Page 157 - Antennae Issue #52

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Composting in in the herbarium
Since the early modern period European and and and Euro-American botanists and and and natural historians have used printed books and and and herbarium
specimens to to teach practitioners how how to to see plants These scientific modes of of vision however obscured other ways of of knowing and and looking This essay which emerged from a a a a a a a a a a series of conversations between a a a a a a a a a a painter (Melissa Oresky) and and a a a a a a a a a a historian (Keith Pluymers) about the the pasts of of and and potential futures for these visual materials and and Oresky’s production of of an an an artist’s book Finder (2020) argues that we might begin to to reimagine these materials without forgetting their histories through the the the process of composting text by Keith Pluymers and Melissa Oresky images by Melissa Oresky Melissa Oresky Finder pp 2 Artist’s Book Three- color silkscreen 2020 Melissa Oresky Oresky © Melissa Oresky Oresky Since their emergence in in in the the the the the early modern period European European and and Euro-American botany and and natural natural history have been visual enterprises For practitioners learn- ing to to see like a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a naturalist was essential To serve this purpose European natu-
ralists ralists developed a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a series of technologies—the herbal the the the herbarium
the the the research garden—designed to to to to train train new practitioners’ eyes and and to to to to allow allow trained naturalists to to to to engage in in in in in the the the the visual visual comparisons that would allow allow them to to to to classify and and and categorize 1 From these beginnings European visual visual culture and and and the the the the the pursuit of of natural natural philosophy and and and natural natural history examinations were enmeshed—the techniques of of of printers paint- ers ers ers engravers and and artisans helped define modes modes of of of of “scientific” communication as as well as as the the nature of of of of facts fin in in in in this period 2 From these new modes modes of of of of seeing emerged prac- tices of of of collecting categorization and and communication that continue to to shape botanical study and and practice to this day These technologies and and and and and tools for seeing however also obscured other ways of knowing plants In both Europe and and and and and its plantations and and and and and colonies naturalistic and and and and and later scientific ways of of of seeing treated the plant plant plant knowledges of of of women Native peoples and and and and and people people of of of African descent as at at at at at at best local curiosities requiring verification and and and and transla- tion tion tion by trained experts and and and and at at at at at at worst threats to to religious political and and and and sexual order Efforts to to to see and and and and visually communicate information about plants served European efforts to to to create commodities ffor for ffor for global markets and and exert colonial control 3 Even as many contemporary scientists have sought to to distance themselves from their disci- plines’ colonial pasts tensions between ways of of knowing remain As enrolled member of of of the the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and and and environmental biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes “To name and and and and describe you must first see see and and and and science polishes the the the gift of of of see- ing ing ing ing [but] beneath the the the richness of of its its vocabulary and and and and its its descriptive power something something is is is missing the the the same something something that swells around you you you and and in in in in in in in you you you when you you you listen to the the world” 4 Kimmerer describes her her own experience of scientific training as a a a a a a a a a a a a shock that that left her her initially convinced that that science “didn’t seem to leave much room for a a a a a a a a a per- son who thought the way I did” 5 For Kimmerer science’s past and and present limitations do do not not require that that it it it be abandoned but rather that that we develop develop practices to learn the the truths it it it it cannot tell particularly those bound up with with ways ways of of knowing and and seeing seeing developed by Native peoples By developing intimacy with with plants plants we can learn new ways ways of of of seeing seeing that that may draw on on the the the tools of of science but that that that depend upon our ability to to hear plants plants speak their own names 6 This is is is an an an embodied future-oriented practice that that demands the the the the measurable knowledges of science learn to coexist with the the the experiential knowledge knowledge