Worshop series
Dialogues Across Microbiology, Art and Anthropology
November-December 2024
The ERC project HealthXCross at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice organises a series of dialogues, lectures, and panel discussions that probe the entangled relationships between microbial life, scientific practice, and transdisciplinary ecological thought. The program maps a trajectory from bio-geological interdependencies to the pluralistic integration of Indigenous and Western scientific traditions, before delving into the under-examined creative dimensions of scientific practice itself. In its final session, the series crystalizes around microcosmic approaches to planetary ecology, staging an encounter between diverse modes of worldmaking. By convening microbiologists, philosophers, artists, and designers in sustained dialogue, the program advances new frameworks for conceptualizing health, resilience, and environmental crisis. This experimental format manifests the HealthXCross project's broader investigation into emergent intersections between scientific research, artistic practice, and philosophical and anthropological inquiry, proposing alternative methodologies for confronting the urgent planetary transformations.
Programme
- 15/11/2024 - Workshop 1: "Dialogues on Bio-Geo-Interdependence"
- 20/11/2024 - Workshop 2: "The Classification of Living Systems – Bridging Knowledge Systems for Ecological Democracy"
- 25/11/2024 - Workshop 3: "When Microbes Speak, What Do They Say? – On the Poetics of Scientific Practice"
- 4/12/2024 - Workshop 4: "Microcosms as Worldmaking-Reimagining Planetary Ecology"
15/11/2024 - Workshop 1: "Dialogues on Bio-Geo-Interdependence"
9.30
Ca' Foscari University of Venice - Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (DFBC)
Malcanton Marcorà - Aula Biral, Dorsoduro 3484/D, 30123 Venice - Italy
- Speakers: Kriti Sharma (UC Santa Cruz), Donato Giovannelli (University of Naples Federico II)
- Chair: Roberta Raffaetà (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
- Discussants: HealthXCross team
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Flyer 15/11/2024 | 787 KB |
Through a dialogue between Giovannelli's research on extremophiles and deep-sea microorganisms and Sharma's philosophical investigations into scientific practice, this session explores how microbial life at the intersection of biology and geology transforms our understanding of planetary relationships and challenges traditional boundaries between living and non-living systems. The conversation, moderated by Dr. Roberta Raffaetà, will probe fundamental questions about biological-geological co-evolution and its implications for environmental change.
20/11/2024 - Workshop 2: "The Classification of Living Systems – Bridging Knowledge Systems for Ecological Democracy"
14:00
Ca' Foscari University of Venice - Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (DFBC)
Malcanton Marcorà - Aula Biral, Dorsoduro 3484/D, 30123 Venice - Italy
- Speaker: Maud Quinzin (World Maritime University, IMO, Malmö)
- Chair: Roberta Raffaetà
- Discussant: Kriti Sharma (UC Santa Cruz)
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Flyer 20/11/2024 | 650 KB |
Quinzin's talk examines how integrating Indigenous knowledge systems with mainstream scientific approaches opens perspectives on resilience across living systems. Her research, spanning from microbiomes to ecosystems, challenges dominant scientific classifications while exploring alternative frameworks that promote ecological democracy. Through dialogues with Indigenous communities and interdisciplinary collaborations, her work develops new approaches to understanding health and environmental justice that bridge different knowledge traditions.
25/11/2024 - Workshop 3: "When Microbes Speak, What Do They Say? – On the Poetics of Scientific Practice"
17:15
Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Ca' Foscari - Aula Baratto, Dorsoduro 3246, 30123 Venice - Italy
- Speaker: Kriti Sharma (UC Santa Cruz)
- Chair: Roberta Raffaetà (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
- Discussant: Shaul Bassi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
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Flyer 25/11/2024 | 2 MB |
Sharma explores how scientific practices – from experimental design to observation – are inherently artistic, requiring sensitivity to beauty, imagination, and craft. Drawing from her decade-long research on diverse microbial contexts, from deep-sea sediments to seagrass ecosystems, she develops a poetic approach to scientific practice that reveals new ways of understanding life beyond conventional interpretations, suggesting alternative possibilities for experiencing and describing human-microbial relationships.
4/12/2024 - Workshop 4: "Microcosms as Worldmaking-Reimagining Planetary Ecology"
16:00
Fondazione Bevilaqua La Masa
Palazzetto Tito, Dorsoduro 2826, 30123 Venice - Italy
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Flyer 4/12/2024 | 889 KB |
This interdisciplinary seminar, organized by the HealthXCross ERC research project in collaboration with NICHE Institute and Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, explores ecology through diverse methodological lenses. Bringing together art-based researchers, scientists, and philosophers, the seminar examines how methodologies across disciplines intertwine in novel forms of investigation and worldmaking. It proposes examining microcosmic-planetary relationships while offering perspectives capable of redefining conceptions of health beyond anthropocentric views, without losing sight of the political epistemology of contemporary technoscience.
Programme 4/12/2024
- 16:00-16:15
Welcome and Introduction
Bruno Bernardi (President Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa)
Roberta Raffaetà (P.I. HealthXCross Project, University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice) - 16:15-17:00
Panel 1: "Healing Earths" - Microcosms of Matter and Memory
Serina Tarkhanian and Sabrina Tamburini in conversation with Valeria Burgio - 17:15-18:00
Panel 2: "Interdependence and Ontological Design: Microcosms as Worldmaking"
Kriti Sharma and Anicka Yi (from remote) in conversation with Roberta Raffaetà - 18:15-19:00
Panel 3: The Visible and the Invisible of the Anthropocene Hypothesis
Armin Linke in conversation with Antonia Majaca - 19:00-20:00
Cross-panel discussion and conversation with the public, moderated by Cristina Baldacci - 20.00-20.15
Closing Remarks by the convenors