Rooting into the Planthroposcene: Fomenting Plant/People Conspiracies to Grow Livable Worlds
Natasha Myers
Taste of experience of becoming plant, initiation
- little experiment to detune & reattune senses to plant sensitivities
- title
- tour through field search in urban park in Toronto
1. Kria for cultivating your inner plant / guided meditation
Donna Haraway: your body does not end at the skin, your contours are not constrained by physical appearance
what you think your body looks like, is fluid and changeable, bodily tissues can imagine wildly
imagination is not just in the head
simultaneously visual and kinetic, it can be felt
image help to excite our senses
muscles, tissues can be transformed through words
words can activate new kinds of feelings
by imagining otherwise and telling new stories, you can access different worlds
see without eyes, smell with different kinds of nose, taste with different kinds of tongues
can be with others, humans – more than humans – machines
to bring otherwise imperceptible phenomena bring into view
where order of things disappears, multispecies practise (yoga)
approach tree pose: opportunity to experience morphisms to allow it to move in different directions
if you want to awaken latent plant in you, you have to follow the plants, cultivate interests in what they care aboutTravis Bedel, 2014
million of root tips of 1 cell with enormous power to go wherever they want, using chemicals to pass obstacles
first dancer, later molecular biologist, now anthropologist
long term project to learn about plants
Anthropocene
500 years of colonialism
buitl on slavery and possession
the anthropos-not-seen: those whose lives and lands continue to be spent by anti/colonial powers
get the hell out of here, we are not alone!
Our most crucial allies are the plants, make lives and worlds livable and breathable for the rest of us
they hold sky up and earth down
move massive amount of water and air, elemental rearrangers
we are only because they are, we are of the plants
Plantropos in plantroposcene
inseparable human and plant
not in distant future after apocopolyps
grounded in wisdom of ancient solidarity projects that plants cultivate with their people
invitation to root ourselve in way of doing live that will break antropocene logic
Timothy Choy (?) ally people in a conspiracy of breathers, to grow a breathable world
not only how to collaborate, but to conspire together, breathe together and co-construct world
decolonial project that recognises plantropos-not-seen
demands protocols/practises to enter vegetalised worlds, to meet them
do ecology otherwise: research ‘Becoming sensor (?)’
between art, ecology, antropology: taking ecology off the grid, developing techniques that document thickness of relations taking shape in space nature-culture around us
Toronto High Park
West of the City, North of shores of Lake Ontario
park of leasure and pleasure
Large amount of Oak savannas: oak trees, wild flowers, grasses
not only dependent on natural forces: needs fire to promote regeneration of oaks
depend on people who know how to deal with fire
were cared for by indigenous people since thousands of years
Active center of trade for millions of yearso
attracted deer, bears, tabacco for ceremony
Lands were taken in 1787 for meager sum, can be considered as ‘stolen land’
164 pounds, as a park for the city
only 1% of oak savannas have survived
removal of indiginous people from their lands, has devastating impact on communities around Canada
How this colonial violence impacts well being of land?
What does a land loose when it is dispossessed from its people?
Taking people out of oak savanna: it will cease to be oak savanna, maples and other trees will come in, density of trees
? late 17th century: deep forest found, it is this image that is taken as ‘ideal’ for forest reservation, but is it really that?
Now: control of invasive plants, trying to remove the violence of colonial plants, plants news seeds of oaks of oak savanna
when you cordon off a land for leasure and pleasure, it is no longer site for ceremony
still no respect for indigenous people
they are considered to be bits of live that can be managed
consider animism as primitive continues colonial projects
we have that break that tendency, just to begin decolonial project
forget everything we thought we knew about non-human life
reproduction and fitness are not only value for life
find new ways to tell stories about bodies and land
? shows new images
documenting nature culture that is 10000 years in the making
decolonial queer feminist ecologies
signs for ‘monitoring lots’ where they have done ecological restauration and monitor
sites where you need to be careful
what modes of attention do you need in order to pay attention to this land?
Together with Ayelen Liberona
plants and trees are incredibly sensitive, they remember their histories
kinesthetic attunements
- listening
- tune into bodies of all creatures around us
protocols are not intended to recolonise the land
refuse colonial norms in order to experience other sensitivenesses
how can we expand that discursive space
sciences cannot have the only and final say
allying ourselves with indigenous activists
kinesthetic images
render the world otherwise
hack into our cameras to disrupt logics
keep our moving bodies in the frame
participate in the vibration, document the encounter
register ephemeral happenings, moment of active participation
‘find freedom with the camera and its presettings’ :-)
let their slow mouvements rule our bodies
intra-animate with the trees
trees as gestural and expressive dancers
time-images
animate imperceptible and otherwise inimaginable worlds
is one form of plant-people conspiracy
plants need us to demonstrate, find more people to do so
they have ‘abducted’ me
QUESTIONS
- experience with ayawasca: my connection with plants is too strong to work with ayawasca, I might not come down, I do work with plants as medicine
how do we learn to ask permission to work with trees, we have to connect with spiritual ground
- what if this is optated to make superhuman: nothing is within our control, nothing is available to contain and constrain, subtelty of this works only requires willingness to open yourself to other worlds, requires a deep modesty, very little room for hubris
how do we infect others with that atttude? Still open question
- distinction between the sensorial and the grid
‘ungriddable’
is not an opposition, most concerned with colonial sensuous grid, we are trained to see the world through that grid, the quantitative, it is very hard to unlearn
five senses have nothing to do with this
has to do with all the sensorium, intensely political, shaping what we can see and not see
requires big amount of work, disoirentation, trying out and slowly reworking our intuition, perception
ungriddable ecology: does not pay a legence to the grid, does not have synoptic view as a military map, ex rolling down hills, …
trying to generate data forms that are not reducible
- First colonisation: measuring with data
decolonize domination of measurement
ex measure light intensity of light coming down to forest floor
we are playing/dancing with light, in order to document the quality of light – we return to the same place 3 times a day
we’re dancing with and being danced by the land
- do you have particular companion species amongst the plants that held your hand and allowed you to enter this world
comfry, in the garden, sitting and meditating with plants, is first plant that showed me how to have plants grow through your tissues
Goethe, Mouvement of plants (?)
3 trees that demand that I work through them, I greet them before I start working
- land where trace of colonisation is erased
it also erases stories about deported people in this place
when white settlers come to land and decide who should live and die, rip out all colonial plants
but who are we to decide who can live here, without asking what the plant is doing here
ex poison ivy tells me ‘I’m healing the land’
I’m not the one do decide, listen to them
indigenous people should take over care of the park, practise ceremonies again and let them decide
we need to ask what matters to the land
- where are the others (insects, non-humans)
plants draw everybody else in!
They are center of the world for everybody!
You cannot think of it without mycelium, insects, planes that fly by… intimate relations they have with others, always thinking in relation
breaks our assumptions about individuality
always with others!
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De parasito a simbiente (De parasite à symbiote)
Gilberto Esparza
De parasito a simbiente (De parasite à symbiote)
Gilberto Esparza
artist, overview of 10 years
comment la vie interagit avec son entourage, contexte dans lequel humain n’est qu’une partie
artiste plasticien, Mexico
- impact de la technologie
aller visiter les endroits ou on accumule les déchets électroniques
rammassé ces matériaux pour construire de nouvelles espèces de vies artificielles
‘parasites urbains’ construits à partir des déchets, déchets retourne en ville pour y habiter
ils vivent dans des endroits de déchets en ville de Mexico
génèrent imaginaires pour des gens qui passent
ex utilise lumière de lanterne pour générer son, électricité du poteau pour bouger
espèces commencaient à vivre sur les cables de la ville
ex sensor dans la pointe qui permet de comprendre s’il y a un objet qui bouge près de lui, il peut s’échapper, on a du faire la chasse pour l’enlever du cable
ex. diablito, petit diable, celui qui prend de l’électricté illégalement
il enregistre des sons et rediffuse, bouge quand personne ne regarde
- plantes nomades
autres types de déchets de la ville
problème de l’eau au Mexique
seulement 8% de l’eau domestique et industrielle qi est purifié
est un reflet s’un système politique corrompue
de nouvels espèces qui habitent dans ces lieux
hybride entre robot, plantes, bactéries qui pourrait survivre dans contexte contaminé
besoin de collaborer avec chercheurs
participation d’ingénieurs
analse de l’eau des rivières pour comprendre quel type de vie est encore là
comprendre ce qui est réellement en train de se passer dans l’eau: rivière pas morte, mais pleine de vie, mais déséquilibrée
les bactéries autochtones de la rivière commencent à proliférer, créent un milieu anaerobique dans l’eau, causent collapse dans l’eau et poissons meurent en temps d’une journée
ils sont comme système immunitaire de la rivière
quantité de la pollution est plus élevé que la rivière n’arrive pas à suivre, en permanente état de défense/nettoyage
contamination indrustrielle: produits chimiques tellement fortes que cela empêche bactéries de se développer
travail avec biologistes, en SP/Mex, centres de recherche
cellule microbiale combustible, deux électrodes à l’intérieur
captent électrones générés par bactérie quand elle sont en train de manger déchets
recherche de créer des cellules avec matériaux plus communs (parce qu’en général fait avec matériaux très chers)
robots avec capteurs d’humidité/ultrasonores/compas
quand elle trouve de l’eau, elle prend de l’eau et remplit cellules microbiennes
elle va vers lieu sur et dort pendant 15 jours pour faire fabriquer l’énergie par les bactéries
l’eau est nettoyé et amené aux plantes qui vivent sur le robot
eau plus propre: insectes arrivent, et aussi moustiques = signal qu’il commence à s’intégrer dans l’écosystème
ils l’ont libére pendant 1 mois dans la zone de la rivière, interaction avec la communauté
ouvre la discussion sur rivière qui a plus de 40 ans de pollution
modifier les rapports à la rivière
- Plantes autophotosyntetiques
un autre espèce similaire à plante nomade, mais statique
ressemble plus à arbre
toute énergie investie pour maintenir écosystème en équilibre
source d’énergie: l’eau contaminé
rivière qui passe par la ville avec bcp de matière organique (beuh)
il recollecte de l’eau de différents points de la ville, met échantillons dans la ‘plante’
cet écosystème pourrait être modèle d’une ville
système transporte l’eau à chacune de ses cellules, eau biogradé par les bactéries, passe par filtres mécaniques, eau propre va vers noyau ou grandit écosystème, là il y a des plantes, crustacés, poissons qui vivent
énergie généré par bactéries est utilisé pour générer de la lumière
réalisé dans plusieurs endroits: intéressant de regarder les rapports à l'eau de chaque ville
analyse de l’eau + combine d’énergie est produite enf onction des chimiques dans l’eau
ont créé un centre de monitoring
on voit type de voltage que génère chaque zone d’eau + carte de référence avec noms/gps + traduction de l’activité au son
? regardent ce qui arrive à la communauté bactérienne:
connectées en séries, énergie passe de l’une à l’autre, cause électrolyse
comment la communauté évolue
dernière version: instrument portable
il veut prendre échantillons des rivières de toute la république mexicaine, pour sonoriser chacune des rivières et ainsi pouvoir parler de cette problématique
technologie analogique, intérêt pour la réponse immédiate de ce qu’ils reçoivent des capteurs
QUESTIONS
- qu'est-ce qui est le vivant, est-ce qu'il y a limite entre vivant/non-vivant?
Les limites deviennent toujours plus diffuses
- installations dans la ville: autorisé?
Invitation dans un musée, on fait une gestion, comme protocole
dans les vidéos: illégal