Dear Spectrites,
Pencil your calendar for this event that is taking place 9 –
11 September in Ljubljana, organised by the Kapelica Gallery
part of the ‘Trust Me, I’m an Artist’ project
(http://olats.org/trustme/trustme.php).
ŠPELA PETRIČ: ‘Confronting Vegetal Otherness: Skotopoiesis’
Skotopoiesis is the first performance from the series
attempting plant-human intercognition. In this durational
piece the artist and germinating cress face each other,
illuminated by a light projection. The biosemiosis occurs
through the obstruction of light; the artist’s shadow
contributes to the etiolation of the cress (yellowing,
lengthening), while the time she stands arrested to achieve
this effect results in the shrinkage of the artist, making
visible the effort of this cross-species encounter.
The performance will be followed by a discussion with ethics
committee.
Schedule:
Performance: 9 – 11 Sep, 2015, 11am-9pm, last day till 4pm
Panel discussion: 11 Sep, 2015, 6-8pm
Location:
Kapelica Gallery
Kersnikova 4
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Link: http://www.kapelica.org/index_en.html#event=1012
The event is produced by Kapelica Gallery and supported by
funding from Creative Europe, Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana.
The project ‘Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Developing ethical
frameworks for artists, cultural institutions and audiences
engaged in the challenges of creating and experiencing new
art forms in biotechnology and biomedicine in Europe’ is led
by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with ethicist
Professor Bobbie Farsides. The project is run by Waag
Society in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex Medical
School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery /
Kersnikova, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo Olats.
******************
Confronting Vegetal Otherness – An Inquiry into Phutonic
Principles with an Emphasis on Plant/Human Intercognition,
ŠPELA PETRIČ
Plants have undergone an evolutionary history resulting in
organizational principles radically different from those of
humans. When looking towards their embodiment, we stare at
aliens living amongst us - vegetal beings we have recently
come to scientifically understand as complex, continuous
multi-species communities operating at time-scales and
articulations not perceptible to the innate human sensorial
apparatus.
The introduction of artistic and scientific interfaces which
mediate plant-time, their internal molecular processes and
physiological responses, have been employed as the aperture
through which the commonplace plant is given a
human-friendly articulation. However, the crutch of
interfaces, informing as they may be, somewhat misplace the
true challenge of post-anthropocentrism, which would not
only bring the plant into proximity of the human, but also
recognize the distinct properties of each organismal type as
well as their relational context in terrestrial ecologies.
Although there has been a recent surge of
post-anthropocentric conceptions of plant life (Hall,
Marder, Calvo etc), Western cosmology struggles to find a
pragmatic formula, which would aid in incorporating new
knowledge and awareness into our experience, precluding a
change in the ethical perspective on the non-human Other,
wherein plants represent a particular challenge since they
are traditionally ascribed with lacking interiority,
autonomy, essence and individuality and hence fall through
the sieve of contemporary ethical discourses.
As technological mediation becomes naturalized, the subjects
with which the human interacts become discernable,
quantifiable, legible, but alas refrained to the particular
milieu of the interface at hand. By overcoming our lack of
perceptual capacity, these technological hallucinations
inspire awe and fascination during a particular mediated
contact, but are hardly transferable and translatable to
plant life in general.
With the innumerable animal, fungal and bacterial organisms
at the reach of a leaf, a root or a flower, plants have
sought partners and curtailed enemies throughout the natural
world, (r)evolving around the human as mundanely as the
human approaches them – through utility on one hand and
damage control on the other.
My goal during the artistic research into phutonic
principles is to explore the possible cross-section of
existing biosemiotic processes found in humans and plants,
at various levels of organization, challenging the prospect
of intercognition – a process during which the plant and the
human exchange physico-chemical signals and hence perturb
each other’s state. Attention is brought to the materiality
of the relation, which results in a perceptible
manifestation, a change that can be observed in both
partners of the exchange.
The process itself - artificial, novel, and striving towards
authenticity within the perceptual milieu - exerts immense
strain on both vegetal and human entities undergoing the
experiment. The confrontation of radically diverse living
principles is an attempt of the human to humbly put her
animality aside and surrender to the plant, transgressing
the need for equivalence to achieve equality – an equality
stemming from respect in the face of the subjects’
(in)comparability with the Other.
The result of Confronting Vegetal Otherness is not to be
read as a pursuit of functional hybridity, but rather a
conceptual enslavement of particular capacities of plants
and humans with the purpose of recognizing the limits of
compatibility, empathy and post-anthropocentrism. Through
this liminal practice the artist hopes to test the
capability of herself as a human to address and express her
frustrating desire to understand plants on their terms. The
transient, potentially unsuccessful, misunderstood
intercognition and its artifacts make the body of the
ephemeral artwork requiring ethical justification, calling
for a discursive response on the topic of “how to know the
Other when empathy fails?”.
Skotopoiesis is the first performance from the series
attempting plant-human intercognition. In this durational
piece the artist and germinating cress face each,
illuminated by a light projection. The biosemiotic process
occurs through the obstruction of the light – the artist
throws a shadow onto the cress for 10 hours a day, which
results in the etiolation of the plants. The effect is
mediated by phytochromes, one of the plants’
non-photosynthetic light sensors. The diminished light
intensity stimulates the production of auxin, a plant
hormone that acidifies the cell wall, facilitating its
elongation to avoid shade and grow into the light. The stems
of the cress become long and pale, the leaves are sparser,
all in an effort of the plant to grow from the shadow. As
the cress elongates, the vegetalized artist shrinks –
standing still for a prolonged amount of time decreases body
height throughout the day due to fluid loss from the
intervertebral disk. Thus the evidence of intercognition is
observed through the physical changes of the plant and human
partner.
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