Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants L M
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TOWARDS A SYMPOIETIC ART PRACTICE WITH PLANTS L M CHARLSTON PhD 2019 1 Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants LINDA MARY CHARLSTON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Manchester School of Art Research Centre Faculty of Arts and Humanities Manchester Metropolitan University 2019 2 Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants ABSTRACT At a time of crisis in human relationships with the natural world, this practice-as-research project comprises selected artworks and a written thesis investigating co-creativity with plants. The openly exploratory and speculative research scrutinises changes to plant-artist relationality as I develop a sympoietic art practice with plants, conceived as ethically accountable, co-creative ‘making-with’ plants, inspired by Haraway’s 'naturecultures' (2016). Sympoietic practice engages affirmatively with posthuman ethics of non-exploitative, egalitarian and ecologically situated practice, re-conceptualises plant-artist relations and makes way for accepting plants as agentially-active, co-expressive partners (Bennett, 2010, Marder, 2013). Manifestations of sympoietic art practice explored through co-creative processes of growing, making and walking with-plants contribute to the variegated nature of practice-as-research by reaching out in multiple directions to connect feminist and posthumanist theories (Barad, 2007, Braidotti, 2013, Alaimo, 2016) with artistic research (Schwab, 2018), poetic encounters, science and everyday life. In response to sympoietic concerns, temporary assemblages of interconnected events add participation, performativity and ecological awareness to the poetry and production of the artist-book. Sympoietic art processes have revealed multiple hindrances to my relationship with plants despite artistic closeness. The novel concept of ‘plant de-coherence’ arose directly from these insights. Plant de-coherence enriches the existing theory of 'plant blindness' (Wandersee and Schussler, 2001, 1999) by releasing fresh metaphors from quantum theory to explore and nuance an understanding of lively relational exchanges during the practical and conceptual transition between plants and humans in co-creative practice. The thesis exposes de-coherence effects in art processes and audience interfaces in the tangle of cultural filters through which plants are encountered: anthropomorphism, aesthetics, representation, symbolism, and commodification of plants. By working creatively with an understanding of de-coherence effects sympoietic art practitioners are empowered to transform its negative impacts and mediate co- creative worlding with plants which recognise co-dependence in a rapidly changing environment. KEYWORDS: Sympoiesis, Co-creativity, De-coherence, Naturecultures, Non-exploitation of plants, Plant-artist relationality. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my three consecutive Directors of Study: Professor Stephen Dixon for guiding me through the first six months, Dr David Haley for his enthusiasm, inspirational discussions and continuing friendship, and Dr Sian Bonnell for her patience, encouragement and advice during the remainder of the research. Many thanks also to my two supervisors, Sylvia Waltering, who helped me to find my voice and Dr Myna Trustram whose perceptive comments and support have extended to participation in workshops, walks, residencies, and exhibitions. I am grateful to MMU administrative and academic staff, who have always been ready to help. To Dr Sam Illingworth for discussing the science elements in my research. To artist friends Pip Woolf, Hilary Baker, Linda Nevill, and Emily Artinian of Street Road Artists' Space in Pennsylvania. Also to Susan Johanknecht who read my section on artist- books. Special thanks to all my colleagues and friends at MMU for exceptional kindness, sparky discussions and unforgettable times working together, especially Nigel Allmark, Jane Brake, Anne Caldwell, Sara Davies, Isabel Benito Gutierrez, Lesley Halliwell, Jackie Haynes, Tarek Khoury, Gemma Meek, Pavel Prokopic, James Vandeventer and Valeria Vargas. Thank you, Dave Charlston, for constant cheerful friendship, encouragement and skilful support through thick and thin. I dedicate this thesis to my family, who have all shared their love of plants with me in different ways. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Epigraph: Rose-Tinted Memories 7 Introduction 8 Research questions 9 Art practice as an instrument of enquiry 9 Contribution to knowledge 12 Plants in a human-centric world 14 Thesis Overview 18 Chapter 1: Preparing the Ground for Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants 23 When Grass is enlisted for co-creation 23 Ethical priorities: egalitarian, non-exploitative, ecologically situated 25 Practical sympoietic processes and the proto-artist-book 28 Critical approach to practice 29 Chapter 2: Braving the Conceptual Thicket of Plant De-coherence 34 I buried my arm: the shocking enormity of an empathetic gesture 34 Plant de-coherence: a quantum leap through the thicket 38 Co-creative transformations of nature and culture 45 Chapter 3: Making-With-Plants 49 Feeling in touch 49 The artist-book, autonomous or contingent? 51 Growing with the ecological book: participation and activism 53 Multimodal assemblages 57 Drawing with plants: more than representation 60 Making-with-plants and sunlight 65 De-coherence effects of representation: aesthetics, symbolism, spectacle 67 5 Chapter 4: Growing-with-Plants 76 Growing supermarket fruit 76 Organism or artefact? 79 Sympoietic growing: caring or exploitative? 81 Plants as persons: agency and self of a plant 84 Chapter 5: Walking-with-Plants 93 Walking art 94 Walking quests with plants: the city dérive 95 Ecosemiotics in artistic fieldwork with plants 98 Walking quests with plants: Moss Buzz 106 Walking quests with plants in the countryside 109 Being still with plants 112 Walking quests with plants in company 116 Chapter 6: Participating-with-Plants 121 Latour's Collective 121 Whitworth Park 123 Collective engagement: Weaving the Plant Filigree 124 Collective engagement: Equinox Bulb Planting 128 Performative engagement: Becoming Plant 131 Audience as participants in sympoiesis 135 Conclusion 141 Artist's Ethical Afterthought 148 List of Figures 149 Appendix 1: Rules for six dérives 152 References 153 6 childhood rich with plants, white rustle of ripe oats, bite of a soft wheat grain, rippling barley, dusty harvest, creaking cart of straw bales, climbing on the stack, scratched legs from stubble and straw, scent of a flowering bean field, getting lost in tall mustard, hiding in the artichoke patch, lime brush, yew hedge, dangerously sucking juice from yew berries, look deadly nightshade, a thorn apple don’t touch, climbing apple trees a pink sea of blossom, making fairy homes with petals, acorn- cups of juice, fairy gardens with seed paths, looking-glass ponds with floating forget-me-nots, garden, earthy smell of carrots, potatoes freshly dug, hoarding conkers, peeling beech nuts, sweet chestnuts to chew, leaving a pile for squirrels to find, cracking hazelnuts with a stone, making fishbones from horse-chestnut leaves, dolls in dresses from big red poppies, robin’s pincushion there’s a maggot inside, flowers in a bucket, walks in country lanes, itching powder from rose hips, naming wild flowers, smell of damp leaves, meadow sweet, king cups, lords and ladies, straddling ditches, primroses and violets, feeling stalks for picking deep down into cool moss, crushing berries to make dye, blackberrying, it’s a bee orchid very rare, blousy sweet peas, warm strawberries from the plant, armfuls of daffodils, slimy stalks, holly and a sprig for the pudding, mistletoe in the doorway, sugared violets, seaweed ribbons to wave their rubbery feel, pop the bladders, sun- bleached sea holly, special smells of mint and lavender, making lavender bags to give, eating windfall apples mind the wasps, catch leaves as they fall, first ripe tomato, first bulbs to poke through to the soil, unearthing new potatoes don’t damage them with the fork, raw peas from the pod, he came from the city had never seen them growing on a plant, shaking earwigs from dahlias, the flower show, rows of fruit and vegetables, the perfect rose, jam-making, watching bubbling fruit, saucer of jam scum to taste, cowslips and wild roses, give them to Mrs Collins to put on her window sill, the blackthorn winter, Christmas tree in the cool so it doesn’t die of shock, top and tail gooseberries shred currants from the stalks with a fork, lavatory plants (actually Lavatera), snow drops and joyful yellow aconites in the snow, Old Harry made cider from scrumped apples, they were all falling over, pooh sticks under the bridge, bark rubbings, pushing a sugar lump into the orange to suck the juice, watching leaves from the bedroom window when I had measles, autumn can you believe the colours? apple peel three times round your head to see your lover, tell your fortune with tea leaves, tell the time with a dandelion clock and wet the bed, tell if you like butter with a buttercup under your chin, daisy chains, flower garlands hanging from the dead tree, chickweed and groundsel for the canary, dandelion sow-thistle plantain clover cow-parsley for the rabbit, nettle tops for soup, dock to ease nettle stings, a drift of heather on the cliffs, bracken uncurling, how to pick, where to pick, how to cut, when to sow, when to thin out, collect water from the butt don’t shock the plants,