Planetary Materials Winter Workshop: What Earth Is Made Of | October 18 - November 12, 2022
This year, our fellow Claudia J. Ford’s workshop series “What Earth is Made of” took place on Oct. 18, and Nov. 10 & 11, 2022. The series reflected on James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis from an indigenous perspective to deepen our understanding of planetary materials and their constellations through art and science. The series connected indigenous ideas about ecology with the climate crisis and engaged the participants in storytelling through all of the senses – hands-on farm labor, film, creative writing, lectures, listening, dialog, and an exhibition of climate change and planetary materials inspired visual art.
The workshop series commenced on Oct. 18 with an excursion to JLU’s Gladbacherhof farm. The focus was on one of the most fundamental relationships between humans and the environment – namely food production and nutrition. To this end, an excursion took the paricipants to the Gladbacherhof farm, which combines organic farming and research: on the productive organic farm, research is conducted in cooperation with the JLU to further develop sustainable concepts for organic farming. The day started with a tour of the newly built dairy cattle research barn, where fully automated milking machines and a fully automated feeding and cleaning system are intended to enable both the study of climate gas emissions in organic farming as part of the Green Dairy project and, in terms of animal welfare, a greater degree of self-determination for the animals.
After a lunch prepared by Veganatural with the farm's own products, the group heard scientific presentations on various topics. In addition to considerations on decision-making criteria for farmers in dealing with sustainable technologies, new approaches in agroforestry and a plea for more care in agriculture were discussed. There was also a tour of the on-site laboratory facilities.
Lastly, the agroforestry techniques discussed in the lecture could be seen in application as Philipp Weckenbrock showed the group around the agroforestry area of the farm. Agroforestry uses a specific planting strategy in an attempt to arrange multiple levels of food production into a single cohesive system. Specifically, the farm's experimental setups are designed to examine the productivity of mixed systems between trees and traditional agricultural crops such as cereals or potatoes. Although they have not been widely used in practice, agroforestry systems promise some advantages, such as greater resilience and resistance to climatic changes, erosion, and increased water storage capacity of the soil. The field trip allowed us to gain in-depth insights into a fascinating combination of research and agricultural practice in organic farming.
On Nov. 10, Ford delivered a stimulating hybrid lecture on indigenous knowledge and the Gaia hypothesis as the second event of the workshop series took place. The lecture memorialized James Lovelock (1919 – 2022), who formulated the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s along with Lynn Margulis (1938 – 2011). Ford reiterated that the earth is a living being in a delicate state of balance and harmony, to whose wellbeing we are all obliged. She also paid homage to the French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour (1947 – 2022), whose ideas resonated with Lovelock’s Gaia theory. Ford raised the point that these esteemed thinkers failed to point out that their ideas of the Earth being an interdependent system were not all that new. Predating Lovelock’s considerations by millennia, indigenous thinkers and storytellers have been reflecting on how the earth as a living self-aware system may be capable of feedback and self-correction, especially in its self-regulation of the climate.
Ford emphasized that in the face of the current climate crisis, the stories we tell about ‘nature’ must shift from global to planetary imaginaries. To do so, she called for acknowledging and drawing on existing indigenous knowledge in Western science, as they offer alternative paradigms that are truly transdisciplinary. The extensive bibliography researched for her lecture can be found here.
The lecture was followed by the film screening of the documentary “Inuit Knowledge & Climate Change” (2010), the first-ever Inuktitut language film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro. The film took the viewers on a journey with the Inuit elders and hunters whilst exploring the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. The day wrapped up with an informal gathering at the Planetary Hub where the Panel and the guests closed the evening with vegan finger food and pleasant conversations.
On Nov. 11, Ford conducted a writing workshop to express climate grief through creative arts. Participants got an opportunity to practice creative nonfiction environmental writing using planetary materials, which they found in their immediate environment as prompts. Afterward, the participants voluntarily shared their pieces of writing with the audience.
In the evening, the workshop series came to a grand conclusion with a festive opening of the exhibition “Planetary Origin Stories”: a collage exhibit at MAGIE - Makerspace Gießen created by Ford during her fellowship. Mehr Impulse opened the reception serenading the event with their melodies, and Ford explained her inspiration behind the exhibit during an artist’s talk. The exhibit was intricately woven around the subject matter of ecological destruction and climate grief (one might consider unpleasant) yet the beauty and finesse of Ford’s pieces paid tribute to the color, shape, and form of the natural world and recounted our collective responsibility to safeguard the Earth’s beauty and resources.
Our sincere gratitude goes to Claudia for conceptualizing this multifaceted program, to our keen participants, as well as to Johannes and the team at the Makerspace Gießen for their support in making this workshop series a huge success!