Stany splątane. Naturokulturowe opisy i praktyki bycia w świecie
The Entangled States: Natural-cultural Descriptions and Practices of Being in the World
Contributor(s): Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi (Editor), Michalina Czerwońska (Editor), Sara Kruszona-Barełkowska (Editor), Anna Potoczny (Editor), Maja Rup (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Philosophy, Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature, Administrative Law
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: nature and culture; entanglement; post-humanism; ecology; eco-criticism
Summary/Abstract: This monograph presents the work of young Polish researchers conducting transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross-field research on the contemporary world. It includes ecocritical, new materialist, and posthumanist perspectives, as well as descriptions of cognitive, artistic, and activist practices. The authors strive to develop a Polish conceptual framework that will enable the study and description of complex and entangled natural and cultural phenomena.The monograph presents the achievements of young Polish scientists who conduct trans and interdisciplinary research of the contemporary world. It contains eco-critical, new materialistic, and post-humanist perspectives, as well as the descriptions of cognitive, artistic and activist practices. The authors attempt to develop a Polish linguistic apparatus, which will allow for the study and description of environmental problems of the 21st century. In the texts they analyse places, spaces, identities and discourses, discovering their entanglements in inextricable natural-cultural connections.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-7024-0
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-7022-6
- Page Count: 202
- Publication Year: 2025
- Language: Polish
Wprowadzenie
Wprowadzenie
(Introduction)
- Author(s):Paweł Piszczatowski, Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi, Michalina Czerwońska, Sara Kruszona-Barełkowska, Anna Potoczny, Maja Rup
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:7-9
- No. of Pages:3
- Keywords:environmental humanities; agential realism; natureculture; posthumanism; matter-meaning; non-anthropocentric subjectivity
- Summary/Abstract:Introduction to an interdisciplinary scientific monograph created as a result of the conference 'Entangled States: Nature-Cultural Practices of Describing the World,' organized at the University of Warsaw. The presented publication gathers articles by young researchers who, in the spirit of environmental humanities and posthumanism, break down the traditional division between nature and culture. The book has been divided into two converging parts – Descriptions and Practices – constituting a creative combination of various fields of science, methodologies, and modes of expression, including painting.
Wstęp
Wstęp
(Introduction)
- Author(s):Anna Potoczny, Maja Rup
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:13-17
- No. of Pages:5
- Keywords:performativity of description; natureculture; situated knowledges; ahumanism; interspecies relations; climate crisis
- Summary/Abstract:Introduction to the first part of the scientific monograph, focusing on the performative and nature-cultural dimension of narratives about the world. The text discusses scientific articles that, based on the theories of Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, or Patricia MacCormack, among others, analyze the ecological potential of religious language, ahumanism, the subjectivity of the river, and a new definition of instinct. The theoretical issues explored here intertwine with the raw paintings of Maria Mencwel presented in this section, which touch upon the problems of the climate crisis and interspecies relations.
Studium wspomnienia piachu. White Band Disease. Strategie przetrwania. Opłakiwanie
Studium wspomnienia piachu. White Band Disease. Strategie przetrwania. Opłakiwanie
(Study of a Memory of Sand. White Band Disease. Survival Strategies. Mourning)
- Author(s):Maria Mencwel
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Visual Arts
- Page Range:18-21
- No. of Pages:4
- Keywords:oil on canvas; contemporary painting; earth tones; inter-plant relationships; tenderness toward objects; climate mourning
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents the paintings of Maria Mencwel from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which consist of four works created using the oil on canvas technique. The presented paintings – 'Studium wspomnienia piachu', 'White band disease', 'Strategie przetrwania', and 'Opłakiwanie' – focus on raw, solitary objects and are kept in muted earth tones. Each piece is accompanied by a brief commentary by the artist, which addresses themes of tenderness toward objects, anxiety, mourning, and deep inter-plant and inter-object relationships in the face of the approaching end.
O zbawieniu stworzenia i odnowie oblicza Ziemi. Wprowadzenie do ekoteologii Bruno Latoura
O zbawieniu stworzenia i odnowie oblicza Ziemi. Wprowadzenie do ekoteologii Bruno Latoura
(On the Salvation of Creation and the Renewal of the Face of the Earth. Introduction to Bruno Latour’s Ecotheology)
- Author(s):Anna Pazio
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science
- Page Range:22-40
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:religion; nature; Latour; science; Anthropocene; ecotheology
- Summary/Abstract:In the Anthropocene era, the dichotomous opposition between Nature and Culture is becoming increasingly untenable, generating the need for alternative perspectives for confronting the threats facing all human and non-human reality today. According to Bruno Latour, one of the narratives with the potential for the renewal of the “face of the Earth” in the context of the climate catastrophe may be religion. This will be possible provided that it moves away from the modernist conception of Nature and returns to a concern for the salvation and renewal of all Creation – no longer just immaterial souls, but as much as possible material humans and non-humans in an uncertain world of constantly reconfiguring connections. The purpose of this text is, first, to illuminate the place of religion in Bruno Latour’s broader ideological universe based on a wide spectrum of his texts, second, to explore his reflections on the potential of religion for “renewing the face of the Earth” in the era of the Anthropocene, and third, to reflect more generally on the relationship between religion and science as seen by Latour and his endeavor to untangle the still commonly held opposition between the two.
Akty łaski na rzecz końca antropocenu. Od stawania-się-zwierzęciem do aktywizmu śmierci: wprowadzenie do ahumanistycznej filozofii Patricii MacCormack
Akty łaski na rzecz końca antropocenu. Od stawania-się-zwierzęciem do aktywizmu śmierci: wprowadzenie do ahumanistycznej filozofii Patricii MacCormack
(Acts of Grace for the End of the Anthropocene. From Becoming-Animal to Death Activism: Introduction to Patricia MacCormack’s Ahumanist Philosophy)
- Author(s):Olivier Nowakowski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Social Philosophy
- Page Range:41-62
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:ahumanism; posthumanism; Patricia MacCormack; becoming-animal; death activism
- Summary/Abstract:The article is the first attempt in Poland to present the ecosophical ahumanist theory derived from the works of Patricia MacCormack. The author describes the Australian philosopher’s project as a radical response to the most pressing problems related to the Anthropocene in a way that not only opposes thinking about the uniqueness of human as a species, but also assumes his slow and methodical extinction. The author situates ahumanism as a separate theoretical proposition and life praxis in the context of posthumanist discourses related to relationality, and also presents the connections between ahumanism and Spinozian ethics. The following sections present two concepts constituting ahumanist thinking – the abolitionistically understood becoming-animal/unbecoming-human and death activism. Both of them strive, on the one hand, to free non-human expressions without discursive violence and, on the other, to limit the human, parasitic presence expressed through queer thinking about failure, passivity and death as life-giving and empathically vitalistic practices. The article also reflects on issues such as the necessity of focusing on organic life as a domain requiring abolition, as well as the paradoxical positioning of ahumanism in relation to humanism. The article is merely the result of the author’s preliminary research and therefore the above content should be treated only as an introduction to an extensive, still developing, intersectional theory.
Narracje rzek
Narracje rzek
(River Narratives)
- Author(s):Zuzanna Legan
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:63-80
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:river; ecocritcs; palimpsest; meander; more-than-human; nomadic subject
- Summary/Abstract:This article reads river as a material source of meaning, an integral part of both the bio- and the semiosphere. With the help of ecocritical tools, the text discovers meanings written in the flowing water that are used by given authors in the process of searching for new ways of creating stories in the dynamically changing reality. The model of „being-in-the-world” that the free, meandering, outflowing river proposes is presented as an antidote for the crisis of anthropocentric, goal-oriented narratives. It shows the in-fluence the read, but also imagined river has on the process of emerging, nomadic subjects and their relation with the inhabited, relational space of fluid phenomena.
Zwierzęce figle, czyli język i polityka jako improwizacje instynktu
Zwierzęce figle, czyli język i polityka jako improwizacje instynktu
(Animal Pranks, or Language and Politics as Improvisations of Instinct)
- Author(s):Melania Krakowiak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
- Page Range:81-102
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:instinct; animal; automaton; Brian Massumi; play; language; politics
- Summary/Abstract:The subject of the article is Brian Massumi’s call for a redefinition of the concept of instinct as proposed in his work What Animals Teach Us About Politics. Massumi, inspired by the ethological studies of Niko Tinbergen and Gregory Bateson, as well as the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, argues for an understanding of instinct as a creative force that is a manifestation of the reflexivity of all organisms. He rejects the traditional conceptualization of instinct as an automatic mechanism that determines animal behavior. I set this redefinition of instinct in the historical context of two visions of nature, as order and as chaos, referring to the thought of Descartes and Charles Darwin. Contrasting the mechanical understanding of the animal with the concept of fluid animality, Massumi shows that instinct is the basis of such phenomena as language and politics. I compare this new vision with the traditional concept of Aristotle’s dzoon politikon, while drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of inclusive exclusion. I try to show how Massumi’s proposal can change our thinking about the animal continuum, paying particular attention to its seemingly paradoxical implication that what is most unique about humans is a manifestation of their animal nature.
Wstęp
Wstęp
(Introduction)
- Author(s):Michalina Czerwońska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:107-110
- No. of Pages:4
- Keywords:nature-cultural practices; symbiogenesis; agroecology; compost imaginarium; environmental humanities; interspecies entanglements
- Summary/Abstract:Introduction to the second part of the monograph, which focuses on applying posthumanist and ecological theories in direct academic, artistic, and everyday action. The text introduces articles discussing, among other things, the environmental aspects of translation, experimental urban activities, sustainable agroecology, and the concept of compost as a curatorial metaphor. All the works gathered in this section, drawing on the thought of Donna Haraway or Lynn Margulis, strive to break down binary divisions and validation inseparable, nature-cultural interspecies entanglements.
Substantia Grisae. Studium czułości. Poronienie. Ear Pods Fossil
Substantia Grisae. Studium czułości. Poronienie. Ear Pods Fossil
(Substantia Grisae. Study of Tenderness. Miscarriage. Ear Pods Fossil)
- Author(s):Maria Mencwel
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Visual Arts
- Page Range:111-114
- No. of Pages:4
- Keywords:non-human mourning; interspecies tenderness; hydrofeminism; time scales; oil on canvas; validation of practice
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents the paintings of Maria Mencwel from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which consist of four works created using the oil on canvas technique. The presented paintings – 'Substantia Grisae', 'Studium czułości', 'Poronienie', and 'Ear Pods Fossil' – constitute an artistic form of validation of practice within a scientific publication. Each piece is accompanied by a brief commentary by the artist, which addresses themes of non-human mourning, interspecies tenderness, the concept of hydrofeminism, and the intertwining of distant time scales.
Środowiskowe aspekty przekładu języków mniejszościowych
Środowiskowe aspekty przekładu języków mniejszościowych
(The Environmental Aspects of the Translation of Minority Languages)
- Author(s):Adrianna Stańczak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Translation Studies
- Page Range:115-134
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:translation; translation studies; minority languages; language minorities; environmental protection; the environment; indigenous languages and cultures
- Summary/Abstract:Language and translation are usually considered to be a solely human form of behaviour, and yet they are often and easily linked with environmental thinking, especially in the context of endangered languages and linguistic diversity. Arguments on minority language issues are often centred around their connection to their natural environment, but then they also usually betray a tourist perspective and treat minority language speakers as prisoners of their locality, living outside of modernity and mobility. Michael Cronin counters these arguments by highlighting the importance of a close relationship with one’s own local environment, and differentiating between locality and limitation. Such a close relationship with one’s surroundings does not exist in global languages, in which meaning is being lost: specific terms are replaced with more general ones, and it becomes difficult or impossible to truly perceive the specific elements of the environment that no longer have names. Minority languages are also a unique source of knowledge, especially pertaining to the various ways of taking care of land and being cared for by it. Translation, then, is not only crucial for the survival and flourishing of minority languages, but also for better protection of the environment.
"Ekspedycje mirowskie" jako przykład posthumanistyki w działaniu
"Ekspedycje mirowskie" jako przykład posthumanistyki w działaniu
('The Mirów Expeditions' as an Example of Posthumanities in Action)
- Author(s):Marta Dubiel
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Sociology of Art
- Page Range:135-150
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:posthumanities; environmental humanities; participation; social arts; urban ecology; Anthropocene; multispecies ethnography
- Summary/Abstract:The paper is a synthetic description of the concept and course of the Mirów Expeditions, a participatory project aimed at forming a local research and art group committed to learning how to coexist with the city’s non-human inhabitants and how to be attentive to interspecies entanglements. Over the course of three months, the research group sought answers to the questions what species of plants, animals, fungi, insects and lichens inhabit the city, how they co-create urban spaces, and if it is possible to set boundaries between nature and culture. The group’s actions were supposed to test how artistic methods can support the experience and understanding of other living organisms. The project drew on theoretical concepts from the field of posthumanism, including works by Donna Haraway, Monika Rogowska-Stangret, Anna Tsing and Robin Wall Kimmerer. It represented an attempt to turn a posthumanist theory into practice.
Agroekologia, powrót do ziemi. Nowe rozumienie relacji rolnika z naturą w ramach alternatyw dla współczesnego systemu żywnościowego
Agroekologia, powrót do ziemi. Nowe rozumienie relacji rolnika z naturą w ramach alternatyw dla współczesnego systemu żywnościowego
(Agroecology, the Return to the Fields. A New Understanding of the Farmer’s Relationship with Nature as an Alternative to the Modern Food System)
- Author(s):Tymon Jurczak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Agriculture, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:151-173
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:agriculture; agroecology; nature; relation with nature; food system; ethnography; neo-peasants; van der Ploeg
- Summary/Abstract:In the last decades a new type of a farmer has emerged in Poland. This new group is composed mostly of people coming from cities and engaged in activism. What differentiates them from the majority of farmers, that is those who usually inherit their family farms, is their characteristic relationship with nature and the soil they farm on. The pro-ecological models of farming and distribution that they choose, that is ecological or biodynamic agriculture, community-supported agriculture, or food cooperatives, often stem from a contestation of the reality of the current food system. In its place, they postulate a reorganization of food production based on a subjectification of the soil and the environment as actors taking non-passive part in the production process. Such reshaping of the relation between humans and nature is possible because of the social and cultural capital of the farmers. It is reflected in their work on the fields which I discuss in the article using self-gathered ethnographic material as a basis.
Kompost jako metafora relacji ze światem i inspiracja dla zabiegów kuratorskich
Kompost jako metafora relacji ze światem i inspiracja dla zabiegów kuratorskich
(Compost as a Metaphor for Relationships with the World and Inspiration for Curatorial Activities)
- Author(s):Maria Blanka Grzybowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Visual Arts, Sociology of Art
- Page Range:174-193
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:compost; decomposition; metaphor; climate; posthumanism
- Summary/Abstract:Exploring compost as a fertile metaphor for our relationship with the world, I consider in this paper how curatorial narratives on ecological issues and climate catastrophe should be approached. Invoking an interpretation of compost that highlights an understanding of matter as a network of interconnected entities creating new life, I examine three main theoretical areas: interspecies community, a new approach to life and death, and a feminist ethic of care. On the basis of these theories, I analyze selected artworks, as well as exhibitions or curatorial activities that align with the concept of 'compost exhibitionism'.
Indeks rzeczowy
Indeks rzeczowy
(Subject Index)
- Author(s):Anna Chyckowska, Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:194-195
- No. of Pages:2
Indeks osób
Indeks osób
(Index of Names)
- Author(s):Anna Chyckowska, Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Social Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:196-200
- No. of Pages:5
