Making-With the More-Than-Human
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Recognition of More-than-Human (MTH) entities is increasingly important in the face of anthropogenic climate change, challenging us to seek approaches to engage with the More-than-Human. The contemporary increased popularity of participatory and collaborative approaches can see artists, designers and other practitioners and researchers seeking to apply such collaborative methods to ‘partner’, ‘consult’ or ‘design with’ the MTH entity. Such approaches are however fraught with epistemological challenges. The concepts around participation and agentic capacity within participatory methodologies are still rooted in established beliefs about human users, often burdened by the dominating, singular, positivist, and universal perspective that commentators like Haraway (1991) have denounced as insidiously partisan and inadequate for non-male, non-western humans – let alone anything pertaining to the More-than-Human. Approaches centered on the user draw criticism not only for their singular perspective but also their enduring human exceptionalism. Similarly, decolonial theorists (e.g. Smith 1999) assert that a ‘methodology’ itself is perpetuating bias, and that the defining, labelling and delineating ultimately leads to a paradox, where we might construct ourselves as ‘natural’ beings but at the same time are objectifying and ‘othering’ nature, keeping ourselves separate (Ingold 2000) and the ‘environment’ is that which is separate from us.
The paradox gives rise to existential conflicts, illustrated by clashes between Indigenous perspectives on land and colonial notions of ownership (Verran, 1998). The Whanganui River exemplifies this. It was granted legal standing and rights, but only in the singular form, rather than recognizing its inherent multiplicitous More-than-Human essence. The result was the river was protected, but not its waters (Salmond, 2014).
Located on the grounds of Barrambin (Kelvin Grove), and drawing on methods used within our MTHF group, this hands-on workshop engages participants in creative and reflective tasks to prompt and explore issues around ‘making-with’ MTH entities. Participants will be invited to contribute to a planned special issue on Making-With the More-Than-Human.
