Building on the success of our 2021 symposium in which transdisciplinary dialogue was generated around the newly enlivened subject of vegetal life, Phytogenesis II seeks to expand the field of enquiry by exploring more overtly political and activist nuances and provocations in the plant-philosophy-photography assemblage.
Climate change, and its devastating global effects, provides an impetus for this shift in focus, away from the instrumental and towards the ethical, allowing for ‘plant-human becomings and coevolutions to emerge’ (Aloi, 2018).
Programme
10:45-11:00 Welcome: Dr Carole Baker and Marjolaine Ryley
11:00-12:15 Dr Prudence Gibson and Dr Fabri Blacklock | 'The herbarium: Coloniality, Indigenous knowledge and the Eucalyptus'
12:15-12:45 Malcolm Dickson
Break
14:00-15:00 Dr Uriel Orlow | 'Another natural history: Plants and more than human witnessing'
15:00-16:10 Nettie Edwards, William Arnold, Jamie House
16:10-16:40 Hannah Fletcher
Break
17:00-18:00 Keynote: Dr Giovanni Aloi | 'The Plant Blindness of Critical Plant Studies'
18:00-18:30 Plenary: Questions and discussion
Speaker biographies can be found in the symposium brochure above.
The symposium is organised by Dr Carole Baker and Marjolaine Ryley, and funded by the University of Plymouth, North East Photography Network (NEPN) and Newcastle University's Institute for Creative Arts Practice.