Symbiotic Futures 2.0

The symposium »Symbiotic Futures 2.0« was an open invitation for public discourse as the central event of the exhibition Symbiotic Wood. It was an open platform for exchange between disciplines and across individual perceptions. Topical themes were »Symbiosis as Cognition«, »Symbiosis as Perception« and »Symbiosis as Creation«. These were introduced in an interdisciplinary panel of lectures and a round table discussion by invited experts from the disciplines of materials science, cultural theory and design. The lectures were complemented by a series of smaller hands-on workshops in which participants could gather first-hand information on the symbiotic interaction with materials, such as earth, resin and wood.

Symbiotic Futures 2.0 is part of a series of symposia and workshops establishing the notion of »more-than-human cohabitation« on planet Earth. The first event of the series, Symbiotic Futures, was conducted at Berlinische Galerie in 2023.

Organizers

Karola Dierichs
Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces
Robert Stock
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Program

10:00 am
Welcome

10:15 am
Museum Tour »Symbiotic Wood«

11:00—11:30 am
Team Formation

11:30 am—1:30 pm
Workshops

1:45—2:30 pm
Workshop Discussion

Coffee

3:00 pm
Lecture Lisa Cronjäger

3:30 pm
Lecture Peter Fratzl

4:00–4:30 pm
Roundtable

Lectures

Lisa Cronjäger
International Research Center for Cultural Studies, University of Art and Design Linz in Vienna (ifk)

Beyond Monocultures. On the Cultural Techniques of Agroforestry

What if pigs, cows and goats lived in forests? What if wheat fields were scattered with apple trees? This paper explores the synergies that could arise from shifting the Western understanding of forests from monocultures of high-grown trees towards agro-silvo-pastoral practices. Such practices were widespread in various European regions before the introduction of forest assessment methods in the 19th century. But how did professional forest assessors come to transform coppice forests into monocultures of fast-growing trees? By analyzing historical forest assessment maps and textbooks, this paper traces the cultural techniques of agroforestry. Ultimately, the paper aims to stimulate discussion about the synergies that could emerge from blurring the boundaries between forests, fields and pastures.

Peter Fratzl

Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces; Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Time Scales of Evolution, Climate Change and Adaptive Growth of Trees

Trees are able to develop traits through evolution that allows them to survive in difficult, for example fire-prone, habitats [1]. However, the increasingly fast rate at which climatic conditions change can often not be met anymore by comparatively slow evolutionary adaptation. At a much shorter time scale, adaptive growth processes also tune the internal structure of individual trees to accommodate local challenges, such as typical wind speeds and directions [2]. Human interference with these adaptive cycles can often have unexpected outcomes, as visible in the exhibition here, where the homeostatic interaction between trees, bark beetles and fungi collapses with just a little change in temperature and rainfall. Even fruit trees in meadows start to lose their economic viability for humans, due to infection with mistletoe, among other factors [3], but recently discovered technical value of mistletoe berries create the hope of revaluating these traditional cultures [4]. As a general conclusion, the author argues that a much better understanding of natural as well as human material cycles is needed to reach a more sustainable use of matter [5].

Workshops

Digital Earthcraft

Sacha Cutajar
Fabrication- and Material-Aware Architecture, Università della Svizzera Italiana

Joschua Gosslar
Institute of Structural Design, Technische Universität Braunchschweig

Ema Krakovská
Professorship of Digital Fabrication, Technical University of Munich

This workshop is part of the Symbiotic Futures 2.0 Symposium and centers on building with earthen materials through a combination of theoretical inputs and hands-on material explorations.

Earth is the oldest building material. It is local, sustainable, and readily available all over the world. It can be shaped by hand using traditional techniques or manipulated by tools, machines, and robotic systems in industrial contexts. Even after processing, Earth can also be effortlessly and endlessly reused through its reversible interaction with water.

This workshop explores these fundamental material principles for future construction from three angles. First, a theoretical introduction to the history of earth as construction material, from vernacular practices to current innovations in digital fabrication, will take place via a short presentation. Participants will gain an understanding of Earth’s composition and how the material and process relate to one another. After forming groups, participants will then be given time to explore the broad palette of earthen mix rheologies by preparing various samples and briefly reflecting on their respective applications. Finally, participants will also explore a new form of »3D printing« using stencils to investigate the geometric possibilities of building with earth in the digital age by emulating this digital process in an analog manner.

In doing so, this workshop aims to provide a short but comprehensive overview of working with this common yet invaluable material and what its rediscovery will mean for the construction sector in the coming decades.

Sensing Dis/abled Landscapes: A Symbiotic Way of Perception

Siegfried Saerberg and Robert Stock
Symbiotic relationships between humans, animals and, plant collectives are built on perception. Humans and particularly scientists often mostly rely on vision. But what about different ways of reaching out to nature or, respectively, making nature accessible? How are disabled or blind people using the senses for relating to nature? And how do animals and plants establish symbiotic relations through the senses?

Contrasting the dominance of the visual, this workshop reflects the interdependence of humans, bark beetles and spruce or pine trees. We focus on the role of all senses for reaching out to naturecultures and disabled landscapes such as monoculture forests. Exploring multispecies coexistence through and beyond the exhibition will provide us with the opportunity to practice the »arts of noticing« (Anna L. Tsing). Participants can engage hearing, smell, touch (or temperature and wind sensitivity) to envision how plants, animals, fungi and humans relate to each other. We draw on speculation, urban nature at the Kulturforum and the exhibition.

For a reflection of the sensory experiences, we invite participants to write a short journal piece, diary entry, or a poem to be shared with those present.

Printers and Engravers

Julia Rhein
Product Design, Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin
Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces

Buchdrucker (»Printer«) and Kupferstecher (»Engraver«) are not only terms for historical printing professions, but also the German names of the two most common bark beetle species: Ips typographus and Pityogenes chalcographus. These names derive from the relief-like patterns – so-called feeding galleries – they leave behind in the wood as a trace of their infestation.

In this workshop, we explore the life cycle of these beetles by examining and learning to understand these structures. How do the beetles live within the spruce trunk? How do they form symbiotic relationships with other organisms and the tree itself? And what biological and forestry-based criteria are used to determine an infestation? Following that, we will use the beetle wood to print on paper and textile surfaces.

Participants are welcome to bring their own fabrics to print on.

Resin Passages

Judith M. Dobler
Performative Design Research, Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin

In this workshop, we will look at the organic material tree resin. Tree resin has a rich cultural history, ranging from its use in religion, medicine, electronics, music, sport and art to industrial exploitation. In particular, the resin of softwoods such as spruce and pine has sticky and adhesive properties. It has antibacterial and fungicidal effects that plants, animals and humans have utilised ever since. Based on the functions of the resin, we will look at different symbiotic relationships between tree and animal, animal and human, and human and tree. We will learn about the extraction and utilization of resin right up to the present day directly from the material.