Theoretical questions
Based on the awareness of ecological multiplicity, the WG explores epistemologies drawn from various forms of natural life. These practices generate new forms of relating, interacting and collaborating between various forms of natures. This WG is concerned with artistic/creative practices dedicated to ecological relations. It is also based on the understanding of the global rise of the rights of nature (developed first in non-European cultures, based on ancestral and recent local communitarian and activist practices) and connected to social and climate justice and the consciousness of the plurality of living forms. In the first year we have tried to gather information about cross-cultural technological innovations, based on the implication of living organisms such as microorganisms, fungi, bacteria (for example that can help with carbon sequestration) etc.

It contemplates solutions in circularity, developed by what has been called ‘bio-technologies’, 'bio-arts' working with nature, being informed by natural processes, and integrating these processes into the urban setting. It is also based on the understanding of the global rise of the rights of 'nature’ (developed first in non-European cultures, based on ancestral and recent local communitarian and activist practices) and connected to social and climate justice and the consciousness of the plurality of living forms.

Some of the key understandings questions that we raised were: Understanding questions:

What is ‘nature’?
How and been it has been separated from ‘culture’?;
How natures are connected/disconnected to everyday practices developed in different urban contexts?;
How artistic/academic/native knowledges can be (re)signified to move in the direction of a deeper understanding of the different forms of bio (“human and non-human) that inhabit together the same space?