Algae Sympoiesis in Performance: Rendering-with Nonhuman Ecologies

Abstract

This article explores an ecodramaturgical approach to performance-making and research with algae. The first part considers the notion of ‘algae rendering’ as a methodological tool for theorising algae ecological relations which highlights links between representations of algae and their material effects. The second part considers how my embodied encounters with cyanobacteria algae, in the form of lichen, inspire new modes of working with algae in creative practice that explore how algae agencies ‘render’ bodies and environments. I also draw on an artistic case study by The Harrissons (1971) to illustrate principles of what I consider examples of ‘algae rendering’ in artistic practice. The third part considers my approach to making-with algae in a series performance experiments that develop the concept of ‘rendering-with algae’ in practice. This work attempts to depart from anthropocentric binaries that mark different algae species according to their use-value for humans as either ‘healthy’ or ‘harmful’ and investigates embodied ways of working with algae as co-creators, inspired by material ecological relations. The fourth part considers how these performance encounters, experiments and analysis together compose an ecodramaturgical framework that generates new thinking about algae-human relationships in performance and in wider ecologies. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s (2016) concept of ‘sympoiesis’, I develop the term ‘algae sympoiesis’ to describe my embodied ecodramaturgical approach to rendering-with algae in this research. The concept of algae sympoiesis explores how humans and algae shape matter and meaning together in performance and seeks to invite new ways of thinking about how broader algae-human material ecologies are performative of environmental change.