How might we rethink the relationship between humans and nature beyond established dichotomies? Western intellectual tradition operates between the clearly delineated categories of the perceiving subject and nature as the perceived object. In this configuration, nature always appears as the “other”: as an object of admiration, conservation or appropriation.
Using the example of the green alder, which has been spreading in the Swiss Alps, Elisabeth Nold Schwartz explores the limitations of this thought model in her research. Rather than considering it an invasive disturbance, she sees the plant as being part of the dynamic fabric between climate, cultivation and microbial symbioses in her project. Building on Karen Barand’s agential realism and through artistic research, she is experimenting with a relational understanding of nature. The focus is not on representations of nature, but on facilitating new ways of perceiving that have the potential to break down the boundaries between subject and object.
The aim is not to define nature. It should be understood as a relational sphere of experience, which might allow us to rethink ourselves, too. Through artistic practice, the author explores alternative conditions of nature that transcend categories such as “native / invasive” and open new ways of being-in-the-world.
