Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants

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 cocreative worlding with plants which recognise co-dependence in a rapidly changing environment

Beyond reflective practice: Blogging-with Place as a diffractive practice for (re)imagining place-based education

This article proposes the diffractive practice of blogging-with Place as an alternative to a reflective journal. Reflective practice is a priority for teachers, with reflective journaling often employed as a method for documenting a teacher\u27s experiences and knowledge about sites that are intended for place-based teaching and learning. However, when implemented for the purpose of improving place-based approaches, reflective journaling is limited by its grounding in an epistemology that values knowledge as leading to mastery and control over the environment. In response to calls for a radical reimagining of place-based approaches, the diffractive practice of blogging-with Place offers an opening for (re)imagining place-based pedagogies that (re)situate children as part of Place–children common worlds. This article has emerged from a study during which the researcher walked- and blogged-with Gabbiljee, a wetlands ecosystem also known as the watery place at the end of Derbarl Yerrigan (also known as the Swan River) in Perth, Western Australia. The inquiry revealed that whilst the potential for diffractive practice was acknowledged, there were challenges for a teacher-researcher trained in reflective practice to make this shift. The author found that the intentional implementation of hesitating and (de)composing practices intervened in ways that disrupted reflective habits, prompted necessary unlearning and created openings for diffractive possibilities. Using excerpts from two different blogs, the limitations of reflective blogging are compared to the possibilities, challenges and unlearning that transpired when engaging with the diffractive practice of blogging-with Place. Speculative, transparent and emergent, blogging-with Place is an alternative method for documenting encounters with Place