. These talks brought theoretical depth and new provocations to our discussions, grounding them in urgent ecological and geopolitical realities.

It wasn’t long before we were on our feet again. By late morning, we gathered in the Ca’ Foscari patio and boarded a vaporetto bound for Lido Island, leaving behind the stone courtyards of Venice for sandy shores and sea breezes. The day’s excursion brought the workshop themes into the field—quite literally—starting with lunch among the bees at the social farm “Azienda Agricola Sociale Terre Ritrovate”, where ecological care is practiced daily. Walking along the coast to Alberoni, we heard from local anthropologist Rita Vianello about the MOSE flood barrier and the tensions between technological intervention and island life as this infrastructure became entangled with corrupted politics, mismanagement and a top-down approach to altering the landscape.

The journey then led to Malamocco, where members of the grassroots group “Poveglia per tutti” shared stories of resistance and collective care, explaining how they launched a crowdfunding campaign to stop the island of Poveglia from falling into private hands. As the sun lowered, we took the boat back to Venice to share a dinner in the amazing facilities of “Tocia”, a local collective who cooked for us an amazing meal that brought a fitting close to a day shaped by movement, encounters, and grounded, place-based knowledge

Day 3

On day 3, we changed location again to meet at the management campus and dive into a series of panels focusing on watery landscapes and ecological entanglements. The morning sessions explored how states, communities and species negotiate water – from Soviet infrastructural ambitions to grassroots activism against invasive species in the Venetian lagoon. As the day progressed, conversations turned toward the complexities of tracking ecological knowledge across scales, from local biodiversity networks in Spain to tech-driven sustainability efforts in India and Turkey. After lunch, we reflected on the emotional and cultural afterlives of environmental change, with moving discussions on mourning glaciers, decolonising coastal infrastructures and the sonic landscapes of ecological memory. These panels wove together diverse perspectives on how water and ecology shape, and are shaped by, histories, politics and multispecies lives.

Another round of workshops followed as a closing to the event, offering participants a chance to engage creatively and critically with themes of multispecies relationships, storytelling as resistance, and the intersections of myth and environment. These parallel sessions invited hands-on exploration and reflection, providing a dynamic and thoughtful conclusion to the workshop.

Reluctant to say goodbye, we seized the last opportunity to connect further by sharing a meal together at one of Venice’s many charming osterie. With the promise to reunite soon, we made plans to meet again at EASA in Poznan in July 2026!

We would like to thank:

The collective TOCIA, for their amazing food catering throughout the workshop.

Valentina Bonifacio and the staff of Ca’ Foscari University for the warm welcome and the unwavering support throughout the workshop

Dr Serena Saligari, Secretary of the Energy Anthropology Network