Welcome to Woods in the Sound! This monthly audio series is a space held by Foresta Collective where we converse, listen to and exchange with humans and more-than-humans, in dedication to the emergence of an imaginary for a more ecological and connected being in the world. In this episode we are learning from plants, and specifically from the RHIZOME. Rhizome is a subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. It is also carrying multiple cultural and philosophical meanings, and we want to acknowledge the influence of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in our thinking about rhizomes. However we are not interested in a purely philosophical discourse, we are rather interesting in thinking how learning from rhizome can we find new ways for being together differently. Rhizome offers us to think of poetics of interconnectedness, of a structure without a center, of a fundamental openness to new connections, respecting multiplicity, heterogeneity, and a process that is defined by the ability to form symbiotic connections. We relate to an incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor and of learning from and with plants in general. Guests For a conversation, we invited Philipp Kolmann, a designer working with food and plants (it was recorded on the market square of a small village, in Obervinschgau, Südtyrol). In the practice part we explore rhizomatic connections within the context of Topoló, a village in north-eastern Italy, where a cultural association Robida is re-thinking art residentiality in marginal areas. The metaphor of a rhizome and learning from plants, inspired both the How and the What of our conversation, while pondering the ideas for looking at the village as an intelligent organism, a self-organizing body, a network, a structure without a center. People who took part in this session are: Jack Bardwell, Elena Braida, Philipp Kolmann, Kim Lang, Aljaž Škrlep, Tymonh and Jesse from studio Wild Architecture, Matteo and Natalia from Società Essoterica di Illusionismo Critico, and other humans associated with Robida. Soundscape in this episode has been an offering from Tosca Terán. It’s an excerpt from Tosca’s work Chaos Fungorum. Chaos Fungorum is a journey into the Terrestrial solar system. Living Ganoderma lucidum mycelium hooked up with electrodes sending biodata through modules which translate this data in real-time and then process it through a Make Noise NoCoast, 3 Moog Mother32, Minitaur, DFAM and Subharmonicon. From the multiverse into the Oort cloud, through dark matter. Branching out, we breath it in. Recorded live during the Chaos fungorum installation for Nuit Blanche 2018 at the Baba Yaga Collective studio/gallery, Toronto Canada Credits and Episode notes Produced by: Sabina Enéa Téari, Egor Sviridenko Opening and closing music: Pied butcherbird, Claire Edwardes, Hollis Taylor, Jon Rose Opening and closing visuals and transitions: Alexander Sharapov Episode artwork: Laura Savina Mentioned references: * Blackthorn * Autumn Trail at Foresta Seasonal Academy * Dojo Community of Practice
