Shaken Grounds: Art as Seismography

Shaken Grounds: Art as Seismography is a transdisciplinary project that explores the fragility and resilience of life on unstable terrain. It brings together artistic research, environmental social science, collective curating, filmmaking and medical trauma studies with Earth sciences, supported by academic and cultural institutions from Austria, Italy, Iceland and Croatia.

The project’s trajectory facilitates a new approach to seismography as both a physical and metaphorical method of inscription, translation and sensing. It aims to engage with geological, social and psychological instability to address the need for social and ecological solidarity.

While artistic engagement with planetary systems has been gaining momentum—especially through the lens of the Anthropocene—human-induced seismicity remains an underexplored area. Shaken Grounds expands the field by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and probing the blurred boundary between natural and anthropogenic disruption.

In doing so, it tackles another gap: the lack of historical contextualisation in relation to current transdisciplinary practices in this field. By juxtaposing contemporary works with modern and historical pieces—including works that explore both literal and symbolic tremors—the project reveals how cultural responses to rupture have evolved alongside scientific, philosophical and societal transformations.

Methodologically, Shaken Grounds is structured into six interconnected zones—geological, somatic, socio-political, philosophical, art-historical and narrative. Rather than functioning as isolated categories, these zones form fluid, overlapping fields of activity, each driving distinct research trajectories, artistic and scientific practices, and modes of dissemination.

The oral presentation at the EGU General Assembly 2026 will combine analytical reflection with an audiovisual research output, including a five-minute extract from the short film Shaken Grounds – Shifting Skies. The presentation will conclude with an outlook on a Creative Europe–supported collaborative programme leading to a curated exhibition and transdisciplinary symposium planned for 2027 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb.