Reading Group on Relationality
13.03.2025LUCA Alexianenplein 1, Ghent (Mia De Smetzaal) + online through https://taat.live/agora/relationality
Relationality (Escobar, Osterweil, Sharma, 2024) can be read as an invitation “to begin to continue to make life relationally” (preface, xvi). On one hand the book makes us look back on our doing-thinking-and-being as designers/artists/makers and on the other hand it asks to look forward into our work as “portals or bridges into to different worlds where a non-transactional relationality” emerges (introduction, p6).
The focus of this reading group was on chapter one, Bio-Graphies, Relational stories of life within and beyond the natural sciences. We took Sylvia Winter’s definition of the homo narrans and her three-step proposal as the leading principle:
- Remembering: “that which we have made, we can unmake…”
- Choosing: “... then, consciously now…”
- Designing: “... remake.”
Based on the last part (designing), participants brought in an image/gesture/quote relating to their practice to look for the resonances between the text and our respective practices. The question of ‘how to make life’ (through daily gestures, both ‘professional’ and ‘private’) emerged as a red thread throughout the session.