The Intersubjective Ecology Laboratory is dedicated to investigating ecological conditions from a phenomenological perspective. Founded on the premise that all living beings and systems are subjects – and that anthropogenic destabilization of the environment derives from the objectification of the other – the lab seeks to elucidate and augment more-than-human relationships that support ecosystemic well-being on a local and planetary scale. The laboratory approaches ecological intersubjectivity observationally, experimentally, and philosophically, enlisting ways of knowing including empirical study and indigenous tradition, utilizing techniques ranging from scientific fieldwork to artistic activation to collective dreaming. Transcending conventional academic transdisciplinarity, the laboratory supports participation by all living beings and systems, serving as a model for the worldview advocated by its founders. As epiphenomena of intersubjective exchange, ecosystems are the sum of lived experience. The Intersubjective Ecology Laboratory is conceived as an ecosystem.
Initiatives
The Atlas of Ecological Knowledge
Present in cultures worldwide, stories and proverbs are intersubjective channels through which knowledge of the environment can flow freely, transcending the geographic reductionism of national borders. Addressing the impact of climate change on regional ecology, and the fact that the historical climate of one place will become the future climate of others, The Atlas of Ecological Knowledge collects stories and proverbs from around the world and makes their wisdom accessible in places where it may be needed in the future. Current focal points include the Arctic and Northeast India.
Proverbial Observatories
Proverbs have guided people since time immemorial, using metaphors from nature. References to the natural world shape behaviors compatible with the lifeways of other creatures. Through site-specific artistic and theatrical activations, Proverbial Observatories challenge people to reintegrate traditional proverbs and ecological knowledge into the current physical and cultural landscape. Observatories are now being prototyped in the United States in collaboration with the Exploratorium.
The Annals of Intersubjective Science
Every living being is a scientist. All organisms survive by observing their environment and perceiving patterns out of which they make meaning. Adjustments to changing conditions, often anticipatory, are hypotheses subjected to experimentation within an ecosystem. An essential form of intersubjective exchange, the intersection of experiments is indexed in The Annals of Intersubjective Science, the first journal to publish more-than-human scientific research. The Annals are currently soliciting photographic documentation of active experiments for the first issue.
Researchers
Co-Directors
Michael T. Heneise
Jonathon Keats
Lab Members
Anna Ziya Geerling
Edward Moon-Little
Senganglu Thaimei
