Introduction

The book examines peripheries as both concrete and immaterial phenomena, and as practices and epistemologies that are in different ways framed in the discursive, epistemic, or spatial margins. The introduction covers discussions of different peripheral societal, political, and cultural phenomena that tend to be overwhelmed by centralized systems and mediated global assumptions. Various ‘marginal’ and ‘extreme’ phenomena have become pressing subjects of political and social debate, as well as in everyday human and more-than-human interaction. The chapters examine peripheries and peripherality by proposing a multidisciplinary cross-exposure through a collection of texts by researchers in artistic research, aesthetic theory, and visual studies. The collection challenges the hierarchies and biased assumptions of ‘peripheries’ within the respective disciplinary fields. The book is divided into three sections. Part I: Sites and Sentients tackles peripheries and peripheral approaches through four contributions attached to situated approaches tied to material-practical and discursive-conceptual sensitivities that relate to more-than-human sensitivities, site-sensitive artistic and nomadic practices, and urban environment. Part II: Aesthetics and Practices focuses on the arts-based approaches and artists’ identities in creating peripheral theories and artwork. Part III: Visual Culture Rearticulations offers critical, affective, and collaborative readings of the representations of gender, race, and environmental activism.