Workshops
26 – 27 April 2023
26 April 2023 Auditorium D 1.02, and Studio Cinema D 0.01, Tower Building, HGK Basel FHNW
27 April 2023 seminar room, HeK House of Electronic Arts, Basel
Organized by the team of the SNSF research project Plants_Intelligence. Learning like a Plant: Yvonne Volkart (principal investigator), Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch, and Rasa Smite
Current research proves what ancient practices already knew: plants are more complex beings than previously assumed. They are wide open to the world, sense it, respond to it, change it, communicate, and cooperate with many actors; they make decisions, solve problems, play with others. In short, they have agency and display forms of intelligence that are neither only human, nor machine based, but ancient and not always well-known. What does this mean for botanists, organic breeders, (indigenous) farmers, philosophers, media theorists, and artists? How can the different disciplines learn from each other? And what can we gain, in terms of eco aesthetic and (agro)political goals?
With this first interdisciplinary partner workshop, we bring together local and international practitioners and researchers exploring the many ways plants are and act in the world. The goal of this gathering is to present the overall project to the partners and the public, to work on the definitions of and alternatives to the debatable term “plant intelligence,” and to elaborate ways of cooperation and participation.
We try to narrow the following questions: How do I define “plant intelligence” and what are my references? Is the term relevant to me, or not? What thinking and coining do I prefer if I think about the agency of plants? What are my approaches and relations to plants and their way of being in the world? What are my methods and techniques? Do I understand plants as subjects, and if so, what does this mean?
Contact
-
Dr. Yvonne Volkart
- Telephone
- +41 61 228 40 77 (central office)
- eXZvbm5lLnZvbGthcnRAZmhudy5jaA==
- Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel FHNW
Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN)
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach
CH-4002 Basel