On the Usefulness of Modern Animism

Co-Creating Architecture with Soils as Ontopolitical Practice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13100643
AutoresE Guibert (0000-0002-3214-5744, University of Westminster, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen7
Número1
Páginas176-197
Fecha de publicación2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeoHumanities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2373-5678 • E-ISSN: 2373-566X
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904785
OpenAlexW3171995147
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas24

In opposition to the general understanding of animism as an irrational religious set of beliefs, the—secular—modern animism embodied in this practice of built and grown architecture is operative. It conceives of places—ecosystems—as beings with agency that we garden with to nurture and express their resilience. It is a useful ontology for ecological practice; this architectural animism is ontopolitical; it co-creates a common world. At a recent symposium, a number of projects were presented as architectural soils and to give a voice to these earthly beings, the method was to write a letter from them to me. This first letter with the response in this article forms the beginning of an animistic correspondence. The medium places the reader in a pluriverse, in between the multiple voices of various “actants.” The text is isomorphic to the embodied dialogue of this earthy practice. It is useful both to nurture societal awareness—empathy and care—towards these fragmentary ecosystemic beings, and as research method to conceive them, and our relationship

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Animism · Archaeology · Embodied cognition · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Opposition (politics · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies · History · Philosophy · Architecture