Collaborators: Wietske Maas (artist), Alex Martinis Roe (artist), Patricia Reed (artist-writer), Thilo Wiertz (social scientist)
Participants in this workshop will explore a practical philosophy of natureculture by looking at an “ecology without nature”, to borrow the language of philosopher Timothy Morton. We will use breathing techniques, trigger olfaction and taste, and combine bodily practice with theoretical reflections to pose the question: How does our embodiment determine our perception of the world?
If you had never seen a tree, and you then flew over a forest, you would understand it as a green patch. Only from the ground can you see the shape and three-dimensionality of the tree. Looking at your body at a magnified magnitude, instead of your selfie, you would see symbiotic clusters of microorganisms. Can we use the wisdom of our bodily experience as an intuitive tool to draw parallels to a planetary scale?
Borrowing from New Materialism, which attempts to disentangle itself from the Cartesian dualism of body and mind, we will explore theoretical reflection via bodily practice. We will shift attention between subjectivity and the abyssal quality of the “Hyperobject”, that in Timothy Morton’s terms characterise vast entities such as global warming. We will work with texts from thinkers such as Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, and Claire Colebrook. Participants will be part of an attempt to query science and embody fiction.
