[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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