----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Dear -empyre-,
so excited by the conversations so far, by the tremendous effort and knowledge
of week 1 and the looming questions we must contend with…the concept of ruderal
witchcraft to begin with, an offering by Oliver I am still hoping to continue
activating, I was so struck by Marisa Prefer’s reminder that we are in the
waxing moon in Capricorn, by their sensibilities about Red Hook’s ocean water
who is reclaiming a space once called home, and by their introduction to
Spartina, a plant feared as invasive, whose roots sends texts that stimulate
microbial expansion in the crust of the earth…as well as with their
sensibilities to the way we contend with the limitations of binary language and
structures, where natives and invasives are categorized as oppositional…I am
eager to learn more of the history of European witch-hunts and wonder if
contemporary so called invasive hunts being practiced across Abya Yala now
might be triggered by parallel conjunctures. I love the idea of a rude ruderal,
a growth with side eye to the idea of a pure or undisturbed past, and am eaten
away by Whitefeather's “leave it the fuck alone” transmission and the question
if the slow violence of ecocide can be healed only over extended time lapses,
beyond those perhaps that we as homo aspens may be able to experience…There is
so much to respond to, there are lagoons between these reflections, I will
return...each post has been a world I want to swim within, and I hope that my
carrier bag of queer kin will help us to digest the muck, as we slowly begin to
receive and respond to the posts of -empyre- please forgive our delay. Please
also accept my apology for a missing discussant and sibling who got cut from my
curatorial care, Lucian O’Connor, whose bio, I attach now, here.
Lucian O’Connor (Irish American in Továngar) (they, them, theirs and he, him,
his)
Lucian O’Connor is a critical theorist and artist who lives in
southern California. They hold a master’s degree in Performance
Studies from NYU (2003) and a doctorate in History of Consciousness
from UC Santa Cruz (2012). Research interests include semiotics,
decoloniality, evolutionary biology, aesthetics, the history of ideas,
and ethnography. While not working, O’Connor enjoys hiking, gardening,
and spending quality time with loved ones.
As for the incredible guest only recently introduced, Joan Haran, your
invitation to cat’s cradle with Donna Haraway, Starhawk, Niamh Moore, Maria
Puig de Bellacasa, adrienne maree brown, et. Al thank you..let us continue to
share constellations and trace collective dreams with our stardust.
Ciclón
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
