Contribution to the 'Learning from the Graden, Learning with the Land' public event;
Inspired by inspired by the collaboration with Saša Spačal

SCORE
A Walk Led by the Petri Dish Landscapes

This collaboration between Victoria McKenzie and Irina Shapiro is part of the art-pedagogical research project Witnessing Lands and Soils 404 (2021-2022, SNV) which began with an inspiration from a species of the more-human-community known as the termite architect. Termites, utilizing a specific type of fungus known as ‘termitomryces’, create incredible mounds that proliferate in desert landscapes and redefine what it means to work with the soil. Through a yearlong correspondence, we unlearned and re-experienced our relation to the soil, constructing and deconstructing with the material as well as with our memories, stories and experiences. The collaboration of witnessing and working with led to us enter the practice of the language and pedagogy of Earth, as well as re-vitalize our relation to soil as more-than-matter. The performative reading will be followed by a short exercise. We invite the audience to engage with the emerged narrative as an assemblage of documentations, sensations, theories, memories and experiences: a practice of pilgrimage-as-learning.

Performative reading and ceremony: Victoria McKenzie and Irina Shapiro

10 Limitations to Creating Our Freedoms – Freedoms that De- and Re-Structure those Limitations

The source of the Petri dish’s landscape you witness is tiny particles of the garden – leaves in decay, waters, soils, and items I found while walking through the complex.
The nutritious environment of the Petri dish allows us to see more than when we look at soil –
placing a piece of soil or drop of water in agar-agar, I created conditions for fungi and bacteria to grow and manifest themselves to our eyes.
This growth requires time (three weeks until now).
And darkness.
No two similar images emerged in the Petri dish.

I invite you to take one dish and read it as a score to explore the garden.
Choose the image that talks to you.

Let the Petri dish landscape lead your walk.
You can perceive this image as a map
or a loose inspiration to walk.

Remember, you look at the living bodies.
These organisms do not like light and dramatic changes in the temperature.
Be gentle.

Pay attention to what you see in this miniature garden – are there connections with the large garden complex?
Maybe you find a spot where the tiny elements living in the Petri dish are originated from.

You can explore the complex alone or with
a person you do not know (yet).
You have 25 minutes for this walk.
Allow the first 10 minutes to speand in silence.

Make notes (linguistic or not), drawings
or maps on your walk.