online publication in NiCHE: A Near-Future Herbarium: Field Guide and Posthuman Collaboration

Mar­i­on Schulze & Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe

E‑plants, bio­hy­brids, mon­ster plants, trans*plants or dig­i­tal plants – what comes in many names, we will refer to as nat­ur­al-tech­ni­cal plants. Mul­ti­ple and vibrant in form and tex­ture, these plants have pro­lif­er­at­ed at an aston­ish­ing pace in lab­o­ra­to­ries and dig­i­tal natures since the mid-2010s. Grow­ing silent­ly and stored away in lab­o­ra­to­ries, peer-reviewed arti­cles, ded­i­cat­ed dig­i­tal spaces, or design and artist stu­dios, nat­ur­al-tech­ni­cal plants seem to mul­ti­ply with­out much atten­tion – in pub­lic and aca­d­e­m­ic dis­course. Con­cur­rent­ly, the sto­ries of organ­ic plants embed­ded in nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments are man­i­fold and make it into best­seller lists and are at the cen­ter of the ever-grow­ing field of Crit­i­cal Plant Stud­ies.

NiCHE: Net­work in Cana­di­an His­to­ry & Envi­ron­ment | Nou­velle ini­tia­tive Cana­di­enne en his­toire de l’en­vi­ron­nement

A Near-Future Herbar­i­um: Field Guide and Posthu­man Col­lab­o­ra­tion