Pedagogical gestures

Emerging Garden: Words as Living Organisms

in­terrelational practice

spatial & sensorial learning

wording exercise

studying with material

I like to think of my notebooks as gardens of meanings — of irrational thoughts, sensations, concepts or methods. They emerge as a performative unfolding of language with sensorial, embodied and spatial experiences.

Sharing this thought with others in collaborative or learning settings, I propose to imagine words as material organisms, as a variety of creatures that need different conditions in order to exist and grow. Any word perceived as a living being will have a particular root system, the strength of its stems, its requirements for the soil, and the speed of its growth. These linguistic creatures can be invasive or slow to spread, hardy or sensitive; they may or may not need particular maintenance. They, similarly to plants, exist in symbiosis with others and in a complexity of ecologies, policies and histories.

Related projects: School for Multi-species Knowledges