ELENA CIRKOVIC ARTWORK

PROFILE

My research focuses on earth-outer space complex systems and intertwined “agencies”. It investigates the epistemological and ontological dimensions of precautionary frameworks in contexts of radical uncertainty. I position precaution as ontological—a mode of being in relation to uncertain futures. This acknowledges that certain forms of knowledge cannot be fully attained prior to action, particularly when confronting complex, irreversible potentialities.
The research demonstrates how radical uncertainty—distinct from calculable risk—necessitates reconfiguring traditional knowledge-action relationships. Under conditions where probabilistic frameworks fail due to fundamental indeterminacy, we require not merely improved predictive models but alternative ontological commitments that recognize the limits of anticipatory knowledge.
This is a normative engagement with complexity and indeterminacy where prioritization is oriented towards environmental protection. At the same time, it avoids building an ontology of relations that imposes human sentiment on other biotic and abiotic entities—including ideas of “kinship”.

CONTACT

Elena Cirkovic © Displaced Placemaking with Egrets 2026

Education

Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Lapland, PhD Candiate

Osgoode Hall Law School, PhD
University of Toronto, Hon.BA,MA

University of British Columbia, Landscape Architecture Masters Programme
(2 years)

Publications

The Law of Complex Earth and Outer Space Systems: The Cosmolegal Proposal (Routledge 2025) doi:10.4324/9781003289449. Shortlisted for the Canadian Law and Society Association Wesley Pue Book Prize.

'How to Talk to Animals, or (Not to) Pet Them: "If Friend Shaped Why Not Friend?"' in Yoriko Otomo (ed), Routledge Handbook on Law and Animals (Routledge forthcoming).

and Danielle R Wood, 'Integrating planetary boundaries into sustainable space exploration: An earth-outer space system design framework' (2025) 228 Acta Astronautica 1088-1098, doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.12.037.

and Danielle R Wood, 'Complex Earth-outer space systems and new spacetime for international law' (2025) 21(2) International Journal of Law in Context 300-313, doi:10.1017/S1744552325100086.

and Vitali Braun, 'EU Space Law and Earth's Boundaries: Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment and Corporate Due Diligence' (2025) Global Policy, advance online publication, doi:10.1111/1758-5899.70020

Displaced Placemaking, Bioart and Beyond-Human Communication' (2025) 6(1) Anthropocenes - Human, Inhuman, Posthuman 1-12, doi:10.16997/ahip.1667.

'Formless Infinite: Law beyond the Anthropocene and the Earth System' in Vincent Chapaux, Frédéric Mégret and Usha Natarajan (eds), The Routledge Handbook of International Law and Anthropocentrism (Routledge 2023) 238-251, doi:10.4324/9781003201120-21.

'After the Law' in Nicole Rogers and Michelle Maloney (eds), The Anthropocene Judgments Project (Routledge 2023) 259-272, doi:10.4324/9781003389569-21.

'The cosmolegal approach to human activities in outer space' in Charles S Cockell (ed), The Institutions of Extraterrestrial Liberty (Oxford University Press 2023) 71-84, doi:10.1093/oso/9780192897985.003.0007.

'International law beyond the Earth system: Orbital debris and interplanetary pollution' (2022) 13(2) Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 324-348, doi:10.4337/jhre.2022.02.01.

'Hyperbole: Outer Space' in Peter Goodrich, Daniela Gandorfer and Cecilia Gebruers (eds), Research Handbook on Law and Literature (Edward Elgar 2022) 296-313, doi:10.4337/9781839102264.00024.

'The Next Generation of International Law: Space, Ice, and the Cosmolegal Proposal' (2021) 22(2) German Law Journal 147-167, doi:10.1017/glj.2021.4.

'The Earth system, the orbit, and international law' in Timothy Cadman, Margot Hurlbert and Andrea C Simonelli (eds), Earth System Law: Standing on the Precipice of the Anthropocene (Routledge 2021) 159-174, doi:10.4324/9781003198437-11.

'Law Beyond the Human in the Arctic and Outer Space' (2020) 8 Current Developments in Arctic Law 16-19.

'Incomplete World Order: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2249 (2015) and the Use of Force in International Law' (2016) 7(2) Comparative Law Review 1-27.

'Architecture of Sovereignty: Bosnian Constitutional Crisis, the Sarajevo Town Hall, and the Mêlée' (2016) 27(1) Law and Critique 23-44, doi:10.1007/s10978-015-9169-5.

Last Updated 08.08.26

Earth, Space and Place: Reimagining Law and Place in the Earth-Space Complex Systems by Makery,la rédaction

Research Catalogue

SOLU/Bioart Society Helsinki

Displaced placemaking draws from complexity theory, environmental humanities, and critical bioart practices to offer methods that are both materially accessible and conceptually responsive to structural exclusions. Through tools such as scalar analysis, temporal recalibration and boundary identification, the approach situates localised environmental experience within broader planetary systems without assuming continuity, origin or territorial fixity. The study contributes to scholarship on migration and environmental ethics by articulating practices of attention, co-creation and situated accountability, while interrogating the boundaries of ecological knowledge production across disciplines and scales.

Elena Cirkovic © Uncertain Trajectories, 2025

1. Ongoing Project

Uncertain Trajectories, Presented at Kunsthaus Graz, University of Graz, 08.11.2025
Water and More. Artistic and Epistemic Practices.

Elena Cirkovic ©

2. Project: Displaced Placemaking

Untitled,
Watercolour and Ink on Paper
2022

Displaced Placemaking, Bioart and Beyond-Human Communication' (2025) 6(1) Anthropocenes - Human, Inhuman, Posthuman 1-12, doi:10.16997/ahip.1667.

3.Ongoing Project: Spheres of Light

Biosphere, Pencil and Ink, 2026

4. Project: Displaced Placemaking

Untitled, Pencil on paper, layered photographs and foraged plants, Elena Cirkovic 2024.

Displaced Placemaking, Bioart and Beyond-Human Communication' (2025) 6(1) Anthropocenes - Human, Inhuman, Posthuman 1-12, doi:10.16997/ahip.1667.