Soilkin

Abstract

Drawing on ideas from the history and philosophy of soil science, Fluxus performance, and queer-feminist STS, this article responds to a question posed by environmental researcher Hugo Reinert: “What modes of passionate immersion—or love, or intimacy—could a stone afford?” Situated in a fluid space between environmental humanities and artistic research, the Soilkin project develops a series of relational exercises to frame three basic propositions: (1) a non-normative, animistic understanding of geologic subjectivity could trouble accepted criteria for life on earth, leading to kinship with geogenic entities; (2) soil formation (pedogenesis) could be interpreted as a performative process of learning and becoming, rather than simply weathering and aging, with appreciable ontological implications; and (3) soil kinship is situated within a dynamic interplay of resistance and consent, demanding that the terms of reciprocity between humans and soils be mutually beneficial and appropriate to the slowed-down timescale of events in which soil-beings live and operate. The article integrates theoretical provocations with performative scores to expand and sensitize soil-scientific knowledge while, at the same time, contributing to multispecies scholarship on kin-making with geogenic and pedogenic others.