Cultivating Companionship A conversation about cornfields and communities.
(2024)
author(s): Lina Maria Hülsmann
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Our connection to the land is crucial, yet the Anthropocene mindset alienated us from being part of nature.
This research paper is a thorough report of fieldwork, map studies, interviews, experiments and theories related to the domain of philosophy, biology, anthropology, sociology and ecology. By consulting a variety of literature resources of renowned thinkers like Donna Haraway, Arturo Escobar and Bruno Latour you share with them to envision the Anthropocene as a fundamental crisis of modernity with an emphasis on the human detachment from nature.
Working with the corn plant as a symbol of Anthropocene agriculture, this thesis deals with the topics of community and the importance to embrace biodiversity. Based on a case study in Bersenbrück, a small town in North-West Germany, I raise the alarm about one of the most disputable topics in today’s agriculture industry: monoculture.
Since the 1960s the landscape has been dominated by maize being the main cause for the transition from small-scale, self-sufficient farming towards the industrialized production of cornfields.
The origins of the cultivation of the maize was regarded to bind together families and communities, today it has a devastating effect on bio-diversity. On a larger scale maize appears to enforce a capitalist structure of food production and is considered one of the largest contributors to the emission of climate change.
Further, the research leads to opportunities that evolve out of the current agricultural situation. Material experiments with a waste product of monoculture-maize plantations, testify how a deep interest and curiosity can evolve into spatial design and encompass a ‘new level of esteem’. These spatial and material proposals allow the formation of new relationships between humans and nature, between communities and ecosystems.
To ‘cultivating companionship’ expresses optimism and call-to-action in order to contribute to a resilient future where participation as a form of civic engagement and social solidarity is its main core.
The concept of companionship became also a tool that results from empathy, sensitivity, care and compassion, building op on a critical lens, aiming to work together within the situation, the site and the inhabitants.
KMD MASS, Materials And Sustainable Systems
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Alexandre Ralston Bau
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Materials and Sustainable Systems works as a collective to develop a large network of researchers, designers, and innovators who share our vision for a sustainable future. Our community is an extension of the Material Library at the University of Bergen, Faculty of Fine Art, Music, and Design. In addition to existing as a resource for practitioners in sustainability, our team has created a Podcast series that investigates one theme per semester. As a growing resource, we plan to provide the public with notable discoveries and technologies that address issues related to the current climate crisis.
Bioregion Vestland
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Alexandre Ralston Bau
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Bioregion Vestland is a design-driven development project under the auspices of Design Region Bergen. We want to develop a regional circular value chain that stimulates companies in Western Norway to green change through innovative production, services and products that, among other things, phase out fossil-based plastics. A "bioregion" is a geographically bounded area that takes into account human society and natural ecosystem; it is a call to act with renewed corporate social responsibility. The overall goal of the Bioregion Vestland project is to initiate several major projects that will make the business sector equipped for a sustainable future and create new green industry in Western Norway.
How can we make the best use of resources in Western Norway and use these to create circular value chains that are both sustainable and profitable - and which can also create solutions that replace our plastic consumption?