Penetrating Planets: Schelling and the Anthrobscene

In this paper I will analyze the early recurrences of the concept of Anthrobscene, as proposed in media studies by Jussi Parikka, in the aesthetics of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, as advanced especially in “On the Relationship of the Plastic Arts to Nature” of 1807. This work is established within the broader debate on the concept of Anthropocene, which, as known, identifies the human being as the main cause of impact on the Earth system in the era we are living. In the first part, I will introduce this concept in a critical way, to then compare it, in the second part, to the elements of Schellingian thought relevant to this debate. Finally, in the last part, after briefly explaining the new conceptual elements embedded in the term ‘Anthrobscene’, I will analyze Shelling’s Rede of 1807, in order to reclaim his aesthetics as properly anthrobscenic.