Format/Structure

Submissions may take artistic forms—such as visual art or performance—or adopt more traditional scientific approaches- like presentations or papers.

Long Abstract

Especially in industrialized nations soils are still viewed as inert, exploited merely as a resource for human use (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017; Liboiron, 2021). The degradation of soil quality, as a global issue, reflects this exploitation. However, the ecological turn has transformed our perception of soil, seeing it as a dynamic, living substance. This panel takes up that shift viewing soil alive, not solely through its composition but also through its properties, in which no entity stands on its own but is always ‘a making in company with’ (Donna Haraway, 2019). Soil is considered an active, agentive substance with relational and transformative capacities in socio-ecological systems. Drawing on ‘a minor science' approach where we surrender to matter (Papadopoulos, 2010:77), the aim is to decentralize the human in the study of soil and its many entanglements. We invite artists and scholars from diverse disciplines and geographical backgrounds and encourage contributions interested in the manifold relations and manifestations of soil, including soil in its multiple material forms—sand, clay, mud, silt and beyond—and its role in shaping socio-ecological worlds (Ingold, 2007).

Suggestions sub-questions/themes

- How does soil participate in, and respond to, human and more-than-human dynamics?

- How might attention to its vitality and plurality open new pathways for environmental thinking, ethics, and politics?

- How can artistic methods and collaborations between art and science offer alternative perspectives on soil and enhance our empathetic connection with it?

- Through comparative case studies, we aim to explore localized and contextual knowledge and skills linked to human-soil relations and their applications in environments of change.

- Case studies that deal with soil in settings of climate-induced disasters (e.g., floods), but

also in tides of coastal wetlands or fluctuating water levels in inland riverscapes.