Startingpoints
Shamanic Session
Marleen Verschueren, Linda Verplancke, Karin Van Ginneken, Martina Gylsen, Nele Deman, Erik De Wilde and Ingrid Baisier, a local shamans collective invited the participants to the world of spirits, with a ritual on the first day of the worksession.
Visit the trees in Domein Bokrijk
Domein Bokrijk, a domain in the Northeast of Belgium, was once a tenancy farm that belonged to the abbess of Herckenrode. It used to be mainly heather, peat and farmland. Over the years, it has had many different owners, each of which left their mark in different ways: digging ponds for fish farming, planting woodland or converting heathland into farmland. During the 20th century, an Arboretum was installed as well as a museum for trees and shrubs.
Maja Kuzmanovic & Nik Gaffney (FoAM) asked to collect a small stone, pebble or rock fragment during the visit; to put it in our pocket (or somewhere else on our body) and carry it with us at all times during the worksession, and to notice how our relationship with it changes throughout the week.
Guided tour by Hans Nickmans, Manager of Green Spaces
Hans introduced us to the different types of management that go with the different spaces. For the Arboretum, for example, each species is recorded in a database, from its origin to its moment of death. The forest parts are managed as reserves, nature has its own right, only trees and bushes near the pathways are maintained. In the Open-Air Museum of historical homes, Nick is also working on reintroducing some forgotten varieties of vegetables. The aim of this project is to show the whole evolution of fruits and vegetable growing, based on research using old paintings, descriptions, stories…
Lunch
We had lunch served by Roberto Simone in the beautiful glass room of Het Groene Huis at the entrance of the Arboretum.
Meeting Trees
Pines, birches, oaks and beeches were welcoming us in the afternoon. After a silent walk each participant was invited to meet a tree. Afterwards the trees were introduced by their friends to the group.
sounds
Workshop on stones by FoAM
Maja Kuzmanovic & Nik Gaffney of FoAM explore panpsychism and animism in contemporary techno-materialistic societies. For Alchorisma, FoAM focused on geological substrates of digital technology. From their temporary outpost in Japan, after a Shinto pelgrimage in the Kii-mountains along the Kumano Kodo paths, they invited us for a collective exercise. We worked with attunement as a way to reestablish relationships with geological entities and glacial timescales, to experiment with algorithms to re-confuse binary distinctions between nature and culture, human and non-human, life and death.
Workshop on algorithms by rybn
The collective RYBN presented their work ADM XI and Data Ghosts as case studies of integrating non-human entities in the algorithmic world. They also proposed a methodology to collectively establish a common syntax (grammar & graphical forms) for the week.
Presentation
Notes:
Tuesday
StonesAlgo
The International Tribunal of Mother Earth Rights
Karin Ulmer presented her experiences and research on The International Tribunal of Mother Earth Rights is an autonomous judicial institution pursuant to the entry into force of the People’s Convention for the Establishment of the International Tribunal of Mother Earth Rights.
Karin is currently working with actalliance.eu, a European development NGO, specialising on EU agricultural and trade policies and global food systems. In this context she has been closely following up on indigenous rights mouvements.
Her overview of recent trends in institutionalizing rights for Mother Earth is a first step to invite Alchorisma into the real world of (EU) politics, economic growth and planetary boundaries. How can Alchorisma work be communicated beyond Constant’s outreach? Can (elements of it) be transposed into ongoing (EU) policy making and processes? What relevance could Alchorism have for the Post-Growth or De-Growth movement?
Slides:
PPTX file
Appendix (PDF)
Sound : play m4a
Morning practise ‘Talking to the spirits’ by FoAM
Every day we started the program at 10h in the candle lit attic of Z33, sitting on meditation cushions or lying down on yoga mats with soft blankets. There we listened to a daily recording by Maja & Nik. Due to the timezone difference with Kyoto/Japan, they consulted our notes, slides and images while we were asleep.
During the week the morning practise was renamed the Echochamber, as Maya & Nik would pick snippets of sentences and thoughts as a base for a mantra style guided meditation.
Tuesday : Play mp3
Wednesday : Play mp3
Thursday : Play mp3
Friday : Play mp3
Saturday : Play mp3
Download all recordings (zip)
Read the transcriptions of the soundfiles
Film Evening
On Tuesday evening, Z33 organized, in the context of the Alchorisma work session, a screening of two films that focus on the themes of magic and spirituality. The two films show how artists respond, in their own way, to our contemporary interaction with elements from the earth and nature.
FOREST LAW (Ursula Biemann & Paulo Tavares - Ecuador / Switzerland – 2014 - 38 min)
NIGHT SOIL - NOCTURNAL GARDENING (Melanie Bonajo - US/NL - Full HD one-channel color video with sound, 49:47 min. Courtesy of the artist & AKINCI.)
Technoshamanism
Isabella Aurora and Malgorzata Zurada gave an introduction to the notion of ‘techno-magin’ and ‘technoshamanism’,.
Notes
