Life in our times entails an apparent dissolution of the proper separation of things; nature - culture, human - nonhuman, life - nonlife, existing - non existing. What emerges in this crisis of the natural is an uncanny eeriness; sunbathing reminds us of global warming, breathing city air of pollution, drinking water of microplastics and toxins. Unseen anthropogenic entities are haunting our experience. The classical image of the unseen, uncanny haunter are the ghosts, ghouls, spirits, and specters.
This is a unique opportunity to bridge the centre and the periphery via interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers at JRC, to consider question such as:
COMPOS[T]ING1 involves an exploration of building materials, with an emphasis on local, indigenous, and undervalued knowledge, and re-usability and adjustability as elements of adapting to our changing conditions. The project is an attempt to challenge some of the assumptions underlying the contemporary production of our habitations from a material and social/cultural perspective and to rethink the construction industry in the belief that there are better alternatives.
How to imagine a politics of the non-human? If politics is a human practice, then the question shifts to how we, as humans, can escape the narrow definition of the human self in the practice of policy making. As discussed in the scientific background of the proposal, there are methods to integrate values and identities into policy making. I want to explore these methods scientifically and performatively for non-human values and identities.
Invisible Seeds will seek to commission a new series of embroidered and painted textiles by the Shipibo-Konibo community of artists. The images depicted on these textiles will focus on the complex systems of planting, harvesting, and treating agricultural products that sustain life in the Amazon. With the pieces obtained by this commission, a unique spatial installation will be created.