The Multispecies Salon

A new approach to writing culture has arrived: multispecies ethnography. Plants, animals, fungi, and microbes appear alongside humans in this singular book about natural and cultural history. Anthropologists have collaborated with artists and biological scientists to illuminate how diverse organisms are entangled in political, economic, and cultural systems. Contributions from influential writers and scholars, such as Dorion Sagan, Karen Barad, Donna Haraway, and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, are featured along with essays by emergent artists and cultural anthropologists.Delectable mushrooms flourishing in the aftermath of ecological disaster, microbial cultures enlivening the politics and value of food, and nascent life forms running wild in the age of biotechnology all figure in this curated collection of essays and artifacts. Recipes provide instructions on how to cook acorn mush, make cheese out of human milk, and enliven forests after they have been clear-cut. The Multispecies Salon investigates messianic dreams, environmental nightmares, and modest sites of biocultural hope.For additional materials see the companion website: www.multispecies-salon.org/Contributors. Karen Barad, Caitlin Berrigan, Karin Bolender, Maria Brodine, Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn, David S. Edmunds, Christine Hamilton, Donna J. Haraway, Stefan Helmreich, Angela James, Lindsay Kelley, Eben Kirksey, Linda Noel, Heather Paxson, Nathan Rich, Anna Rodriguez, Dorion Sagan, Craig Schuetze, Nicholas Shapiro, Miriam Simun, Kim TallBear, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.

Hope in blasted landscapes / Eben Kirksey, Nick Shapiro, & Maria Brodine -- R.A.W. Assmilk soap / Karin Bolender -- Blasted landscapes (and the gentle art of mushroom picking) / Anna Tsing -- Interlude: microbiopolitics / Heather Paxson -- Recipe I: plumpin̳on / Lindsay Kelley -- Recipe II: Human cheese / Miriam Simun -- Recipe III. Multispecies becomings / Eben Kirksey -- Recipe IV, Bitter medicine is stronger / Linda Noel, Christine Hamilton, Anna Rodriguez, Angela James, Nathan Rich, David S. Edmunds, & Kim TallBear -- Life cycle of a common weed / Caitlin Berrigan -- Life in the age of biotechnology / Eben Kirksey, Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn, & Dorion Sagan -- Invertebrate visions : diffractions of the brittlestar / Karen Barad -- Speculative fabulations for technoculture's generations / Donna Haraway.