Lehrveranstaltung: Kollaboratives und disloziertes Arbeiten - Patricia Reis
Studienrichtung: Digitale Kunst
Autorin: Karina Fernandez
E-mail: kari.fernandez@outlook.com
Mobilnummer: +436802005026
Matrikelnummer: s1074099
not Homo, not anthropos; we are compost, not posthuman […] To renew the biodiverse powers of terra is the sympoietic work and play of the Chthulucene. Specifically, unlike either the Anthropocene or the Capitalocene, the Chthulucene is made up of ongoing multispecies stories and practices of becoming-with in times that remain at stake, in precarious times, in which the world is not finished and the sky has not fallen —yet. We are at stake to each other. Unlike the dominant dramas of Anthropocene and Capitalocene discourse, human beings are not the only important actors in the Chthulucene, with all other beings able simply to react. The order is reknitted: human beings are with and of the earth, and the biotic and abiotic powers of this earth are the main story.”
- Donna Haraway, Staying with the trouble, page 51.
Oneof the best surprises I got in September 2022 at our University of Applied Arts, Vienna, was getting introduced to the newest work of Donna Haraway, “Staying with Trouble - Making kin in the Chthulucene,” happening in two lectures at a time, one of them being this one ( thanks Patricia! )
Understanding the myriad concepts and novel terms that Haraway throws at me as a lector in any given paragraph could not be more challenging. What I find daunting about her scripts was the fact that each new term she coins is multi-layered, shooting in many directions at the same time, pregnant with multiple meanings that would reveal themselves depending on the given context. Moreover, these new terms sound cool too!
Eventually , I found one of the concepts, “Children of Compost,” particularly haunting; while going deeper into it and encouraged by the input that this course was “pouring” into my “mind&soul,” a new idea sprout up, or better said, it came humming to me after a trip to the Mexican jungle and out of this “collective compost” which was our class, aligned with the proposed category of “repairing project”.
Humus: a mixture of compounds and complex biological chemicals of plant, animal, and microbial origin that has many functions and benefits in soil:
✤ improvement of soil structure
✤ water retention
✤ absorption and retention of pollutants
✤ soil biodiversity
✤ buffering capacity
✤ cycling and storage of plant nutrients increase of soil
app
Humify app is a tool to promote and provide humidity + humification in places on our planet where there is little or none. It aims to encourage humification and prevent dehydration through a digital interface based on the Hopi legend of the creation of the hummingbird. The App name “humify” stands for:
humus (fertile soil)
+ hummingbird (jungle&buzz)
+ humidity (water)
= Life.
How it’s done
✤ A digital platform on the web to gather the latest data on water bodies and ecosystems on planet earth with an algorithm to combine all that data and to decide once a year on a list of places on Earth which need to be “humified.”
humify/
verb
To convert (plant remains) into humus
Origin: Latin humus = soil
✤ An application where people, organisations and institutions connect and choose, once a year, one village, one city and one region to “humify,” to summon forces and gather the necessary resources, beginning with the “HUMThePlanet” festival.
These two cultures have a hummingbird creation myth about a young brother and sister who are starving because drought and famine have come to the land.
❖ Their parents have left to find food, so the boy carves a piece of wood into a small bird to entertain his sister.
✴ When the girl tosses the carving into the air, the bird comes to life, turning into a hummingbird.
❖ The small bird, then flies to the God of Fertility and begs for rain, the god obliges the request, which helps the crops to grow again.
Not only deserted regions are dehydrated; a city, village or region can also be lacking of “humidity/humification” if it:
✤ Doesn’t have green corridors.
✤ Doesn’t have enough sanitary infrastructure.
✤ Is plastered by concrete and asphalt.
✤ Has not easy access to nearby water bodies.
✤ The nearby water bodies are polluted.
✤ …
To humify, within the frame of this project, is also understood as an attitude toward our planet and its inhabitants that embodies some of the practices that makes us sentient beings1:
in Tibetan Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, all beings (including plant life and even inanimate objects or entities
considered "spiritual" or "metaphysical" by conventional Western thought) are or may be considered sentient beings.[5]
• Caring
• Sharing
• Creating
• Learning
• Making
• Thinking
• Storytelling
• Laughing
• Dancing
• Playing
• You name it
This project proposal is open to:
✤ ramifications
✤ gamifications
✤ interactive installations
✤ other developments
✤ all the people of good will who would merrily&happily love to work in it and play with it.
be my guest, the project is yours!
(Let’s do magic)
