“The Un/natural Symbionts. Kombucha-Making as Social-Epistemic Practice” presented by Hoth
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Craft (full papers)
Presentation Title:
- The Un/natural Symbionts. Kombucha-Making as Social-Epistemic Practice
Presentation Subtheme:
- Speculative practices
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
How knowledge can be adapted, exchanged, and transferred in between disciplines, is an open question in art-science. The project Unnatural Symbionts explores through rituals how knowledge from several disciplines and fields on micro-organisms can be made palpable in one space. Using kombucha fermentation as field for exploration, the various relations of microbes and humans in scientific and non-scientific discourses are discussed. Microbial life is understood in its other-than-human agency and its role in our human identities which becomes connected to personal memories of making food and drinking tea. The goal is a curatorial practice that invites artists, scientist as well as a wider audience to reflect on concepts of symbiosis from the perspectives of lived experience and multispecies rituals. Microbiological research on microbial diversity is questioned in its meaning for self and individuality as philosophical concepts. The kombucha-making as a process becomes a method to experience microbial life with the naked human eye. The ritual binds these elements together to create a socio-cultural practice that avoids being bound to traditional conventions and creates a space for new ones.
