panel 14 To Research (as) an Ecology of Care
To Research (as) an Ecology of Care
Care Ecologies research group
The double bill “to research (as) an ecology of care” engages with the challenges and (im)possibilities of performing (as) an ecology of care (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017) in collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Our research group has explored care as a subject and a concern in its own functioning (Care Ecologies research group, 2022).
We suggest that using “ecology,” “care,” and “performance” as theoretical and methodological frameworks can support rethinking how to embed care within collaborative research practices. Often narratives about collaborative research emphasize linear progress and scripts about optimization and productivity. Lived experience is more chaotic, requiring the alignment of ideas across diverse temporalities (including time zones) and commitments. Drawing on Rolando Vázquez’s decolonial aesthesis – which is “the plurality of sensorial experiences and expressions” (Wevers, 2019) – we aim to shift the focus away from practices of perception and knowing to practices of being, listening, relating, and not-knowing. How can concepts like rhythm, place, and embodiment reshape our understanding of collaboration and the emergence of care within it?
In two workshops, we employ performance and creative writing to foster collective reflection on caring research practices within a multi-disciplinary group. The first involves a performative-reading (20 minutes) during the on-site gathering, where we explore the notion of performing collaboration* as an ecology of care. The second, a two-hour online workshop during the online portion of the conference, delves into the practice of researching together. Although each workshop stands alone, they complement each other in addressing collaborative research. Strategically incorporating both live and online elements reflects the multi-channel nature of collaborative research, involving tools like Zoom, Google Docs, and in-person interaction. This approach not only facilitates exchange across digital and physical spaces but also expands the ecology of care to local and international colleagues.
Part I: Collaboration – Performative Reading | On-site – 20 min.
The workshop begins with a performative reading where participants** equipped with printouts of text fragments, read aloud while navigating the room. Participants choose when to read, taking turns without a set order, building a natural rhythm through repetition. This exercise supports imagining an overhanging ecology, involving non-human and human agents in an attempt to sustain a web of care. As participants move, they embody various temporal layers that interact with and erase each other, influenced by the conference space’s visual, architectural, and acoustic qualities. This dynamic interaction with the physical site serves as a score, guiding their engagement and interpretation.
After the performative reading, attendees are invited to discuss the experience, using it as a lens to reflect on collaboration aspects. We emphasize that the objective is not to establish a “rhythm” for optimization, but to critically investigate research as a dynamic and evolving process. With this live performative reading we share and continue the threads of what we learned so far, as an ongoing rehearsal for an ecology of care.
Part II: Researching – Workshop | Online (CET) – 120 min.
The workshop invites participants to explore caring (artistic) research practices, addressing three strands: publishing, documentation, and facilitation. Participants are distributed into workgroups around the themes, where through guided experimental writing and sharing exercises, they unpack assumptions and care-full practices around research. In this context, we approach publishing through the kind of care needed when making research public. Documentation involves looking at how notetaking, audiovisual recording, and other related practices incorporate (non-)human bodies and entities and at creating living archives*** that continues conversations from previous gatherings. Facilitation centers on the organizational dynamic in collaborative research, namely, facilitating care-full exchange between people across disciplines. Building on personal experiences, we set out to develop a growing, propositional, and critical document of care practices on collaborative and sidling (Manning, 2020) ways of researching.
* We relate performing to the post-humanist understanding of performativity that points to the material aspects of meaning-making: how discursive practices and material phenomena are mutually implicated (Barad, 2003). This extends the idea of performance as a series of gestures related to embodied cognition, corporal literacy, and socio-political circumstances of the moment (Butler, 1988; Vlugt, 2015).
** “Thinking alongside with our collaborators [...] as a practice, as a rehearsal,” in the words of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, during storytelling Studio Encounters on Water #2, Perdu, Amsterdam, 23 April 2024.
*** Living archives resonate the conception of the anarchive as an “ethico-aesthetic adventure of living artfully,” where the politics of archiving gives care to the living matters and future potential of being together (Manning, 2020, p. 97).
References
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), 801-831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321
Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519-531.
Care Ecologies research group (Curandi, V., Gloerich, I., Molenda, A., Muntinga, M., Sanchez Querubin, N., Scholts, N. & Vlugt, M. van der) (2022). Towards becoming an ecology of care. Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 27(6-7), 251-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2022.2198879
Manning, E. (2020). What things do when they shape each other. In For a pragmatics of the useless (pp. 75-102). Duke University Press.
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
Vlugt, M. van der (2015). Performance as interface, interface as performance : An exploration of embodied interaction with technology in experimental performance. International Theatre & Film Books.
Wevers, R. (2019). Decolonial aesthesis and the museum: An interview with Rolando Vázquez Melken. Stedelijk Studies Journal, 8. https://doi.org/10.54533/StedStud.vol008.art06
Care Ecologies is a group of artists and scholars concerned with matters of care and with examining them from diverse disciplines such as the medical humanities, architecture, media studies, and choreography. The group discusses care-related topics and methodologies, reflecting also on how care is enacted in their personal research work and practice and how it shows up in their collaborations. Care Ecologies is part of ARIAS, a platform that facilitates encounters between researchers from artistic and scientific fields in Amsterdam. Group members who will participate in leading the workshop are: ro heinrich, Haitian Ma, Gabriela Milyanova, Natalia Sanchez Querubin, Nienke Scholts, Marloeke van der Vlugt.
Location
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
Contact info Louis van den Hengel
Images homepage: Merel Visse, Christine Leroy
design website: Johanne de Heus and Marielle Schuurman