2020

How do ecosystems reorganise after an anthropogenic disturbance has occurred? With this primary research question in mind, the general aim of this project has been to examine the complex impact of representations on ecosystems of any kind. Humans unavoidably pose influence on nonhuman agents through (by representation) influenced human actions.

Following this logic and premise, a consecutive research question was defined: How can we enable stigmergic empathy towards nonhuman agents through and within representation? The result of this inquiry thence developed into the creation of our own representation: A documentary proposal which is solely based on an already existing digital archive called “Mississippi. An Anthropocene River”, thus placing this investigation itself within greater stigmergic dynamics.

By providing a proposal instead of an actual documentary, we intend to enable a discussion that can take place on the aimed level of representational influence. We desire to look beyond the finished surface of representations and to examine their inner structures, in order to unveil and question underlying intents and subjectivity that shape every reproduction of reality.
In alignment with both research intents, the created proposal Missing Mississippi places the river itself at the origin of narration. Providing the discourse on the Mississippi river region with a long-missing voice of the river (an act of empathetic acknowledgment), we aim to contribute to regard nonhuman agents as essential interlocutors in any human discourse on ecosystems at last.