Materialność ruin. Nowe afordancje w obliczu kryzysu ekologicznego
Materiality of Ruins. New Affordances in the Lens of Climate Crisis

Summary/Abstract: The classical definition of ruins, as developed by Alois Riegl, emphasizes the respect for and the opportunity to engage with the “patina of the ages.” A similar perspective is presented by Georg Simmel, who, while acknowledging the “naturalization” of ruins, focuses his reflections on the melancholy arising from a sense of almost biblical vanitas associated with human-made objects. This definition, therefore, primarily concentrates on the past and the irretrievably lost grandeur of human creations. However, contrary to this definition, from a biological, post-anthropocentric standpoint, ruins are never static, passive objects – instead, abandoned spaces become inhabited by other “morethan-human communities” (Anna Tsing). The objective of this article is to reframe the definition of ruins in terms of their active, processual form as a verb (Ann Laura Soler) and to expand the concept of prospective ruination, understood as the active inhabitation of ruins by more-than-human actors (as defined by Bruno Latour), particularly ruderal plants (Latin: rudus, rubble), which are the first to undertake succession in habitats abandoned by humans.

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