The Ecological Crisis and Intermedial Studies

Taking the human-induced ecological crisis as our starting point, in this chapter we discuss the implications of how this crisis is communicated. The knowledge and data produced by the natural sciences is mediated and communicated in different ways to the public and after a review of central traditions relating to this question, we argue that there is a need for a theory of comparison that can encompass different disciplines and aesthetic forms of media. We combine an intermedial toolbox of terms introduced by Lars Elleström, most notably his concept of “transmediation,” with the field of ecocriticism that originates in literary studies but today encompasses a broader definition of media representing the ecological crisis. This we call intermedial ecocriticism, which has theoretical and methodological implications for the analysis and comparison of ecomedia. We exemplify this by discussing existing research from intermedial scholars as well as with a case study regarding representations of future food cultures from the website Eatforum.org and in the sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049.