Kinship: Islands
As our relational interdependencies are thrown into ever-greater relief as a result of the global ‘metacrisis’, the metaphor ‘world as archipelago’ offers us an intriguing way to look at our interconnected amphibious existence. Expanding on (and challenging) the notion of the ‘global village’, an archipelagic outlook acknowledges both our connections and separations as foundational to our relationships, all the while inviting our oft-forgotten ocean kin into our awareness.
Module 1Leny Strobel & Andreas Weber
We begin our journey exploring time, place, and interconnectedness. In her talk, 'An Islander Adrift on a Continent' Leny discusses longing for home and the disconnection to place caused by colonisation. In Andreas' session, the concept of islands is used as a metaphor to highlight the interconnectedness o...
Module 2Anna Arabindan-Kesson, David Whyte & Maureen Penjueli
In module two, we explore interconnectedness, hidden histories, and the transformative power of poetry. Anna Arabindan-Kesson examines the global plantation within the British Empire, delving into its entanglements and visual cultures. David Whyte discusses how poetry allows us to uncover and express our h...
Module 3Iain McGilchrist & Himali Singh Soin
Iain McGilchrist and Himali Singh Soin explore perception, cultural synthesis, and the celebration of difference. In the first session, Iain discusses the balance between sameness and difference in perception, drawing on his research into hemisphere differences in the brain. Next, Himali shares a mythopoet...
Module 4Bathsheba Demuth & Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq
In module four, we consider relationships with the more-than-human and the significance of kinship. Bathsheba Demuth describes the changing dynamics of human-whale relationships, from Indigenous hunters to commercial whaling ships, and Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq discusses the importance of unity and acceptance...
Module 5Craig Santos Perez & David Gange
This module explores archipelagos, islands, and local cultures. Craig Santos Perez focuses on the significance of archipelagos in Pacific Islander literature, highlighting kinship, traditional knowledge, and decolonisation. David Gange examines the interconnectedness of island spaces through small family b...
Module 6Alastair McIntosh & Kailea Frederick
To close our journey, Alastair McIntosh reflects on the interconnectedness and interdependence of living on the island of Lewis, highlighting the value of nurturing the soul and creating positive change. Kailea Frederick emphasises the importance of bridging worlds and identities in a divided society, usin...
We inhabit a world of islands…Our pale blue dot; a constellation of archipelagos buoyed amidst an even greater cosmos of celestial atolls. Like the billowing ocean tides, our terraqueous isle undulates toward the sun, moon and stars, impelling the transformation of matter at each turn, our planetary tidewrack visible in the fallen leaves and glacial floes.
Despite our separations, cosmic and interpersonal, we are all intimately connected. The poet John Donne famously said ‘no man is an island’, and while the biotic world relies on the creative expression of our individuality, our own ‘islandness’, in order to manifest itself, beneath the surface we discover, like islands, that we are inextricably joined.
We are joined at the oceanic root, at the depths of the seabed, and by the salt-stippled space between us. The seas of relation that meditate our entanglements are, in the same breath, domains of impasse traversed only through building arks and yielding to the winds that carry our words and wares in sensuous exchange, or by diving courageously into the unbroken fathoms between and among us.
Rally together as crew as we explore our earthly relations and the liquescent spaces that connect us. Each module, we will navigate towards a unique island of inquiry, mapping counter-cartographies of relationship along the way. Through tentacular engagement with self, other, and the more-than-human, we'll challenge colonial and essentialist notions of relationship so that we might orient ourselves towards healthier ways of being together, ways that honor our profound entanglements with our elemental home.
We'll reflect on the thresholds, boundaries and borders that mediate our belonging, seeking to unflatten the map through 'tidalectic' perspectives that offer welcome anchorage in a world adrift.
