[-empyre-] RUDERAL WITCHCRAFT

[Oliver Kellhammer]

Yes to the 'rudeness' and category-defying ferality! One of the things that
can be maddening to purists is the Interzone between the ruderal and
indigenous, the hyper-ecologies that self assemble into novel ecosystems. I
have fond memories of stumbling through a Superfund site next to the
Willamette River near Portland and coming upon the indigenous Madrone and
Cottonwood trees growing cheek to cheek with Paulownia and Robinia.
Red-tailed hawks and western fence lizards took advantage of the thermal
opportunities afforded by weedy expanses of abandoned pavement, while
homeless folks made funeral pyres of salvaged electrical wire with which to
burn off the insulation before selling it for recycling. Yet toxins were
leaching into the water table and the fish were too contaminated for
healthy consumption.

The ruderal may be empowering but not perhaps for those that ruined it. Yet
the ruderal is playing out a longer game of earth repair that may or may
not include us.





On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 10:57 PM WhiteFeather <whitefeather.hunter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hello, empyrites!
> I can't express how excited I am to see this topic of discussion come up
> here, and to learn from you in this shared space, about what magic and
> witchcraft mean from your different contexts and positions. My current PhD
> research is very much centred in practice-based (witch)craft, in
> relationship with biotechnology (I have a practical background in cellular
> and microbiology), and of course with a very keen eye on feminist
> witchcraft historians such as Federici, also Barbara Ehrenreich and Dierdre
> English before her, as well as favourite feminist technophile philosophers,
> such as Donna Haraway, and very (most?) importantly, other (bio)tech-witch
> practitioners.
>
> I'm very much interested in 'troubling' scientific narratives and
> methodologies through practice and philosophy, where they historically and
> contemporaneously intersect with mammalian bodies/selves especially, but
> also expanding this to better reflect multiple senses of
> other-worldliness--including deviants, hybrids and more-than-mammals (for
> example, microbes essential to the nutrient uptake and growth of our plant
> foods/medicines as well as those that emerge, feeding on and reducing
> toxicity in spaces such as the 'ruderal').
>
> What a magnificent word ruderal is, for it contains the word, *rude*.
>
> Some of the most rude experiences I've had in the field have been with
> regards to confronting ideologies around ecosystems and “protected”
> (pristine/pure) areas, particularly where privileged systems of knowledge
> production influence policy that restricts, undermines and suppresses
> lived/embodied/anecdotal knowledges, when those knowledges run counter to
> capitalist imperatives. I can expand more on these experiences later where
> there is interest or opportunity.
>
> So looking forward to reading everything,
> WhiteFeather Hunter
> :::she/her:::
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu



-- 
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