鈥淭his does not render the world gentle鈥� An Anthropological Foray into The Worlds of Fungi and Art

Wednesday, November 6 | 2PM | Hybrid format in-person in HC 2270 (Vancouver Campus) and on Zoom

Abstract:
This is a project of fungi meets art meets anthropology. Through film, sensory attunement, and a variety of art practices, this multimodal thesis explores questions of what it means to make art in patchy anthropocenes and critically examines stories of mushrooms as heroes. For this project, artists worked with prompts, some of which included each other鈥檚 art, as poachable points of inspiration to create new works in various mediums. Art and interviews for this project are gathered in a written thesis and a short experimental documentary, do i know you, mushroom? The film and thesis are not explicitly linked, but rather, entangled as two expressions made with art and themes gathered throughout the research process 鈥� two baskets of mushrooms collected along the same forays. These baskets sit with fungal magnetism as affect that 鈥渄oes not render the world gentle,鈥� but instead invites a non-innocent wonder in the face of indifference.

Examining Committee:
Chair: Dr. Amanda Watson, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, 丁香园AV
Supervisor: Dr. Michael Hathaway, Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, 丁香园AV
Committee Member: Dr. Lindsey Freeman, Associate Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, 丁香园AV
Committee Member: Dr. Nadia Shihab, Assistant Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts, 丁香园AV
External ExCommittee Member:aminer: Dr. Timothy Choy, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC Davis

Please note that the defence will be held in a Hybrid format in-person in HC 2270 and on Zoom. If you'd like to be added to the Zoom attendee list, please contact gradsecsa@sfu.ca no later than 4PM on Monday November 4th, 2024.