RESEARCH

Summary:

There is more than one truth in the world. The world is made sense of through narratives that make up these truths.

We are interested in investigating the contemporary narratives that are secured and kept steady; and to intervene in their scaffolding structures to destabilise them and make other (new) ones.
(= countermap?)

These narratives and their scaffolds work with what can be seen, heard, talked about, felt.

This is why our practices of researching, documentary making, and mapping become essential. In a way that pays attention to what is silent (or silenced), absent, invisible, blurred, removed, ephemeral in the narratives.

Counter-mapping is a method to categorise and also generate (produce) narratives and knowledges.

It is an opportunity to intervene in existing realities to imagine what the world might be hesitant to imagine.

We will do this through mapping physical things but also social relations, temporal events, sensibilities, concepts, histories, experiences, etc. How open are our senses to certain truths?

How to map. As we dig and assemble, we generate knowledge. As we map out relations, new relations emerge.

Like in a scaffold, putting pieces together reveal a new shape, or creates access to the inaccessible, build on top and with what is there, or elevates us to see beyond a wall.

Part of chapter INTERSECTIONALITY AS DECOLONIZING RESEARCH: INTEGRATING CARE:

In our contemporary moment, we have lost the ability to take time out to think, to write, to draw, to wonder, to let our curiosity dictate a research pattern. More and more we are propelled into a system that requires all labor to produce at breakneck speed, suggesting that somehow the survival-of-the-fittest model of labor capitalism is achieved with a lack of all human needs: food, sleep, air, love, et cetera. The late capitalist model has alienated the human body to such a degree that we no longer are allowed to be human to be considered successful.

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It is through different kinds of practices and alignments that one can contest some of the conditions within which we are working. This can maintain one’s livelihood and sense of self. And so through alliances and creating kin with others (human/non-human), we maintain and protect ourselves. And ultimately, that care for and with others is also self-care.

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Once we recognize ourselves, we begin to recognize our positions, and how our positions may be at the expense of others, be those others human or non-human. Once we recognize that we are placed in various systems in ways to keep us moving in place, we stop and then slowly realign our ways of experience, our praxis experiences radical change, one in which we might recognize decolonization as care

Thoughts after reading Decolonisation as care:

Go to our Miro page to see more process:

Research the self and its relationship with the outside world

Self-care is being critical about your inner self. This self-consciousness would encourage you to discover yourself deeply and more importantly, to position yourself among other self.

Identity becomes more of a set of relations between me and time, me and the pot, me and the soil I am working my fingers through to understand where the pot might be. Every time I touch or excavate the soil, it gives me its own answers; it talks to me through its own composition.

In the same way that I hope we would respect and consider all human individuals, I would respect and consider the ancient ceramics that I am working with; to consider them not just as vessels to be used by humans, but as vessels unto themselves, having certain material capacities.

Carl Jung's theory on the map of the soul

The evolution of plants has resulted in a wide range of complexity. It has been through changes and development to achieve the final stage of life : flowers. So we think the self-care also has the similar characteristics as this plant's evolution. It's a long-term journey which needs time, patient and knowledge.

An interesting source:

https://forestrypedia.com/what-is-ecology-branches-of-ecology/

Eco systems of humans

Together we read pieces of the texts, and discussed interesting parts, words we did not understand. We found it important to know what was being asked of us, before jumping into the assignment.

Map on the left, reminded me of a Japanese saying....

What is self? how do we care for the self? How do we show it, how do we neglect it...?

When talking about the optimal way to self care, looking at identity, growth. How one is connected to a whole, several processes happening inner and outer wards. It reminded me of nature, the nature of humans, the world we live in, with all of its routines and structures. So many Human rules and norms are meant to sustain us, yet people feel ever burned out, unhappy.

It made me think of Forests, how nature never does anything without a reason, everything is optimised, connected. Is there a way to visualise this? To connect people again with their inner nature, back to the roots.

Self care as an eco system.

People turn to nature after all, to relax.

Nature as a tool to optimise self care.

Looking at evolution of plants to see how they figured out the 'best way to grow', meaning the optimal way to nurture themselves.

After the first feedback session, we gotten the advice to not only focus on the external forces that play on us, or on plants. A lot processes happen in the mind, it could be good to visualise these as well. Thinking on Trees, how their rings reflect not only their years, but as well if the season was a good one, or if there was a drought.

Look at the individual care, see how that reflects to the outer ring, the communities.

Self care is as much about one person, as it is about our whole society. Connected.

Sources:

Hughes, Locke. “Bumble - Self-Care May Sound Like a Luxury, but Science Proves It's Actually a Non-Negotiable.” Bumble Buzz, bumble.com/the-buzz/5-reasons-self-care-is-good-for-you-science.

Lawler, Moira. “What Is Self-Care and Why Is It Critical for Your Health?: Everyday Health.” EverydayHealth.com, 18 May 2021, www.everydayhealth.com/self-care/.

Naeem Javid Muhammad HassaniNJMH is working as Deputy Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com). “SYNECOLOGY or STUDY OF COMMUNITIES or PLANT COMMUNITIES or DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST VEGETATION.”
Forestrypedia, 15 June 2018, forestrypedia.com/synecology-or-study-of-communities-or/.

Rizvi, Uzma Z. “Decolonization as Care.” Slow Reader: A Resource for Design Thinking and Practice, 2016, www.academia.edu/31930839/Decolonization_as_Care.

“Self and Identity.” Self and Identity - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/self-and-identity#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20'identity'%20is,is%20employed%20in%20this%20book.

Stead, Harry J. “4 Carl Jung Theories Explained: Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus, The Self.” Medium, Personal Growth, 22 Oct. 2019, medium.com/personal-growth/4-carl-jung-theories-explained-persona-shadow-anima-animus-the-self-4ab6df8f7971.

Weir, Kirsten. “Nurtured by Nature.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 1 Apr. 2020, www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature#:~:text=From%20a%20stroll%20through%20a,upticks%20in%20empathy%20and%20cooperation.

STAMP, NICOLE. “The Revolutionary Origins of Self-Care by @ReadLocalLove.” Locallove, 10 Dec. 2019, locallove.ca/issues/the-revolutionary-origins-of-self-care/#.YLjWZpMzYWq.

“The Cooperative Human.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 9 July 2018, www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0389-1.

Erin Lynn Raab, Ph.D. “Please Stop Trying to Manufacture Students!” Medium, Age of Awareness, 26 May 2018, medium.com/age-of-awareness/please-stop-trying-to-manufacture-students-623492e60134.