[ISEA2023] Paper: Olga Timurgalieva, Eva Direito & Patrícia R. Moreira — (Re)imagining human-yeasts relations via art-science collaboration

Abstract

Full Paper, Theme: Interspecies  Sub theme: Symbiotic Imaginaries

More-than-human beings are largely de-animated in Western cultures and perceived as the backdrop for human activities. At the same time, with the modern modes of consumption and production, customers often do not know how specific products have been created and which more-than-human beings have been involved in manufacturing particular consumables. As a partial response to such alienation, this text presents the book, Yeasts as We Do Not Know Them, as a means to learn about human-yeast interactions and the ways these fungal microbes are used to manufacture different products and substances. The book, therefore, (re)imagines yeasts as omnipresent, diverse, and symbiotic. Conceiving symbiosis as a set of interspecies relations, including mutualistic, pathogenic, and commensal ones, the project, Yeasts as We Do Not Know Them, as this article argues, maps diverse interspecies interactions and, by doing so, helps to navigate through material systems, thus invoking trans-corporeal ethics.