{"id":11865,"date":"2024-10-07T12:37:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T10:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/das-dokumentarische.blogs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de\/?page_id=11865"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:10:59","slug":"catherin-persing-m-a","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/das-dokumentarische.blogs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de\/en\/kollegiat_innen\/catherin-persing-m-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherin Persing, M.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Universit\u00e4tsstr. 150
44801 Bochum
Room: GB 6\/142<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phone:
E-Mail: Catherin.Persing@ruhr-uni-bochum.de<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dissertation Title<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performing Plants: From the Anthropocene to Scenes of the More-than-Human (Working Title)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Description<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multiple crises of the Anthropocene also represent a crisis of imagination, in that the massive temporal and spatial expansions of climate change, mass extinction or slow violence<\/em> through environmental pollution as ‘hyperobjects’ (Morton) exceed the capacity of the human imagination. Consequently, they can also be understood as a disruption of traditional ways of perceiving nature, landscape and more-than-human entities as well as the resulting modes of documentation and representation. The project examines artistic works that employ plant perspectives and aesthetics to offer a novel approach to understanding ecological crises and histories of violence, as well as cross-species care and relationality in the Anthropocene. Plants play a pivotal role in this age of extractivism, serving as raw materials in transnational trade markets, fossil energy suppliers in expansion projects, or a resource for knowledge production in colonial botany. They are inextricably linked to its histories. Therefore, it is argued that they provide a fruitful starting point for a critical examination of the Anthropocene concept, its narratives and omissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project examines the documentation of a distinct form of knowledge about and through plants, which coincides with the gaps in traditional orders of visibility. These modes of documentation can be considered in conjunction with the theoretical considerations that have been illuminating the posthumanist performativity of more-than-human actors. These considerations seek to capture them as \u2018vibrant matter’ (Bennett), ‘companion species’ (Haraway) or ‘other-than-human persons’ (Hall). The artistic works are examined as practices of experimental knowledge production that reveal plants as living documents through specific modes of arrangement and representation, translation processes and the modification of existing documentary techniques and institutions from the natural sciences. The project examines the role of plants in the transformation of concepts and theories of the documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area of focus is the process of document formation: How, under what conditions and what can plants document? How plant agency becomes visible and how plants, which store their environmental conditions and thus also traces of human influence, contribute to the shaping of modes of documentation? How do the artistic works respond to the multiple crises of the present, and what insights can be gained from the examination of modes of documentation that encompass more-than-human perspectives? The project is situated at the intersection of theatre studies and the environmental humanities. The theoretical foundations of posthumanism, new materialism and new animism, which provide concepts for examining more-than-human agency and performativity, are combined with approaches from cultural plant studies and critical perspectives on the Anthropocene that challenge the assumptions on which it is based. In light of the proliferation of artistic works in recent years that engage with plants in a collaborative and active manner, the project aims to engage in a reflective process with these works to explore the potential of theatrical and documentary practices that shift the focus away from human subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific Career<\/u><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n