[spectre] CFP: Vegetal Mediations: Plant Agency in Contemporary Art and Environmental Humanities (Budapest, 5-6 May 2017)
Maja & Reuben Fowkes
fowkes at translocal.org
Mon Jan 23 10:29:54 CET 2017
CALL FOR PAPERS
Vegetal Mediations: Plant Agency in Contemporary Art and Environmental
Humanities
Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative
Central European University Budapest, 5-6 May 2017
Deadline: 24 February 2017
Plants have always played powerful roles in social and ecological
systems. Rather than mere passive bystanders to history, plants act as
agents, mediating relations both among people and between people and
their environments, knowledge, markets, and politics, as well as serving
as mediators in non-human spheres. Recent findings by biologists have
challenged prevalent assumptions that reduce them to ‘photosynthesising
green machines’ (Marder) and revealed the complex social life of plants
in their ability to act on their environment by controlling the
microbiota on their roots, send biochemical messages to insects,
recognise kin and share information about droughts and other threats.
The deteriorating living conditions facing plants as a result of
accelerating anthropogenic changes to the Earth System, from the effects
of climate change to genetic modification, have also engendered
responses and reflections from artists, writers and theorists that
consider vegetal non-cognitive thought and non-representational memory,
plant ethics and rights, and the relationship of humans and plants in
the Anthropocene. Exploring the various social, ecological, and
political mediations of plants can allow us to explore deeper
understandings of the intersection of nature and culture, human and
non-human, and matter and thought.
This conference seeks to open an interdisciplinary discussion of the
manifold role of plants as mediators, both as agents and enablers of
intra-human interactions and in terms of non-human communication and
exchange. Topics to be addressed include: is it possible to think beyond
an anthropocentric concern with the instrumental value of plants for
nourishing our bodies, making the air breathable and stimulating our
senses? What can we learn from the social life of the vegetal world that
might guide our species in the search for viable solutions to ecological
crisis? Do plants offer a model for coexistence and planetary being with
relevance for human society, politics and economics? How might an
engagement with plant agency affirm non-heteronormative ways of living
and relating beyond the animal-centric perspective, in correspondence
with feminist and queer critiques of the modern western notion of
subjectivity? What can be learned from indigenous and ancient traditions
about plants as co-members of the natural world? What can intellectual
and sensorial encounters with vegetation reveal about its specific
relation to temporality and what particular insights does contemporary
artistic practice offer in the conceptualisation of plant agency?
We invite proposals for papers and artistic presentations on the various
ways in which plants mediate social and ecological relationships. Please
send a 200 word abstract and short CV by 24 February 2017 to the
organisers at eah at ceu.edu Accepted participants will be notified by
mid-March.
This conference is organised by the Environmental Arts and Humanities
Initiative at Central European University in collaboration with
Translocal Institute. The Environmental arts and Humanities Initiative
aims to create a common platform for academic researchers, artists, and
ecological activists creatively negotiating planetary issues at the
intersection between scientific and humanities-based approaches to the
environment. For more information see: www.ceu.edu/eah
--
Drs Maja & Reuben Fowkes
Translocal Institute
Dembinszky utca 10 II 33
Budapest 1071
+36 1 793 1840
http://www.translocal.org <http://www.translocal.org/>
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