When: Monday August 18th, 2014 , 7-8pm EST
Webcast live on Google Hangouts (Austin 6 p.m., New York 7 p.m. & Canberra / Sydney 9 a.m.)
Speakers: John Hartigan (University of Texas at Austin) and Erica Seccombe (Australian National University)
Host: Eben Kirksey

Ethnographers and artists will come together to discuss new insights from the field of critical plant studies. Plants are sessile organisms that emerge amidst the alchemy of soil and sun. Sometimes they veer away from botanical representational conventions, taxonomic enterprises aimed at classifying and understanding species and genera. John Hartigan, a cultural anthropologist who has conducted research among plants in Spain and Latin America, situates his ethnographic practice in relation to biological studies of plant sensoria and sociality.  Erica Seccombe, a visual artist, uses 4D Micro-CT technology to interrogate the world of plants as they grow from embryos encapsulated in seeds (see below).

Video: Erica Seccombe, Grow, 2013, digital projection formatted for stereoscopic viewing, 6 min duration.

The conversation at this event will orbit around Seccombe’s artwork and Hartigan’s essay “Plant Publics: Multispecies Relating in Spanish Botanical Gardens” (forthcoming in Anthropological Quarterly)

Grow by Erica Seccombe John Hartigan: U Texas profile