Pragovka Art District, 2024.

We approached this project from a research oriented perspective. Somewhat burdened but close to the question of how to de-centre anthropocentric approach. Following the notion of ‘agential interaction’ among vegetable and non-vegetable organic life (by way of plants and humans), we wanted to create a space where humans and plant things could interact with each other. For this laboratory, we specifically chose invasive species plant life, which were to be collected from the urban industrial spaces surrounding Pragovka. The reason for this, from an ecological perspective, was to think about how ecological categories and designs influence human interactions with it. For example, if we were to plant ‘weed species’ on one side of the gallery, but categorically welcome plant species on the other, both designed organically with the plant species, and other landscape parts, would this prevent humans from stepping on certain points, but cause a sense of pride when stamping all over others? A contention, and better put, a disagreement that we had, was whether the organization of the plant life should follow the dichotomy of pluri-culture vs. monoculture. One issue was that we did not aim to follow moralist structures that presented pluri-culture as good and monoculture as bad, seeing that this division did not serve us. Since Western ontological frameworks have not allowed us to prevent ecocide, we looked to seek alternative ontological modalities within art-based practice as a microcosm of a moral reframing of ecological assemblages and kinship networks. We did consider the point that presenting two ways of inter agenting in this assemblage (us: crafting the space, the plant life, growing within it: designing the space with/in plant life) did not necessarily fall into these categories, if we are to present them as irrelevant and somewhat obsolete, since the mere issue of something being in two parts does not lend itself to dichotomies if we are to think outside of the anthropocene. However, we decided in this instance that we are too close to the problem, and went to failing better in a messier situation of more and multiple parts.

The sonic dimension of this project comes from a curiosity of sound as a way of knowing and feeling. Since much of capitalist and christian ontologies have been rather ocularcentric. We once again have realised that relying on these ways of knowing and doing have not yet served us proper, due to the every growing demise of the homeostasis that the earth has maintained for thousands of years that have allowed us as other mammalian and flesh-like species who demand certain temperature and moisture conditions to grow and thrive. Therefore what we see is that seeing has nonetheless done us over. In ocularcentric understandings that disregard other sensorial ways of feeling into the planetary system that human beings and other living creatures have much relied on for all of our time in this big family, we have paradoxically made much around us invisible.
Seeing it seems, leads to unseeing.