#obot

Installazione che esplora i confini tra scienza e magia.

Umide Divinazioni coinvolge le persone ad allenare sguardi e gestualità all’esplorazione del micromondo dei nostri corpi in un contesto in cui i confini tra protocollo e rituale non sono netti. L’obiettivo è ripensare la scienza come un potente strumento in grado di costruire immaginari e linguaggi capaci sia di riconoscere le nostre interdipendenze sia di trasformare la nostra comprensione della realtà.

Durante la sessione di 30 minuti le partecipanti sono invitate a prendere parte ad una pratica di dacrimanzia (dal greco antico: δάκρυ – dákru, “lacrima”), arte divinatoria che legge, studia e interpreta le forme generate dalla cristallizzazione delle lacrime. Si pensa si sia diffusa in Europa nella metà del XVII secolo, a seguito dell’introduzione dell’uso dei microscopi. I rituali divinatori con i loro processi, sacerdotesse, formule da seguire pedissequamente, fuochi purificatori e principi attivi hanno molte analogie con i protocolli della scienza, soprattutto quando le persone coinvolte in tali processi diventano sempre più specializzate, incapaci di condividere e di farsi comprendere.

OBOT gioca con questa contraddizione, ne esplora i limiti, contamina la “testimonianza modesta” della scienza con degli sguardi immodesti per aprire un nuovo dialogo, provocando il dibattito tra le discipline e abbattere alcuni dei suoi muri più alti. 

Preface & Acknowledgments

The book you are holding in your hands tells different stories about entanglements with hormones and hormone-mimicking chemicals. It is a collection of essays, poetic interventions, and critical provocations brought to you by a group of artists, activists, and feminist techno-science scholars and practitioners united by a shared belief that we are not autonomous, self-contained, and self-governing individuals but porous and malleable, open to change and reconfiguration. A critical examination of the effects of industrial, pharmaceutical, and more-than-human production of hormonally active molecules shifts our attention to our non-innocent chemical relations and at times traumatic and harmful, even deadly, entanglements with them. Studying these effects necessitates our engagement with issues of consent, complicity, and violence attached to the consumerism and extractivism implicit in the production, use, and disposal of hormonally active substances. There is no way out: the ubiquity of anthropogenic chemicals — be them pharmaceutical hormones or industrially manufactured substances with endocrine disrupting properties — leaves us with no option but to live our lives with and against them. This book seeks to facilitate this process of learning to live well in a world that also includes these chemicals.

Like our bodies, books are entities that exist owing to multiple influences, processes, and agencies. Including acknowledgments in books is an important reminder that it is because of a multitude of actors (rather than just listed “authors”) that books come into existence. With over thirty people authoring this collective monograph, acknowledging and expressing gratitude to all those who have supported us as we kept working towards the completion of this book becomes a challenging task. Responding to this challenge, this acknowledgement breaks with the tradition of writing an exhaustive list of all our partners, lovers, parents, children, friends, colleagues, supervisors, teachers, students, academic departments, institutions, and funding bodies (as important and indispensable as their support is for us and our book) and instead acknowledges the contribution of a particular entity without which this book—quite literally— would not be possible: the paper it is printed on. You wouldn’t be able to hold our book in your hands if it wasn’t for this 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. The decision to use paper made of waste collected from recycling programs stems from our commitment to take our material relations seriously. Using recycled paper, rather than paper made of virgin fibers, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and protects natural resources—saving not only trees but also energy and water needed for manufacturing. However, the commitment to use recycled paper comes with several challenges—economic, practical, and aesthetic— and entangles us, producers of this book, and you, dear reader, in a set of relations worthy of attention. Despite being produced from waste, recycled paper is more expensive than new paper from virgin fibers. This is because of the extra steps needed to create recycled material compared to manufacturing a new product. Additional processes include paper collection and recovery, sorting, removal of adhesives, staples, and other things that may be attached to the paper, pulping, and de-inking. Another consideration of concern is that paper fibers degrade when they are recycled, losing their strength and length. As a result, paper created from reused fibers is less durable and weaker. In addition, it is not as soft as paper from virgin fibers, with lower absorbency rates and worse color retention. Since the characteristics of recycled paper depend on the properties of the waste paper used for its production, recycled papers differ greatly not only by type, but even from batch to batch, presenting the design process with multiple challenges. Because of the varying paper qualities and white tones, no standard exists for recycled paper and color-binding proofs are therefore not possible. Moreover, some studies suggest that recycled paper might be less hygienic compared to paper from virgin fibers.1 This is owing to the starches used as binding ingredients, which may serve as a breeding ground for bacteria and germs. Last, but not least— and of particular significance to this book— recycled paper contains increased amounts of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Although recycled paper requires less bleach and other potentially harmful chemicals than virgin fiber paper, it can contain ink residue and other contaminants. Ink, adhesives, and other substances, such as those used for surface treatment of paper and board packaging, are detached from the fibers’ surface during the repulping process. Studies indicate that small amounts of chemicals of concern, including endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as polyfluorinated compounds, bisphenols, or phthalates, can still be detected in paper made from recycled materials.2 From the perspective of environmental health, the recycling of paper is desirable; however, recycled paper containing potentially harmful chemicals may pose a health hazard to humans.

Somewhere in the past, Obot wrote several letters to the PULP agency. Since when the PULP's multipurpose prevention centres archives were recovered by the GDL (the Great Digital Block), Obot's letters have been republished on paper.