Contribution short abstract:

Circles appear on human skin after interspecies interactions such as insect bites and the growth of fungi and are shaped by processes like inflammation. The workshop looks through those circles at bodily porosity, unwanted interspecies interactions, and shifting meanings within environmental crises.

Contribution long abstract:

Circular shapes in all shades of red appear on human skin after some close encounters with other species. They include erythema migrans, the early symptom of skin infection with spirochetal bacteria from the genus Borrelia, usually transmitted by a tick bite, tinea corporis known as ringworm – from the shape of a worm that eats its tail – a fungal infection of dermatophyte, or a regular mosquito bite causing an allergic reaction with its saliva. All of them and others show as circles on human skin. From the biological perspective, the circular shape is a response to radial inflammatory reaction or fungal diffusion (Sudo and Fujimoto 2022). Often, the circle symbolises unity and wholeness, yet here, it emphasises human vulnerability and porosity.

In this contribution, I will look through the lenses of the circular erythema at the multispecies interactions on human skin. I will open it up from micro to macro scales and aim to unwrite the circularity of our relations with unwanted non-humans and the flows of bodily fluids.

The contribution will have a form of workshop-style intervention, through which I invite the participants to look together at the implications of the bodily interspecies reactions as sites of circulatory exchange. I will look for answers to what new rhythms and forms emerge when circular lines create layers of growth in social cycles and systems of reciprocity between species. I will also ask what meanings these circles take on within health, illness, and the crisis we all live in.