Highlining as Outdoor Counternarrative : Building Bridges to AlterNative Futures and Creating Transcultural Networks of Solidarity through “Slacklife”

KRÁSNÁ, Denisa. Highlining as Outdoor Counternarrative : Building Bridges to AlterNative Futures and Creating Transcultural Networks of Solidarity through “Slacklife”. In Community in Peril : From Individual Identities to Global Citizenship, The Graduate Studies Conference, Masaryk University, 25-26 November 2022, Brno, Czech Republic. 2022.

Basic information

• Original name: Highlining as Outdoor Counternarrative : Building Bridges to AlterNative Futures and Creating Transcultural Networks of Solidarity through “Slacklife”
• Authors: KRÁSNÁ, Denisa.
• Edition: Community in Peril : From Individual Identities to Global Citizenship, The Graduate Studies Conference, Masaryk University, 25-26 November 2022, Brno, Czech Republic, 2022.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50902 Social sciences, interdisciplinary
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Highlining; Highline; Slackline; Slacklining; Slacklife; Artivism; Environmentalism
• Tags: Artivism, environmentalism, Highline, Highlining, Slacklife, Slackline, Slacklining
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Highlining is a subdiscipline of slacklining with roots in climbing practiced at heights. Slackliners walk on a flat 2,5 cm wide webbing that is dynamic and light. Highlines are rigged in both natural and urban landscapes and can be viewed as artivist pieces that promote free movement and challenge the biopolitical control over bodies as highlining provides an opportunity to go to spaces where human movement is naturally limited, and therefore, unexpected and unregulated. Moreover, the “slacklife” philosophy is characterized by a set of values that are important for the creation of socially and environmentally just futures as they can be juxtaposed to harmful historical legacies of conquest and colonialism. Highlines can be rigged to express solidarity, to contest borders, and to unite and connect transborder communities. Creating transcultural networks of solidarity through slacklife embodies the power in a shift in perspective as a radical act of decolonialism. This piece will present highlining as a new form of collaborative outdoor counternarrative that questions the dominant notions about the outdoors, nature, and borders. As a case study, it will present a highline project that was rigged in 2019 across the Río Grande in protest to the then-president Donald Trump՚s plans to “build the wall” along the US-Mexico border. Co-created by teams from Mexico and US, the highline constituted a powerful peaceful protest as it showed an alternative to the life and society Trump's administration was trying to establish. It also underscored the significance and potential of art as a form of resistance.

Links

• CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_073/0016943, interní kód MU(CEP code: EF19_073/0016943): Name: Interní grantová agentura Masarykovy univerzity (Acronym: IGA MU)

Investor: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, Priority axis 2: Development of universities and human resources for research and development