Dear all,
Apologies for cross-posting. As part of the upcoming Nordic STS in Stockholm (11-13 June) we are organizing a session in the ‘STS in and out of the Laboratory - Artistic Contributions and Exploratory Practices’ part of the conferences program. The session offers two different options to engage in methods development for the social study of human-microbe relations, and more-than-human ecologies more generally. The whole art and practice program has many other cool sessions, so make sure to check those too!
The ‘Protocols for Knowing Microbes Otherwise’ session is linked to the presentation ‘Out of the Lab: Sensory Methods for Knowing Microbes Otherwise’ happening at the same conference inside the panel ‘Social Study of Microbes’ (Friday 13 June between 9-13).
Find below the description of the art and practice session and the link to the registration form.
Protocols for Knowing Microbes Otherwise - Thursday 13:30-15:30
This outdoor session engages with the forest as a site for knowing microbes outside of laboratory settings.
Microbes are everywhere, always, and yet dominant understandings of microbes have been confined to technoscientific and visually-mediated ways of knowing them. As scholars based outside of laboratory contexts, we have been developing microbial methods in the form of exploratory protocols. The unifying theme of this session is to use more-than-visual means for knowing microbes, with specific attention to the sense of sound, scent, touch, and proprioception. Some of these protocols have been trialled and iterated upon through collaborations with artists, artistic researchers, and practitioners.
The session is dually meant to engage the wider STS community on discussions about more-than-laboratory knowledge production, as much as they are intended to help us hone these methods for future study. Planned activities include:
- Microbial Sounding, a protocol designed to reflect on the possibilities offered by sound to speculate about sociality and microbial presence in more-than-human ecologies
- Holobiont Walk, a protocol designed to attune to microbes through multiple senses (especially proprioception) in a guided walk through the forest
Participants will be asked to choose one of the two sessions, as they will run simultaneously.
With a heads up to participants to bring all-weather attire and dress appropriately, both activities can take place regardless of rain. Participants will be informally asked for feedback (i.e., no records or identifiers) so that we can improve on these protocols for future microbial inquiry.
You can find the registration form here: https://forms.gle/3xzbm8TVFRp1K9EY7
Time: Thursday 13:30- 15:30
Meeting place: Outside “The Coffice” (near the Q-building). https://maps.app.goo.gl/z2rLjn6ETYfYcjkJA
Session organizers and emails:
Maya Hey, maya.hey@helsinki.fi
Jose Cañada, jose.a.canada@helsinki.fi
Aliisa Talja, aliisa.talja@posteo.fi
Yuning Chen
Marie-Louise Wöhrle
Jose A. Cañada (they/them)
University Researcher
Centre for the Social Study of Microbes
University of Helsinki
Profile at Research Portal
Cañada, J.A. 2024. Blocks and Overflows of Care: Territorialization and Marine Conservation in the Balearic Sea. Science, Technology, & Human Values, OnlineFirst.
Cañada, J.A. 2024. Ambivalence in Environmental Care: Marine Care Ethics and More-Than-Human Relations in the Conservation of Seagrass Posidonia oceanica. J Agric Environ Ethics 37(5).
Cañada, J.A., Sariola, S. & Butcher, A. 2022. In critique of anthropocentrism: a more-than-human framework for antimicrobial resistance. Medical Humanities 48(4), e16.
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Centre for the Social Study of Microbes
University of Helsinki
PO18, 00014 Helsinki
E-mail: cssm@helsinki.fi
www.socialmicrobes.org
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