From the field, to paper, and back

In the event From the field, to paper, and back, we (Gabriela Aquije, Roberta Burchardt, Guillemette Legrand and Lilo Viehweg) conspire with Marisol de la Cadena and her thinking on ‘Not knowing in the Presence of’ through the pluriversal lenses of our creative practices. Together with Marisol, we discuss the notion of ‘not knowing’ as “a method of analysis that acknowledges that what we know can always be exceeded by what we do not or cannot fully comprehend” (de la Cadena, 2021) in relation to the question of translation within the context of art and design research. This event is the result of our collective struggle to account for what occurs in our fieldwork and practices as it always exceeds the translation we make of it on paper. The work of Marisol gave words, or rather, the confidence of lacking words. We will discuss ways of translating and inquiring ‘otherwise’ with people, places and beings we think-feel with, from indigenous knowledge, scientific imagination, personal histories and planetary entanglements.