Sites of Sympoiesis: The air we breathe (as public realm)
Perhaps there is no more public a realm than the air we breathe. This year has exposed some of the problematic politics of the air and the ‘public realm’, not least through the establishment of new social and spatial boundaries as a response to the pandemic. Furthermore, Covid-19, the horrific murder of George Floyd, and the continuing acceleration of the climate crisis lay bare what many already know - that certain bodies are more exposed and vulnerable to the potential toxicity of our collective air: whether that be from pollution, policy, prejudice, or pandemics.
However, the proposition of the project ‘Sites of Sympoiesis’ is to suggest alternative ways for us to think about the nature of the public realm through our collective relation to the air that we breathe that seeks to resist oppressive boundaries and limitations.
It is estimated that humans breathe in between 100,000 and 1 million microbes each day, around 1000 different species of bacteria and fungi. So, the air that we share (and our breath) leads us into ongoing, everyday patterns and processes of coexistence and co-production - what Lynn Margulis called the “intimacy of strangers.” This idea of co-production, or making-with, can also be called sympoiesis (Donna Haraway), and we suggest in this project that it could be an important way to think about the idea of the ‘public realm.’ Thinking about air, therefore, allows us to imagine a public realm of co-existence and making-with, a public realm that is made through our relationships to each other, to other life, and to the earth, and that is fully aware “the very air we breathe is politics" (Helon Habila).
In this discussion the artist/architect duo ; a place, of their own. (Paula McCloskey and Sam Vardy) are joined by Dr Liz Coleman of NUI Galway’s Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS) and Akil Scafe-Smith from Resolve Collective (London, UK) to explore shared relations to “the air we breathe”, and how this might be generative in re-imagining the ‘public realm’ through our collective relation to the air that seeks to resist oppressive and violent boundaries and limitations.
Speakers:
Paula McCloskey and Sam Vardy; a place, of their own, in conversation with
Liz Coleman, NUI Galway School of Physics
Dr. Clare Noone, Center for Climate & Air Pollution Studies NUI Galway
RESOLVE+Group https://www.resolvecollective.com/about
TICKETS
Free | Online Event (Live and Digital via Zoom)
Live-streamed on AATE's Facebook and YouTube channels, and available to watch online.
Meeting ID: 843 9030 9395
Passcode: 899953