Trajectories of Botanical Appropriations Remanent in Landscape, a Practice-Based Investigation

  • Desiree Coral Guerra

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract

This PhD practice-based research dissertation demonstrates the process of conceptualising ideas for the production of practice-based research.

This PhD in practice-based research aimed to trace the origins of domestication and the trajectories of seed from the Americas to the rest of the world and show how these trajectories of exchange have shaped our contemporary landscapes. I focused on the domestication of crops and seeds from South America, ones that are part of everyday life on our tables, in our meals, and sometimes in the most unexpected products of everyday use; while also bringing in the accounts of journeys and connections the products of the invasion of the Americas by European colonisers and the changes it implied for the rest of the world.

In this process of tracing the domestication of seeds and the early European and American encounters, also referred to as the Columbian Exchange, decolonial approaches and decolonial frameworks are applied to understand, in perspective, the process of knowledge creation and the relationship with the surrounding landscapes. These landscapes are spaces where the remnants of these exchanges can be traced. As it could be a forest, a garden, a botanical garden, an allotment, a supermarket, or a table.

In this perspective, knowledge notions, ideas and ontological approaches towards the other humans and non-humans reveal the strategies of power exercised over indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and knowledge. Building on the Andean decolonial perspective and its greater botanical connections to our contemporary landscapes through the art practice, this work contributes to the generation of critical thinking and new ways of understanding the landscape through art and art projects and to sustain the forms of producing knowledge from the arts.
Date of Award2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Dundee
SupervisorPernille Spence (Supervisor) & Eddie Summerton (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Decolonility
  • Extractivism
  • Practice-based research
  • Food Sovreignty
  • Seed Sovereignty
  • Knowledge
  • Landscape
  • Movement
  • Art

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UN SDGs

This student thesis contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  • SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land

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