Drawing on Natasha Myers’ call to learn "to conspire with the plants" to produce a more just future, this two-year programme of activities (2022 - 24) created a platform for scholars, activists, and cultural practitioners working with plants. The aim was to expand conversations about the future - how they imagine and make it - to become more attentive to the roles of nonhuman beings and plants more specifically.
Together, they thought about how the society builds worlds with plants in private and public spaces, in real and virtual settings, how they nurture relationships with plants and how these might feel like. The programme appealed to anyone curious about plants and especially those who have already welcomed plants into their life.
The programme was curated by Dr Giulia Carabelli whose research project “Care for Plants” investigated how humans and houseplants made home during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. You can check her works-in-progress on Instagram at @CareforPlants and @CabinetCultures. You can also learn more about her work by reading this interview or watching this animated video developed with JustWondering and Dr Gavin MacLean with the support of The Sociological Review Foundation as part of the Environmental Futures research programme.
Braiding Sweetgrass Reading Group led by Giulia Carabelli & Elyssa Livergant (West Norwood Public Library), Three sessions: Tuesday 11th, 18th, 25th June 6.30 PM,
Decolonising Natural History (roundtable discussion with JC Niala, Miranda Lowe, Ros Gray and Sui Searle) Wednesday 12th June at 5.30 PM,
Madder Array: Plant Portraits (workshop with Matthew Beach) Saturday 22nd June at 10.30 AM,
The Word for World is Forest (talk by Joanne Yao) Thursday 27th June at 7 PM.
Magical Moss Plants (workshop with Nirit Ben Meir & Erin Robinson) Saturday 29th June, at 2 PM and 4 PM,
21 June 3 - 7 PM SELFIES AND SHELFIES: A VEGETAL HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY with Ann Garascia (CSUSB).,
Navigating Catastrophic Times: Doing IPS Spring Symposium on Friday, 19 Apr 2024,
SLBI speaker series: Houseplant Fever on 17 October 2023 at 7 pm,
Beekeeping in the End Times (Lecture) 3 May 2023,
"Beekeeping in the End Times (Public Editing Event)" 4 May 2023;
Between love and indifference - Affect(ion) and the making of the (Botanical) Garden 10 May 2023,
Centre for Childhood Cultures Annual Lecture "AirBubble Playground: re-metabolising urban air through play and human to non-human interaction" on Thursday, 18 May 2023,
On a Date with a Plant: Our Botanical Relations and the History of Vegetal Eroticism 22 May 2023 at 3 PM,
The Future of Plants: Beyond Earth 15 June 2023, 3 PM.
Branch Out | Talk: The Values of Houseplants: A Conversation with "Cabinet Cultures" Exhibition Curators on 12 July 2023 at noon,
End of the Year Office Plants Repotting Party on 13 July 2023 at 12:30,
Plant Agency: A Transdisciplinary Reading Group from 2 June to 29 September 2023 at 4 PM.