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Paper short abstract

How could performance practice “decompose” and regenerate ethnographic knowledge? Theatre of Decomposition suggests a poetic exploration of co-dwelling with fungal bodies by reimagining the collaboration of citizen scientists and lichens at the brink of clearcutting old forests in Mi’kma'ki.

Paper long abstract

This interactive presentation will introduce Theatre of Decomposition (ToD)—a creative inquiry and performance method that navigates mycelial interconnectedness. It is based on ethnographic research in Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia, Canada) with citizens studying lichens to protect the old forests. Adapting the citizen scientists' way of knowing and the land-based knowledge, it explores the bodies of fungi and lichens to join the active process of decomposition through mourning and celebrating. In this practice-based research, the performing body of the researcher serves as a key research tool for archiving sensory knowledge and corporeal experiences.

From March to September 2024, citizen scientists set up a camp in the middle of the logging road to stop the imminent logging in the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area. While enduring the grief of deforestation, they continued searching for at-risk lichens to prove the conservation value of the old-growth. Lichen surveys involve all the bodily senses. Nina, one of the citizen scientists, emphasises an integrated perspective as “a body in the forest,” acknowledging our physical participation in the world. As a theatremaker and researcher, I composed the framework of ToD with three key concepts resonating with this experience: 1) shui-gee, 2) di-di-gee, and 3) deo-deum-gee. Each holds multiple approaches that facilitate performers to attune to fungal bodies in and outside their human bodies and generate new movements. I expect that ToD will help extend embodied, sensory learning from ethnographic fieldwork beyond the immediate context, nurturing broader insights that contribute to building resilience in the face of ecological crises.