Planetary Agency & Politics Workshop: Soil Translations | October 24, 2025
Planetary Agency and Politics Fellow, Sophie von Redecker’s residence culminated in the one-day workshop Soil Translations: How to Read Soil in the So-Called Anthropocene on 24 October 2025 at the JLU teaching and research unit at Gladbacherhof. The workshop recognized soil as vibrant, alive, and communicative - an active participant in shaping planetary life. Bringing together artists, gardeners, farmers, soil scientists, and humanities scholars, it unfolded through a panel discussion and a guided farm tour that invited participants to explore how humans might attune themselves to soil’s agency and learn to translate its text(ure) in times of ecological transformation.
The panel, "Soil Translations: Fertile Ground for Planetary Agency and Politics" opened with von Redecker, who outlined the conceptual and political framework of the workshop. Drawing from feminist science theory and more-than-human perspectives, she proposed that planetary politics should begin by recognizing soil as a communicative agent rather than a passive resource. Reflecting on her research with farmers and gardeners, she discussed how agricultural practices involve acts of “reading” and responding to soil, forming relations of care and interdependence. Citing philosopher Jane Bennett, von Redecker encouraged participants to imagine a broader democracy that includes nonhuman entities such as soil, worms, and bacteria, and to consider what it means to live in mutual exchange with these quiet sustainers of life.
Following von Redecker, Brad Harmon (Literature Scholar and Translator, Johns Hopkins University) followed with a literary reflection on translation as both a linguistic and material practice. Drawing on Werner Hamacher and Esther Kinsky, he described translation as a creative act that shapes meaning rather than merely transferring it. Through poetic passages from Kinsky’s Schiefern / Slates, Harmon explored how language, memory, and landscape intertwine, showing how even geological formations bear traces of touch and transformation. He suggested that translating soil may also mean attending to the subtle languages of matter, gesture, and absence that compose the deep-time narratives of the Earth.
Building on this idea of translation beyond language, Lisa Krall (Gender Studies Scholar, University of Cologne) discussed soil translations through the feminist materialist concepts of "response-ability" and composting. She described response-ability as the shared capacity of humans and nonhumans - soils included - to respond and affect one another. Drawing on her visit to a small stone museum in Eifel and her collaborative work with the Rheinische Sektion der Kompostistischen Internationale, Krall proposed composting as a practice of mixing materials, stories, and perspectives to create new forms of shared understanding. Translating soil, she suggested, means cultivating attentiveness and care toward the subtle agencies of matter that shape our common world.
Bringing the discussion into the realm of lived practice, Manuel Stielau, founder of SoLawi Terra Lumbricus, a Community Supported Agriculture collective near Marburg, spoke from the perspective of a farmer in daily conversation with soil. Through photographs from his market garden, he illustrated how "soil translations" happens through observation, touch, and care - reading the traces left by roots, moisture, and earthworms as signs of health and vitality. At Terra Lumbricus (“the earth of the worm”), earthworms serve as quiet collaborators, aerating and enriching the soil that sustains crops and community alike. Stielau’s reflections grounded the workshop’s theoretical discussions in practice, showing how farmers translate the living language of soil into regenerative cultivation.
Continuing this conversation between the humanities and natural sciences, Wiebke Niether (Chair of Organic Farming with Specialization on Sustainable Soil Use, JLU Giessen) examined soil from an agroecological perspective, highlighting findings from long-term organic field experiments at Gladbacherhof. She showed how organic inputs sustain soil biodiversity and key functions such as carbon storage and nutrient cycling, transforming soil into a dynamic living system rather than a passive growth medium. Reflecting on the role of natural scientists, Niether noted that they, too, engage in acts of translation - converting data into knowledge that can be shared with farmers, practitioners, and policymakers to encourage more sustainable and cooperative ways of caring for the soil.
alissa mirea weidenfeld, gardener and artist at HBK Braunschweig, closed the panel by sharing her clay and ceramic works. She showed how art can engage with soil translations, using touch, texture, and sensory experience to connect with the material world. For her, materials are partners in dialogue, carrying histories, care, and human–nonhuman relationships. Her work highlighted how art, like farming or research, can be a way of attentively engaging with the world and making visible the hidden stories and connections in soil and matter.
The guided tour “Soil at Gladbacherhof: Soil Genesis and Current Cultivation,” led by Franz Schulz (Head of Research Farm, Oberer Gladbacherhof, JLU Giessen), introduced participants to the soils and geology of the organic farm. Schulz explained the formation of the local Parabraunerde soils (fertile brown earth with clay accumulation, typical of loess landscapes), shaped by Ice Age deposits and enriched through rainfall, humus, and nitrogen cycles. He passed around soil samples and Lahn marble from Villmar, a red and ochre stone formed 380 million years ago and used in buildings such as the Empire State Building, linking the local landscape to a wider geological and historical context.
The tour continued through the farm’s fields and research areas, where Schulz described the organic and agroforestry systems that integrate trees with crops and pastures to improve biodiversity, soil health, and water retention. He also highlighted how the farm’s circular system connects nitrogen-fixing crops, livestock, and manure recycling to maintain soil fertility. Participants visited the GreenDairy research barn, where high- and low-input dairy systems are studied for their ecological and climate impacts. The tour offered a clear view of how Gladbacherhof combines soil science, organic farming, and long-term research to cultivate living soils and sustainable agricultural practices.
Our heartfelt thanks go to Sophie von Redecker and all the contributors to the panel discussion for their inspiring insights, to Franz Schulz for guiding us so expertly through the soils and landscapes of Gladbacherhof, and to the team at Gladbacherhof for the support that made this workshop possible!