By the Insects x Microbes workshop organising team
Is there a performance going on? – visitors of Kaisaniemi Botanical Garden in Helsinki would wonder in June 2024 while observing a small group of people, meandering about the garden, their eyes closed or noses close to the ground. Performance it was not, but the Insects x Microbes workshop: Spaces of intersection, points of divergence.
On that warm June day, 12 diverse humans (9 social scientists, 2 natural scientists, 1 artist), united by a shared interest in finding conceptual convergences in the social study of insects and microbes, gathered at the Kaisaniemi Botanical Garden. Each of them brought along a concept to walk, sense, and think-with. The morning, they spent swaying: drifting through the garden, attuning to their surroundings through smell, touch, hearing, vision; getting back into small groups to discuss and drifting away again. Insects and microbes came together through ‘monster’, ‘political economy’, ‘worldmaking’, ‘symbiotic continuum’, and other concepts.
These discussions were fermented further by a presentation on ant yogurt-making by Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova (past CSSM Fellow; LMU-Rachel Carson Center) and Veronica Sinotte (U. Copenhagen). After the presentation, the participants shifted towards writing-thinking together through the ‘rhizomatic swarm’ writing exercise. This involved writing one’s own thoughts down, then swapping texts and adding/thinking with what someone else has written.
Botanical Garden.
piece mingling with plant life.
Many generative starting points for further theory development based around challenges to dominant approaches in the study of insect/microbe/human relations and their more-than constellations were born during this initial workshop.
More than a year later, in September 2025, passers-by would wonder again: this time at the small awkward creatures who had appeared in the central Helsinki area seemingly out of the blue. Eight diverse humans (6 social scientists, 1 natural scientist and 1 artist) would smile to themselves, for they have witnessed the creatures being born. This was Insects x Microbes Crafting-Thinking-Writing Day, a long-awaited shoot, growing from the June 2024 rhizomatic stem.
The artist Erika Aalto and her colleague and partner Tuure Tammi brought with them the hibernating creatures, who encouraged the participants to
listen
we are vibrating
feel in your hands the rapport,
the pull of world-making desire
set aside what you thought you knew
make space for another thing to come
Following the awkward creatures, as well as the concepts and questions from the previous workshop, the participants visited the Office for Tree Migration, peeked at some common practices of the Nacirema society, and even wondered into the Zone before entering the Shadow Biosphere, a speculative homescape of the awkward creatures. Dwelling the shadow biosphere, the participants gathered some speculative fieldnotes, theorizing them as a potentially generative way to reflect on Earthly insect/microbe/human relationships. Some of the day’s observations, photographs, and reflections are gathered here.
Look, listen, feel around: perhaps, the Shadow Biosphere other is calling to you from the autumn leaves pile or your compost bin?
A few selected creatures from our journey to the Shadow Biosphere during the second workshop:
known by the local indigenous
communities as the ‘dark water elephant’
