How can centering non-humans propagate magical intervention in commercial forestry and agriculture? To what extent can reconnecting with animism challenge the tradition of a profit-driven hierarchical dominance over the Creation?

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My research in the past few months at the University of the Underground has been largely motivated by the climate crisis and the first visible effects of drought leading to major deforestation in Germany. Connecting this subject with the theme and research question of the programme ‘I want to believe’, my research started with looking at climate change (denial) as a belief system and to what degree public discourse is shaped by mechanisms of human belief. Studying climate science communication, its reception in art and media, as well as sociological findings about how humanity deals with climate change formed the foundation of my research.

Coming from a photojournalistic background often dealing with science, my research was overly concerned with how to portray the climate crisis and current solutions that tackle the problem and address the uncertainty of future effects of the changing climate. During this investigation and over the course of the programme, I realised a more challenging approach is necessary to dissect the current challenges of the climate crisis and further develop my own creative process while dealing with this complex topic.

Talking to forest rangers, forest administrators, as well as farmers and tree nursery workers, brought me to the realisation that climate action is largely understood from an anthropocentric perspective, including by myself. Therefore, designing nature and agriculture to be more climate-resilient as a form of human self-preservation made me think that non-human perspectives are not considered at all and nature is still treated as a resource to be exploited and shaped, informed by the European colonial tradition of maximising the profit that can be harvested from it.

This tradition has to come to an end as it starts to backfire and the time has come when nature has to be considered as a non-human entity to force a shift in its perception. In the coming months, I want to design an experience which de-centers humans and lets the forest speak up in a cinematic online experience that forces the human viewer to take a step back and introduce a holistic approach.