Disruptive Encounters. Concepts of Care and Contamination out of Control
Call for Paper -- Ecozon@ Autumn 2024
Theme: DISRUPTIVE ENCOUNTERS. CONCEPTS OF CARE AND CONTAMINATION OUT OF CONTROL
“For living things, species identities are a place to begin,
but they are not enough: ways of being
are emergent effects of encounters”
(Anna Tsing)
- Science-Art-Worldings: Donna Haraway (2016) understands them as models for multispecies thinking which produce a ‘critical zone’ (Haraway 2016) in which humans and nonhumans are co-present. We are inviting contributions which explore such worldings as sites where arts and sciences “are part of the emergence of narratives about the ways in which we live in the world” (Davis 2016: 65). This includes projects such as the Long-term ecological research programme at H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon (cf. Brodie et al., 2016) and re-readings such as Cal Flynn’s Islands of Abandonment (2021).
- Forced Nurture: Tsing’s empowering concept of contamination as well as Haraway’s concept of sympoiesis (Haraway 2016: 58) offer perspectives on encounters from within that turn scary and often marginalized relationships into productive (if messy) collaborations. In order to not romanticize the unwanted and often disorderly contact within bodies and environments, toxicity, parasitism and symbioses can be valued and evaluated under the umbrella of involuntary care or forced nature. Science fictional encounters such as those in Jeff Vandermeers Southern Reach trilogy or the fungal contaminations in Aliya Whiteley’s The Beauty (2018).
- Gentle Encounters: Resisting the logic of dominance that so often overshadows encounters, gentle encounters re-imagine and practice human-nonhuman contact as “matters of care” (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017). While alienation translates humans and nonhumans into resources (Tsing 2015: 133), resistance to this form of ‘disentanglement’ comes from indigenous and marginalized voices. Where, e.g., Robin Wall Kimmerer talks of ‘gift economies’ in which “cultures of gratitude” rather than private property relations shape encounters (Wall Kimmerer 2013: 187), female hunters in Norway attempt to express what Tim Ingold frames as an appreciation of the “animal kind” (see Ingold 2011: 71) through hunting practices. Counterintuitive at first, both harvesting and killing thus become sites of gentle encounters.
We invite contributions in English, German, and French. Essays for the research article section should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words long (including abstract, keywords, and bibliography) and will be submitted for peer review through Ecozon@. Completed manuscripts are due January 15, 2024 via the Ecozon@ website, which also provides a style guide. Please don’t hesitate to contact the editors (solvejg.nitzke@tu-dresden.de , Kirsten.juedt@tu-dresden.de, svenja.engelmann-kewitz@tu-dresden.de ) should you have any questions. We particularly welcome proposal abstracts sent directly to the editors by September 2023.
References:
Brodie, Nathaniel, Goodrich, Charles, and Frederick J. Swanson (Eds.): Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest. Seattle: University of Washington Press 2016.
Davis, Heather: „Art in the Anthropocene“. In: Rosi Braidotti, Maria Hlavajova (Hg.): Posthuman Glossary. London Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic 2018 (= Theory), S. 63–65.
Diederichsen, Diedrich, Anselm Franke (ed.) The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013.
Haraway, Donna J.: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham (NC): Duke University Press 2016.
Ingold, Tim: The Perception of the Environment. Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge 2011 [2000].
Lowenhaupt Tsing, Anna. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2015.
Morgan, Sally, Tjalaminu, Mia, und Blaze Kwaymullina. Heartsick for Country: Stories of Love, Spirit and Creation. Sydney: Read How You Want/Accessible, 2008.