Author: Andrea Haenggi

What happens when I’m (andrea) not in Crown Heights in NYC but in Berlin and encounter the wild urban plants here in Berlin? Is there something else they have to tell me? I’m encounter in Berlin locations where in the past historical violence happened such as second world war and the Berlin wall. I have a kinesthetic movement score to find out what the plants have to tell me. I create name tags that describes my findings. I leave the name tags in the locations. Do I take through this naming the plant out of its European Classification? Can through embodied scientific practice we decolonize science. Is this encounter a philosophical approach? Does the plants gets out of its state of characteristic and into the state of philosophy? Does the plant has more agency by being in a philosophical state? How much history is embedded in the soil of a place and how much it reflects on the plant knowledge?

Kinesthetic Movement Score:

View Embodied Scientific Encounters in Berlin

Catherine and I, andrea finished to take care of the urban weeds island we call the Lucky Island on Block 1126 sidewalk by picking up the the trash to give air to the soil. In the end we had a big black plastic bag of trash. Across the street Steve, who has is car mechanic business for 10 years waves to us. He wants to fight to keep his place. He wants not to move. I observed the last 4 years many down the block building got sold and with selling the building the new landlords don’t want the mechanic businesses anymore. Such as in this neighborhood the urban spontaneous plants are not welcomed, the car mechanics are not welcomed. A business that uses the sidewalk is not desirable.