Reworking Hyperlocality

“What characterizes embodied aesthetics and practices which nurture more-than-human communities?”

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https://jsfiddle.net/thgie/tf64xkwm

I’m interested in aesthetics and practices that embrace the local environmental conditions or landscapes, and transcends these to create and maintain beyond-human communities. These aesthetics and practices are often rooted in folklore or animism. An example would be the small Japanese do-it-yourself Shinto-altars that can be found hidden away in urban environments. Another would be the Elvavrålet, which is a reminiscent of the Alpsegen, a pagan/christian practice of praying to the mountains at dawn.

There a few key aspects I’m interested in:

  • Memory practices rooted in environment and landscape to preserve cultural and community knowledge
  • Creating and maintaining multi-species communities, which include non-human actors
  • Folklore beyond nationalistic or capitalistic tendencies: Animistic aesthetics and practices are often decentralised and highly fluid in their appearance and adaption, similar to anarchist thought
  • Extending or translating these aesthetics and practices to include or work in the digital realm