MEAM organizes a biannual conference aimed at exploring the possibilities and challenges of using artful methods in various stages of multispecies research. With multispecies ethnography and artful methods present in a diverse array of fields, we wish to connect scholars from all over academia and the world to share work, advance discussions, and foster collaborations. To that end we aim for an inspiring, engaged, and supportive atmosphere where we can try out new ideas, present work in progress, and explore potential future directions. In addition to more classic presentations, we encourage visual, material, poetic, musical, theatrical and other artful presentation-performances to engage and expand diverse ways of knowing and thinking about multispecies socialities.
The first MEAM event was an online workshop organized by Andrea Petitt (Uppsala University, Sweden), Véronique Servais (University of Liège, Belgium), Anke Tonnaer (Radboud University, Netherlands), Catrien Notermans (Radboud University, Netherlands), and Nolwen Vouiller (Université de Liège, Belgium). Almost fifty participants joined in artful presentations, creative discussions, and enthusiastic networking. Together, they explored what artful methods bring to the field of multispecies ethnography, how artful methods hold us accountable to non-humans, and how artful methods can help us engage others and spread our research. They did so by thinking, walking, flying, climbing, digging, swimming and dreaming with cats and cattle, dogs and horses, parrots and sharks, microbes and moles, plants and people, soil and snow. The success of the workshop led to the creation of the MEAM Network and the biannual conference. The seed for the MEAM multimedia book sprouted here as well.
This hybrid conference was hosted by L’Université de Liège, Belgium, and organized by Andrea Petitt (Uppsala University, Sweden/Université de Liège, Belgium), Véronique Servais (Université de Liège, Belgium), Anke Tonnaer (Radboud University, Netherlands), Catrien Notermans (Radboud University, Netherlands) and Chloé Vanden Berghe (Université Libre de Bruxelles). Participants explored a wide range of topics such as more-than-human agency, human interactions with domestic and farm animals, zoopolitical intricacies, and sensory, somatic and tactile means of multispecies inquiry. They did so through multimedia presentations, film screenings, performances, and an art exhibition. Keynotes were delivered by Sophie Chao and Olivia Angé. A special session on artful publishing furthered the multimedia book project initiated during the inaugural workshop.
Andréa Petitt is co-founder of Multispecies Ethnography and Artistic Methods network (MEAM). We met her during the conference held in July in Liège. She explained the aims of the event, which brought together around sixty participants from all over the world.
The second MEAM conference took place at the Australian National University in Canberra and online. It was organized by Natasha Fijn (Australian National University, Canberra), Muhammad Kavesh (Australian National University, Canberra), Andrea Petitt (Université de Liège, Belgium), Anke Tonnaer (Radboud University, Netherlands) and Catrien Notermans (Radboud University, Netherlands). Within the theme of Creative and Sensorial Entanglements in a Multispecies World, participants engaged with the following questions through various media and in multisensorial ways:
· How do sensorial methods enable new understandings of multispecies relationality vis-à-vis how do more-than-humans influence and shape our creative processes?
· How should we rethink the relationship between the author and the audience as we try to communicate and disseminate research beyond standardized research articles, reports, and books?
· What are the benefits of and contradictions in art-science-technology multimodal collaborations?
· In what ways do Indigenous, non-Western, and decolonial art practices expand or challenge the premises of multispecies studies?
Keynotes were given by Danielle Celermajer and Matthew Chrulew.
