Symposium | Agency of Plants

Agency of Plants
zur Ausstellung Parlament der Pflanzen II
in englischer Sprache

In the current ecological crisis, which is also a social, psychological and political crisis, there is a growing realization that humans must connect and ally with non-human beings in new ways. In particular, plants – those beings long perceived as other, alien, immobile and passive – are gaining new attention. Not only do plants take care of human and non-human animals, traditional agricultural practices and recent botanic research show that plants have a profoundly rich sensorium: they speak, communicate, make decisions, are responsive and adaptive and help shape environmental conditions. In short, plants have agency, they have an 'extended cognition' (as plant theorist Michael Marder has noted) and thus can be defined as intelligent and as 'active' subjects.

What does this mean exactly? What does it mean that plants 'have rights'? And what impact does this have in 'our' dealings with, or rather in our coexistence with, plants?
The symposium Agency of Plants takes up these questions and examines them through various presentations and joint discussions.

In cooperation with the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the ETH's Prints and Drawings Collection, Zurich.

This symposium is organised by Christiane Meyer-Stoll and Yvonne Volkart. It is made possible with a contribution from the H.E.M. Foundation, Vaduz.

PROGRAM

10 AM VISIT AND INTRODUCTION TO THE EXHIBITION
with Christiane Meyer-Stoll, Linda Schädler and Yvonne Volkart, Curator and co-curators of the exhibition

NOON Lunch

1.30 PM Welcome by the curators Christiane Meyer-Stoll, Linda Schädler and Yvonne Volkart

1.45 PM PLANTS IN THE INDIGENOUS AMAZON AND THE LANGUAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS
Lecture by Patrícia Vieira
Research professor, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra

2.15 PM Q & A

2.30 PM FROM FOREST LAW TO FOREST MIND
Artist's lecture by Ursula Biemann

3 PM Q & A

3.15 PM Short break

3.30 PM INSERT
by students of the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW

3.45 PM TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING PLANT REACTIONS: RESPONSES AND INTERACTIONS
Lecture by Roosa Laitinen, associate professor in Genomics-based Plant Science, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Program, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki

4.15 PM Q &A

4.30 PM SENSING A DAMAGED FOREST
Presentation by Yvonne Volkart of her publication
Technologies of Care: From Sensing Technologies to an Aesthetics of Attention

4.45 PM Coffee break

5.15 PM MALEZAS | WEEDS | UNKRÄUTER. AMARANTH AS POLITICAL AGENT IN COLONIZED AMERICA
Lecture performance by Julia Mensch

5.45 PM Q &A

6 PM INSERT
by the students of the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW

6.15 PM CONCEPTS OF NATURE AND ETHICS
Lecture by Nadia Mazouz, professor of practical philosophy at the ETH, Zurich

6.45 PM Q &A

7 PM PLANT WITNESSING AND LISTENING TO PLANT ECHOES
Artist's lecture by Uriel Orlow

7.30 PM Q &A
7.45 PM End of the symposium with aperitif

Bild:
Zheng Bo, The Political Life of Plants, 2021 (Filmstill),
courtesy the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery © Zheng Bo