Thinking + Talking

one-day forum organized by the Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at HGK Basel. The event explored how power dynamics and contexts shape the production and validation of knowledge and how we can situate our own perspectives within these frameworks.

Cultivating knowledge at the margin with Kenza Benabderrazik 

How do power and knowledge dynamics shape our food and agricultural systems? This lecture examines the forces influencing our plates, from food security to agroecological transition. We’ll challenge dominant narratives, explore marginal spaces of resistance and experimentation, and delve into decolonial perspectives on agriculture. Can Swiss institutions nurture transformative practices and subversive spaces to reshape food systems? 

in collaboration with La_Capsula and Index Freiraum

How can bottom-up approaches to science and art democratise these fields and create new forms of artistic expression?

Giulia Tomasello , designer and educator focused on intimate care and biohacking and Arianna Forte, curator and researcher specialising in media art and computational rituals, will lead a workshop followed by a talk, diving deep into the ethical, philosophical, and creative implications of biohacking.

With a practical workshop, we connected with bacteria, microbes, and other non-human entities with which we share our everyday existence. These invisible life forms, though often overlooked, are essential to our mutual survival and offer a unique lens through which to

In summer 2023, we organised a symposium on loops, reciprocity, fungi and food, as an exchange between art and science.

There were contributions from Paloma Ayala, La Polinizadora, Mu, Dr. Tania Galindo Castañeda, Dr. Sandra Smith Aguilar and Dr. Benjamin Wilde, which covered topics such as circularity in food systems, when art becomes life, labs of intention and transformation, architecture and anatomy of maize cultivars, growing fungi with human waste, speculative imaginaries, daily resistance practices, hegemony of linearity and the value of shit, intersectional diagloues, urine enriched biochar; and going past poop-phobia.

In connection with the exhibition Future Plant(s) Life Science Zurich is hosting together with the SAE Sustainable Agroecosystems Group ETH two Laser Talks, an exchange between scientists and artists.

• What is resilience in relation to your research and nutrition?
• How can we feed plants so that they can feed us properly?
• How do we enhance our food systems to face the climate crisis?
• How can we raise awareness through art about ways to transform plant systems and their sustainability?
• What new kinds for communication strategies can we use to educate people about plants and food in the future?

Science Speakers:

• Dr. Charles Nwokoro, Postdoctoral researcher, Group für Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
• Prof. Dr. Johanna Jacobi, Assistant professor, Group for Agroecological Transitions Research, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich

Art Speakers:

• Vreni Spieser, Installation about human migration and plant migration
• Barbara Bietenholz, Circular economies for our plants
• Dr. Sandro Steudler, An artistic / scientific journey to new ecological niches of plants

In connection with the exhibition Future Plant(s) Life Science Zurich is hosting together with the SAE Sustainable Agroecosystems Group ETH two Laser Talks, an exchange between scientists and artists.

• What are the soil management practices that can be implemented to face our changing environment? How can it be different between agroecosystems?
• How can we ensure that biodiversity and a living community are sustained or regenerated in soil?
• How can we enhance and improve the relationships between the soil and plants
• How to foster a resilient cropping system?
• What strategies can artists use to raise awareness in the public realm and what does the public need to know about soil and its ecology?

Science Speakers:

• Dr. Tania Galindo Castaneda, Postdoctoral researcher, Group for Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Departement of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
• Dr. Kevin Vega, Postdoctoral researcher, Group für Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich

Art Speakers:

• Dorothea Rust, Research, performative relationships, the body and the soil
• Monica Germann and Daniel Lorenzi, Drawings carbon cycles and carbon sequestration in the soil
• Suresh Kumar,  On making new soil in unique ways

With the support of Index Freiraum Stipendium and SAE Greenhouse Lab

María García Ibáñez’s projects address issues related to identity in relation to mobility and migration, which ultimately involve a review of origin, memory and time from a very personal perspective.

Drawing is an essential part of her process, but her work includes sculpture, ceramics, the use of textile and glass. She is also co-founder of the project La Polinizadora. María was born in Madrid and currently lives in Mexico City. In this talk she will give an overview of her practice and talk about her current projects.

Online dialogue for Food Culture Days biennale in 2021, where in this second chapter of foodculture days, we propose a public program as a communal dialogue to reflect on our coexistences and entanglements through food. This public program puts forward a series of 15 online dialogues, inviting everybody who is interested in these topics to take part, whether they are a specialist or not.

The proposal is to dialogue, rather than to rely on a discussion; to discover possibilities with dynamic interactions, which focus on listening and not on counter-arguments; to think of new scenarios where all life-forms can thrive. The main question is: “Cultivating new emergences: how do we nurture collective imagination in dividing times?” From this main theme, the conversations spread over 15 open topics that approach the subjects in a non-linear way, stretching through the four days of the program.

Organized by the students of the sustainability commission and VSETH, this event gathered many students and Staff of ETH in the greenhouse to discuss informally on the topic of eco-feminism. Definitions, references, links to current research and education have been presented and discussed.

Members of the Student Sustainability Commission (SSC), the African Students Association of Zurich (ASAZ) hosted in the greenhouse an exchange on the topic of Decolonizing Ecology and the Environmental Sciences. Starting from short presentations by Prof. Elizabeth Tilley (D-MAVT) and Dr. Kenza Benabderrazik (D-USYS), the aim was to discuss, reflect on inclusion in ecology and research in the environmental sciences.

During the Sustainability week, in March 2022, we questioned the potential of public spaces as vehicles of nutrients, stories and as a transformational platform for more sustainable food systems. Together, we heard  some input and then went on a walk to explore the urban spaces around us.