Collectives

"Crises of Vectorial Ecosystem" started off as a 2021-2022 University of California working group co-organized by Zizi Li and Suryansu Guha, supported in part by the University of California Office of the President MRPI funding M21PR3286.

We emerge in the time of pandemic capitalism with the hope to better understand and reimagine the ongoing crises as they intersect with our (im)material relationships with vectorial ecosystems.

The collective is highly interdisciplinary, with members from fields including cinema and media studies, science and technology studies, anthropology, geography, communication, culture studies, global studies, and area studies. Some common keywords of interest include: "capitalism," "extraction," "supply chain," "vector," "risk," "vulnerability," "infrastructure," "zone," "proxy," "resources," "energy," "repair," "care," "operation," "media," "community," "alternatives," "mediation," "geopolitics," and "power."

We host a variety of regular events such as reading groups and talks, and are working toward facilitating writing groups, symposiums, conference panels, and journal special issues.

Our latest endeavor, “Using Manifest to create Supply Chains Methodologies ‘in/from the South’,” was supported by Supply Studies Research Network Manifest Project Fund. Between April 2023 and April 2024, core members Veronica Uribe A., Zizi Li, and Suryansu Guha used Manifest to map three alternative supply chains in the Global South: open hardware developed in Mexico, Sustainable Fashion Influencer Movement, and customized visual effects (VFX), a global industry lead by an Indian conglomerate.

Something exciting is in the cook from Zizi Li and Slaveya Minkova. Please come back and check it out later…