OPERATION 1

"We need you to bring with you one or two experiences of "damage" in the broadest sense. They don't have to be personally experienced injuries: they can be observed damages or collective ones. It can be bodily damage, community damage, environmental damage, personal injury, historical damage, public damage, fictitious damage, cultural damage, file damage, structural damage, naturalized damage, computer damage, urban damage, transgenerational damage, geopolitical damage... etc."

Hereby some ensembles that gather damage in different modes:

Transgenic Living Sensor Fish

On the printed news pages of a Hong Kong newspaper, thousands of glowing rice fish, appear to illuminate the green waters of Victoria harbour in a spectacular display. The headline of the article, reads “Harbour Dirty, Fish Illuminate”. The news report tells the story of a dirty harbour polluted by Chinese industry, illuminated by the trails of glowing genetically engineered fish. This is the harbour famous around the world for the light show that takes place every night for tourists. Skyscrapers that line the harbour are illuminated in changing patterns that imply they can communicate with one another, and the lights and laser patterns are reflected in the surface of the water. The newspaper's ink-soaked pages depict water-level constellations of green fluorescent light, spreading outwards from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong’s financial district, in a shimmering pattern that appears on the waterfront. In this toxic light show as petrochemicals from the industries and production of Guanzong province circulate through the Hong Kong basin, they appear, fleetingly, as glowing traces, illuminated by the bodies of transgenic fish as they glow in response to the presence of the chemicals. In this scene, toxicity is an interruption, a disturbance, that forges new relations and disorganizes accustomed ways of being.

GFP Medaka as a diffractive figure, through which toxicity, feminist theory, computation and toxicity are parsed. Engineered as a living environmental sensor the GFP Medaka has been patented to “make” determinate the presence of estrogenic endocrine (hormone) disruptors (EEDs) in marine water, fresh water, food, and cosmetics. In the presence of estrogen, the transgenic Medaka fish express a modified gene and synthesise green fluorescent protein in their liver–-and the intensity of this fluorescence is measured by executing an algorithm that counts the brightness of the pixels when the fish are viewed under a microscope. As the GFP Medaka in the pipet swim towards the solution in the wells, or they emit an excited fluorescent glow, as the light from the microscope passes through them, my engagements with them seem to illuminate their enduring liveliness of suffering.

Hydraponic fish for permaculture

(Helen)

• what is going on here? Permaculture visions in which fish filter the water for plants
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless: Permaculture experts, fish many species who can live in fish tanks for example goldfish, tanks, plants, compounds, fossil fuels (or lack of), climate, soil(in its absence).
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution: permaculture communities, homes, gardens, destroyed soils.
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: enduring, replaceable, repeated, near futures, possible futures,
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?: alternative economies, permaculture agriculture, survival politics, off grid politics, speculative futures, food futures, fish corporealities, capacities of fish bodies to clean and filter water, imaginaries of symbiosis, fish as less animate, fish as labourer, fish as tool/source.
• Your entanglement with the scene: writing about it here, learning about it in a permaculture promotion talk from Starhawk.
• Van a pattern be identified here? not accounting for the liveliness of fish, exploitation of fish creative force, anthropocentrism, anthronormativity in future visionings to protect human life. to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? fish damage, plant growth, human food, and entangled web of suffering and damage.

biological computation

• what is going on here? Methods, tools and softwares for understanding biological process such as amino acid production. Used in biomedical science for generating models and designs for immunisations and pharmaceuticals.
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless: software, operating systems, hardware, compute powers, platforms, databases, expert scientists, technicians, synthetic proteins, non-synthetic proteins, nonhuman animals, patients, big pharma, academic funding, government policies, borders/not borders, biohackers, DIY biologists.
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution laboratories across a variety, garages?, network infrastructures, cloud storage, screens, CPU's, browsers, wetlabs/drylabs, imagaintions, science fictions, press releases, news sites.
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: as fast as possible by some, maybe as slow as possible by others
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? bodies, cellular operations, biological signals, hormones, proteins, hard drives, rare minerals, networks speeds, naming, classification systems, discourse of cure, treatment, immunisation, discovery.
• Your entanglement with the scene: watching rotating models on the screen, imagined body/patient, amateur as an axis to their expertise.
• can a pattern be identified here? patterns drive these practices to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? both entangled

chip critters

(Helen)

• what is going on here? Use of microbes as a computer component - often used to signal toxicity in harmful scenes such as oil spills or waste plants.
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless microbes such as bacterias or algae, waste managers, oil spill cleanup workers, other nonhumans also at risk of toxicity from these scenes such as plants, marine life etc, at risk human workers, human residents in these scenes, network infrastructures, software, servers, clouds, silicon, chips, sensor labs - hi tech, life INC, workers in the global south.
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution: global south component production, chip production in sensor labs clean rooms, toxic scenes landfill, mining waste, spill sites and their distributions globally. Monitoring or remediation takes sites at places where government/corporations/those with resources demarcate human/nonhuman others as needing protection.
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: crisis crisis crisis, post drill, post spill , post kill.
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? Toxic for some but not others, protection for some but not others, sometimes anthocentrism, benavolence, imaginaries of environmental protection, electrons, proteins, minerals, endocrines, bodily processes, contaminants, PCBS, chemical infrastrucures, gender panic.
• Your entanglement with the scene: user of fossil fuels, ethnography of chips, environmental concerns
• can a pattern be identified here? patterning datas, who gets to matter, patterns of injury, matabolisms to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? both?

cryopolitics

(jxxx)

• what is going on here? -> the management of life through the control of it based on temperature: freezing bodyparts, reproductive cells and embrios is a contemporary industry/market.
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless -> eggs, freezers, thermometers, assisted reproduction companies, societal discourse and imagery, gendered bodies,
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution -> in vitro, fridges, laboratories, waiting rooms, webpages, professional couch rooms, biology classrooms,
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated -> now-or-never, in your 30's, below zero,
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• Your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

endocrine disruption

(jxxx)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

turbocapitalism

(jxxx)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

cosmic rays and bit flipping

(jxxx)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

aqua_forensic

(laura)

• what is going on here? invisible anthropogenic (pharmaceutical) chemical pollutants
• which are the agents implied? humans, oceans, chemicals, molecules, phantoms, organisms, rocks
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution. World’s waters
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: repetition, extension, perpetuated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? ghost haunting, bodily of the waters, chemical structures, the fluidity of flows, water-media
• Your entanglement with the scene: learn from the displacements required for measurements in terms of f bioacoustics, vibrations and presences
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? aquatic animals, micro-organisms, humans, development patterns of all living organisms. Structural damage/scale: from the micro level (viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms)to the largest organisms in the oceans

Botanist - Tsing

(laura)

• what is going on here? course of millions of years, one might imagine that spores could spread the species.1 There is something about the stratosphere that inspires airy dreams. Imagine, spores circling the globe!
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless: plants, microbes, fungus, humans, spores, movement,
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution: individuality non individuality, specie, many genetic-signature
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: open-ended
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? liminal, exploration, enacted in material terms, cooperation, collaborative ways of living, interconnection, materials and methods
• Your entanglement with the scene: to hack the expectation of scaling up. Nonscalability- Scalability and indeterminacy, transformative relations
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? Hegemony of scalability, herbaria, data-bases-taxonomy

Oncomouse

(laura)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

GMO bacteria

(laura)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless: bacteria, humans, gadgets, proteins
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution: labs,
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: now, possible nows, possible futures
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? promises of healing, cure, reparations
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

comunication breakdown = isolation

(Natalia)

• what is going on here? A very hugh economic, political crisis in Argentina leaves almost half of the population in a devastating situation in wich they are not even capable of charging their phones, nor paying for the mobile phone service or even taking public transport for going from home to work. This situation leaves people from all over the country with out a proper communication and sociability.
• The agents implied are the new technologies, the telephones, the lack of money, the goverment as resposible for the bad administration, the whole popultion (wealthy or not), public services such as transportation, gas, water, electricity.
• Where? This is happening in a Argentina, but its something going on outside in the streets also inside homes, schools, public places, etc.
• When? it tarted some years ago, but we could also say it happened once in 2001, and there is a repetitition of the way of administrating public services, financials. I just hope it ends as quick as possible.
• semiotics materials: south latin american political context, trying to assemble and catch up with the neopolitical way of organizing a state.
• engangement: Me being abroad, while my pals are there, suffering the illnes of a broken country, of a non salary job, of the lack of hospitals, etc. makes me feel strange, like overprotected by a second country
• pattern is the way of argentinian politics way of doing.

Mariana dam disaster

(tayrine)

• what is going on here? -> 19 people dead / the worst enviorenmental disaster / 40m liters of water and sediment from iron extraction / mud have destroyed houses, memories, dreams, futures.
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless -> Vale and BHP Biliton companies / engineers / the goverment / monetary interests / inhabitants, flora and fauna, minerals, landscape / Dem structure / Capital flows, stocks
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution -> The city of Mariana, the city of Governador Valadares, Doce river, the city of Bento Rodrigues, state of MG / throughout the flow of the river to the ocean / Forests around the cities / the ground.
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated -> 2015 - ongoing
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? Dispute of the companies trying to lower the financial punishment. Fines. Damage to their reputation. The goverment trying to show they were doing the best to "repair". Companies trying to show they were doing the best they could.
• your entanglement with the scene -> Emotional relationships / Care - Friends, land and enviorenment
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? -> Structural. It's related to capital, goverment puting in the center the capital instead of nature, human and animal rights etc. Imperialist relationship from companies with the land and the resources.

dominación de caballos

• what is going on here? -> se invisibilidad y silencia el daño al caballo. El caballo no expresa dolor como mecanismo de defensa porque es una presa, y si lo expresara sería una presa mucho más fácil. Todo el deporte hípico se basa en dolor al caballo que no expresa pero que sirve para que obedezca al humano. Esta dominación está construida sobre una serie de supuestos que son falsos: el caballo no sufre, es feliz, está bien alimentado, vive en buenas condiciones
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless -> humanos y animales. El deporte hípico, el capital cultural y de clase que supone la doma o tener un caballo.
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution -> Las hípicas tradicionales con caballos en establos concentran este dolor. Escala global.
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated -> históricamente se ha dominado al caballo desde una perspectiva utilitaria: desde el uso de carga al terapéutico, el deportivo…
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? -> A nivel semiotic se ha ignorado el lenguaje del caballo para perpetuar el dolor. Se han creado mitos como que el caballo necesita un líder (no es cierto, en libertad el caballo se auto organiza). Se ha generado un universo simbólico alrededor del caballo basado en nociones humanas que es falso.’
• your entanglement with the scene -> Yo también he participado en esa dominación, empecé desde ahí. Poco a poco he ido intentando reparar ese daño alterando la relación con los caballos, ahora estoy en un refugio de caballos rescatados donde no se les monta y se aprende etología para reparar el daño que han sufrido en hípicas tradicionales desde relaciones en la tierra de igual a igual
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? -> El mismo patrón de dominación que históricamente se ha repetido a través del binarismo ontológico: el caballo es otro no-humano al que puedes dominar -de la misma forma que se ha hecho con la mujer, el negro, el animal, etc. El otro no sufre, no tiene emociones, es inferior.

animales de compañía

• what is going on here? animales de compañía en casa, muchas veces es un capricho, se mueve, te da cariño. Tu decides por el animal, que se recluye en una casa y le impones tus condiciones de vida. Es una convivencia forzada.
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless: Humanos, y animales de compañía, la industria de compra venta, la industria de los pedigris, de comida para animales, juguetes, veterinarios etc.
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution: ámbito doméstico, pero también en la industria
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated: históricamente, fin utilitarista de los animales. La industrialización y las ciudades, animales domésticos en apartamentos. obsesión por las razas, perros grandes en casas.
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? Imaginario: el animal de compañía es un ser naif que te va a dar amor incondicional, y cubrir tus carencias emocionales. El compromiso se trata de manera superficial, no se trata solamente de no abandonarlo.
• your entanglement with the scene. Belen tiene una gata, Marty, lo adoptó con compromiso pero con ingenuidad. La convivencia con ella le hace entender como la vida pasa por las dos. Actualmente entiende la relación como un compromiso muto de por vida. Siente que el cuidado es mutuo. Marty vive en une espacio reducido pero ahí será libre, x ej. puede arañara lo que quiera. Belen tiene le privilegio de elegir donde vivir entonces se trata de elegir lugares donde las dos estén bien.
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? Es un daño estructural porque no entendemos los modos de ser no-humanos como algo que tenga el mismo valor que los humanos.

drawing-as-damage

(alba)

• what is going on here?
• which are the agents implied? alive or not, human or not, powerful or powerless
• wheres? spatiality / situatedness / displacements / distribution
• whens? temporality / durability / existing / extinct / repeated
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble?
• your entanglement with the scene
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular?

El perro y los rumanos

• what is going on here? un perro muerto. los rumanos que viviendo al lado. el racismo toma cuerpo. el desalojo. el silencio.
• which are the agents implied? descampado, especulación, perro, portero, el trabajo,
• wheres? descampado, calle,
• whens? 10 años, una noche, "tengo prisa para llegar al trabajo", nunca más, un edificio que se va a contruir
• semiotic-materialities: grafitis, una puerta tapiada, el silencio como marca
• your entanglement with the scene: vecindad que no es
• can a pattern be identified here? to what extent is this damage structural, or singular? racismo estructural, vidas desplazables, el territorio

Allergies/intolerance

• what is going on here? Experiences of uncomfortable, restricting, violent reactions to physical interactions with certain environmental elements/agents. Part of the harm done is locating the production of harm (intolerance) with the subject and to locate harmlessness (tolerance?) with the agent. Allergy as a lack of adaptation? Is lack of allergy a sign of success?
• which are the agents implied? A human body, a digestive aparatus, a resparative aparatus, an immune system developing over time, environmental agents interacting with other elements, social habits and customs (culinary, domestic, ...), a transforming environment, climate change, saliva, micro-biom/microbiological life.
• wheres? A human body in the kitchen, a human body on the street, a human body incorporating other bodies (animal, plant, chemical)
• whens? Developing over time, temporal activation, interacting with another timescale. Irreversible … or not?
• semiotic-materialities: difficulty breathing, stomach ache, itching, separation between human and elements. Air borne, animal production, ...
• your entanglement with the scene: I am both the cause and the victim of this harmful interaction.
• can a pattern be identified here? Individual/collective: Increasing clarity/awareness on how to detect and act in order to avoid harmful interactions. Collective: increasing allergies and intolerances.

l'arabe/arabische

(FS)

• what is going on here? A colonial monument situated in Brussels celebrating the intervention of Belgian military freeing congoles subjects from arabic slavetraders. The monument is being attacked, repaired, re-inscribed, cleaned. Documentation: http://westenberg.constantvzw.org/?cat=11
• which are the agents implied? the weather, a sculpture, words: arabisch/l'arabe, marker, colonialism, fascists, passers-by, documenters, public administration, veterans, ...
• wheres? Congo, Cinquantenaire park, next to a mosque
• when? Colonisation of congo, erection of the monument, interventions (1990, 1991 and ongoing), ongoing weather, Belgian national identity construction (1885-current)
• semiotic-materialities: sandstone, acid rain, language, violent interventions, rewriting, politics, description and documentation
• your entanglement with the scene: passer-by, assistant to the documenter, inhabitant of Brussels (a city built with colonial money), aspirant ally of some agents not others
• can a pattern be identified here? Inscription, description, reinscription as an ongoing battlefield. Sediment. The monument is left to rot (non-reparation by/through laissez-faire).

the damage that implies invisibilizing the multiple voices that compose your one voice

(ari)

Palestine pollution

• what is going on here? Palestinian opresion by Israely people. Systemic phisical and envionmental violence, pollution of air, water, soil. Constant noise from planes and drones. Constant humiliation when people approaches to the border.
• wheres? The whole world, wheter taking or not taking part
• when? Since 1960
• semiotic-materialities: Silence, struggle from palestinians to make visible their relation. Israely apparatus manages to silence what's happening there, creating a virtuality that ends up in world politics and people indulgence towards this situation.

David Reimer

(Ibai)

• what is going on here? David Reimer was the eldest of identical twins, originally named Bruce and Brian. At the age of six months, they were diagnosed with phimosis and were referred for circumcision, but the procedure did not go as planned, and Bruce's penis was burned beyond surgical repair. The parents, concerned about their son's prospects for future happiness and sexual function without a penis, took him to see John Money, a psychologist who claimed that Reimer would be more likely to achieve successful, functional sexual maturation as a girl than as a boy. At the age of 22 months, his testes were surgically removed and was reassigned to be raised as female and given the name Brenda. Estrogen was given during adolescence, inducing breast development. By the age of 13 years, Reimer was experiencing suicidal depression. Finally, on 14 March 1980, his parents told him the truth about his gender reassignment. At 14, Reimer decided to assume a male gender identity, calling himself David. By 1987, Reimer had undergone treatment to reverse the reassignment, including testosterone injections, a double mastectomy, and two phalloplasty operations. In addition to a difficult lifelong relationship with his parents, Reimer had to deal with unemployment and the death of his brother Brian, who had developed schizophrenia. On the morning of 4 May 2004, David took his own life.
• which are the agents implied? Twins, Parents, Doctors, Media... Gender Binary, La voluntad de reparación, El pánico ante lo queer.
• wheres? Hospital, Home, People’s mind, David's body, Media.
• whens? Life-long, as they were all drastic decisions.
• semiotic-materialities: what signs and matters are at work in this ensemble? Biological, discursive, linguistic, medical, quirurgic, aesthetic, identitary material/matters.
• your entanglement with the scene. As someone who consumes it as food for thought because it helps to unpack many interesting problematics.
• can a pattern be identified here? Yes, binary pattern, doctor patient hierarchy, lack of agency, on the other hand, it calls for attention to trans-exclusionary (who, on the contrary, face difficulties accessing this very technologies) patterns.