Staging Material Encounters

Abstract

This paper outlines and reflects upon a recent period of practice-based research into the human and more-than-human relationship at this critical time for life on Earth. Drawing on ideas from within the field of human trauma, which describe how remnants of traumatic experiences become trapped within the body as sensations, pain, processes, and cancers, completely cut off from the original experiences that contributed to their formation, the research was centred around the concept of Earth as an expressive archive of valuable information about the way it has been treated and related to. Like Van Der Kolk’s human body (Van Der Kolk, 2015), the Earth in this context “keeps the score”. Notions of extractivism, objectification and othering, along with ideas around ‘separation sickness’, describing the ‘cultural trauma’ of intergenerational disconnection from ourselves and the land (Rust, 2020), form the backdrop to the research. A variety of starting points fed into the work, impacting upon one another in rich, diverse, and complex ways. Printmaking processes were utilised throughout as both research tools and within more resolved works. The paper is a series of reflections, not necessarily chronological or complete, but rather a snapshot of key ideas, questions, processes, and directions.