Eva Direito, Patrícia Moreira and Olga Timurgalieva
Contemporary Western cultures tend to de-animate and objectify nonhuman worlds (Conty, 2021). Such de-animation goes hand-in-hand with high consumption levels possible due to specific human-nonhuman relations in which numerous life forms are considered mere resources. These manufacturing arrangements, according to sociologist and geographer Bram Büscher, have led to “estranged interrelations between human and nonhuman natures”, which are “(re)produced in and through political-economic systems of instrumentalization and domination” (Büscher, 2022, p. 56). Via the colonial and interspecies estrangements, we as end-users usually do not know what we consume and which life forms have been involved in manufacturing specific products.
As a response to such estrangement, the art book “Yeasts as We Do Not Know Them” seeks to map human relations with single-celled fungal microorganisms called yeasts and illuminate the invisible omnipresence of these fungi in our day-to-day lives. Inspired by Christien Meindertsma’s project “PIG 05049” (2007), which documents various products made from a pig called 05049, “Yeasts as We Do Not Know Them” chronicles the roles of minute, non-charismatic and often invisible beings in our lives. Our art book captures the microbial fungi that inhabit human bodies and those employed in the production of food, drinks, water treatment biochemicals, medicine, pigments, food colouring, textile detergents, biofuels, animal feed, etc. Each page of the book is devoted to a specific yeast or a product made with these fungi.
Although informed by relational theory and histories of co-existence and co-dependence, this art project does not seek just to emphasize how we are interconnected with yeasts. As Büscher has stated, some human-nonhuman entanglements mediated by contemporary structures of production and consumption become problematic due to their detrimental impact on ecologies and their relation to social, racial and gender inequalities; therefore, they have to be rather remade or “unmade” (Collard, 2014, Feola, 2019, as cited in Büscher, 2022, p. 56). In this context, the book invites the viewers to learn about yeast roles in our daily lives and consider which human-yeast entanglements might need to be remade or unmade.
References:
Büscher, B. (2022). The nonhuman turn: Critical reflections on alienation, entanglement and nature under capitalism. Dialogues in Human Geography, 12(1), 54–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206211026200 Conty, A. (2021). Animism in the Anthropocene. Theory, Culture & Society, 0(0), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211039283 Meindertsma, C. (2007). PIG 05049. https://christienmeindertsma.com/PIG-05049.
Who are Eva Direito, Patrícia Moreira and Olga Timurgalieva?
Eva Direito holds a degree in Art Conservation. She’s doing her master’s degree in Conservation of New Media Art at the School of Arts (UCP, Portugal). Having received an artistic education, Eva works with digital and analogue photography and graphic design. During the past few years, she’s been working as Art Director in short movies for the School of Arts, some of which earned accolades. For instance, “Our House in Flames” by Miguel Mesquita got nominations at the Curtas Festival of Vila do Conde, Portugal. Additionally, “Hysteria” by Luísa Campino, with Eva as artistic director, won prizes at Sophia Awards in Portugal.
Patrícia Moreira holds a PhD in Biotechnology with a specialization in Biochemical Engineering from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP, Portugal). She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts (UCP). She is an integrated member of the Center for Research in Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR). Additionally, Patrícia coordinates the Area-Focus Heritage, Conservation and Restoration of CITAR and collaborates with the Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry, both UCP. Her main research area is innovation in Biotechnology for Cultural Heritage, with an emphasis on biodeterioration, sustainability, citizen science Green Conservation and bio-art practices.
Olga Timurgalieva is a PhD candidate at City University of Hong Kong and a former visiting researcher at King’s College London. Awarded by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, her research investigates the intersections of biotechnology and contemporary art, with a particular focus on fungal microbes and their interspecies relations. Olga has worked in art institutions, including the ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe), and co-curated the exhibition “Here and Elsewhere” at the Kobro Gallery, The Strzemiński Academy of Art (Lodz) and the festival “Seasons of Media Arts 2019” at the ZKM. She participated in the creation of collaborative art projects that have been exhibited at Aalborg University Copenhagen (Denmark), nachtspeicher23 (Germany), and Jockey Club Creative Art Centre (Hong Kong).