FOLLOW THE PLANTS

From amaranth to breadfruit, rye and oil palm--trace the ecological, historical, sociopolitical and visual histories of plants from the ancient world to the Anthropocene

Published with Discipline.

How do the life cycles, connotations and uses of the same plant species change from place to place, or across time? Growing out of the Food Art Research Network and its research symposium in Helsinki in August of 2026, Follow the Plants is conceived as an expanded invitation to walk with plants through histories, growing seasons, metabolic cycles, literature, archives and collective ritual. It brings together artworks, dialogues, essays and musical scores as examples of and prompts for collective research. By putting these approaches in correspondence, Follow the Plants demonstrates how stories, knowledge systems and critical methodologies can inform and transform one another. It creates a dynamic field of research where storytelling is analysis, transforming what counts as knowledge and how it can be dispersed.