Challenging the dichotomy between nature and culture, postnatural matter invites us to consider human influence in the material world, analyzing its ethical, ecological, and philosophical implications. The concept of postnatural matter raises questions about the boundaries between what is considered natural and human, suggesting a shift from the traditional understanding of natural materials as untouched -or separated from our scientific interventions, technologies, and cultures- to a recognition that our activity now shapes and creates new forms of life and matter.

From genetically modified organisms to synthetic biology, from man-made minerals and urban wildlife adapting to our cities to microplastics circulating in the oceans... we are witnessing the emergence of a new reality: Postnatural matter is not just a topic — it’s a lens to rethink our relationship with the world and refers to any material entity or substance intentionally altered or manipulated by human intervention through scientific, technological, or cultural processes. 

Including chemically altered geologies, genetically modified organisms, cloned animals, lab-grown tissues, and synthetic biology constructs, it represents the fusion of nature and human influence, where the natural state of a living organism or material is modified beyond its original form and opens a new field of research and discussion where contemporary practices should question the implications of such a profound shift.

That matter matters is undoubtedly a euphony resonating at the center of the contemporary ecological debate. Recognizing that matter is not inert or devoid of agency but rather a dynamic participant in the web of life is the only way out of such structures. In this course, we will unfold a different history, where matter is relational, shaping our present both as a physical and also as a cultural agent. Matter is our past and our potential, too; it is the world’s relational agency and therefore, its ultimate future. Matter “matters” forms and beings. Matter matters the world around and within us all.

Session I 24/09/2025

POSTNATURAL MATTERS: A genealogy of contemporary materialities This introductory session offers a conceptual framework for understanding contemporary materialities that elude rigid classifications. It explores how emerging forms of matter—shaped by human intervention, technological processes, and hybridization—are fundamentally redefining the world we inhabit. Tracing a genealogy of postnatural materialities, the session critically examines how entities that no longer conform to traditional notions of “nature” are transforming ecosystems, bodies, and cultures, and opening up new ontologies of the material

Session II 01/10/2025

MELTING ECOLOGIES: Viscous Matter in the Contemporary Debate, from the Anthropocene to the Antrobscene The world is melting—not only in a literal, material sense due to rising global temperatures and intensifying human impact, but also metaphorically and ontologically. This session explores the collapse of stable categories such as nature and culture, highlighting the disintegration of modernity’s containers and certainties. Through an anarchaeology of the viscous, we will engage with images, substances, and events that expose a new material condition defined by instability, excess, and toxicity. Drawing on ecological philosophy, material culture studies, and environmental justice, the session interrogates the ethical and political implications of living in an era where waste, pollution, and residue have become ecological agents in their own right.

Session III 08/10/2025

MATTER AS KIN: Non-Binary and More-than-Human Material Perspectives What might a non-hierarchical and non-binary material future look like? This session explores a vision of kinship that extends beyond the human, reimagining relationships between living and non-living entities as interdependent and fluid. From a postnatural ecological perspective, matter is not a passive resource but an active participant in a vast, entangled web of relations. Engaging with quantum theory, speculative realism, new materialism, and posthumanist thought, we will examine the limits of human perception and consider the invisible forces, substances, and processes that shape the world. The session challenges anthropocentric models of knowledge, proposing new material imaginaries that recognize the agency of matter and the multiplicity of beings with whom we share existence.

Session IV 15 / 10 / 2025

MATTER FUTURES: Worlding Through Contemporary Practices This final session focuses on how contemporary artistic, scientific, and philosophical practices engage with the future of matter—how they world, that is, actively bring new material realities into being. Drawing from speculative design, ecological thinking, posthumanism, and new materialist approaches, we will explore how these practices contribute to reimagining the planet’s material conditions, future life forms, and modes of existence. Rather than seeing the future as something abstract or distant, this session examines how present actions, perceptions, and imaginaries shape ethical, ecological, and ontological commitments. How do we co-create futures with matter—and what responsibilities arise in doing so?

Gabriel Alonso Born in Madrid, he is an artist and researcher, trained between the ETSAM (Madrid), the Technische Universität (Berlin), and Columbia University in New York at the MS-CCCP, where he graduated with honors in 2018. In his works, through various formats such as installation, sculpture, photography, or video, he investigates the contemporary relationships between fiction and materiality, to blur the binomials between the real and the imagined, between the natural and the cultural. In 2020 he founded the Institute of Postnatural Studies, a center for artistic experimentation from which to explore and problematize postnature as a framework for contemporary creation. In parallel to academic experimentation, research, and curatorial practice, he develops editorial work through the Cthulhu Books platform. Recently, he has published his latest book, The Postnatural Condition: Glossary of Ecologies for Other Possible Worlds (2024).

Represented by Pradiauto Gallery (MAD), his work has been exhibited in different international galleries and exhibitions, such as Podium, 2024 (Oslo), Pradiauto, 2020-2024 (Madrid), Nordés Galería, 2022 (Santiago de Compostela), CaixaForum, 2022 (Barcelona), Centro- Centro, 2022 (Madrid), Fundación Lacaixa, 2022 (Bcn), Matadero, 2019 (Madrid), John Doe Gallery, 2018 (New York), IIAF2018 (New York), Poor Media Leuven, 2016 (Belgium), Mila Gallery, 2014 (Berlin) among others.

He has been an assistant professor at Barnard College, Columbia University (NYC) and at the Master of Advanced Architecture at ETSAM, at the Geneva University of Art and Design head, as well as at TAI University, and has given several lectures at different international institutions, museums, and universities. In 2022, he received a FAD-Cultura award for the IPS platform. In 2015, he received the FAD award for his publication Desierto, and in 2016, he was awarded one of the prestigious Graham Foundation for the Fine Arts fellowships.

Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. 2010 Tripaldi, Laura. Parallel Minds: Discovering the Intelligence of Materials. Urbanomic, 2022. Davis, Heather. Toxic Progeny: The Plastisphere and Other Queer Futures, A Journal of Continental Feminism. Volume 5.2. 2015 Barthes, Roland. Mythologies, Les Lettres nouvelles. 1957 Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press, 2015. Clark, Nigel, and Kathryn Yusoff. Geosocial Formations and the Anthropocene. Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 34, no. 2-3, 2017, pp. 3-23. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt, eds. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. University of Minnesota Press, 2017. Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media. University of Minnesota Press, 2015. de la Cadena, Marisol. Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds. Duke University Press, 2015. Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. Duke University Press, 2019. Helmreich, Stefan. Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas. University of California Press, 2009. Yusouff, Mohamed. Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. Duke University Press, 2024. Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke University Press, 2007. Barad, Karen. Material Entanglements, or, Rather: Material Intra-actions. New Literary History, vol. 45, no. 2, 2014, pp. 345-365. Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press, 2011. Alaimo, Stacy. Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self. Indiana University Press, 2010.

Are the sessions live or pre-recorded? All sessions are live, via Zoom, every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (CEST/Madrid time). Each session will be recorded and made available afterward, so you can catch up if you miss any session.

When are the sessions held? Sessions will take place weekly on Wednesdays, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (CEST). Once enrolled, you will receive the Zoom access link along with further information.

Where will we be able to access course materials? All seminar materials will be shared through an online folder, including video recordings, session slides, assigned readings, and additional resources.

How long will we have access to the recordings? Recordings will be uploaded shortly after each session. You will have access to all materials throughout the course and for two weeks after the seminar ends.

Will the bibliography be shared in advance? Yes. All readings, references, and links will be shared in advance to allow enough time for preparation.

Do I get any kind of certificate after the seminar? Yes. Upon completing the seminar, you will receive a non-official certificate of participation.

Do you offer any scholarships or special prices? We offer a 20% discount for students and IPS alumni (you will be asked to provide a document proving enrollment in a university or past participation in IPS programs). We’re also aware that access costs may pose a barrier depending on your location or personal situation. If you would like to request financial aid, please send us your request through this form, and we will evaluate your case individually.

Are the discounts accumulative? No, discounts are not accumulative. However, you may apply the 20% discount if you are an IPS alumni, a student, or if you purchase more than one IPS product.

For any further inquiries, contact us at: studies@instituteforpostnaturalstudies.org