Guest @ The Guesthouse Collective, Cork
06/26: Field Notes on
Corresponding with Chitons
How to enter a tide pool? Or, even not?
Is it possible to disturb (derivation of ecological term disturbance) by invitation?
What perspectives on relationships (human and non-human) emerge when I follow their detailed spatial dimensions thinking-in-movement?
What worldings do I recognise and co-shape by following emplaced paths of proximity and distance? And, how are relationships affected through proximity and distance?
How can I respond to ______ crises through tactile, DYI material practice to connect the planetary to the personal?
Tangling, Fountainstown Beach, 12/06/2026
Intro
November 23, 2022, Manly to Spit Walk, Sydney (AUS): Fascinated, I stand on a rock formation in the intertidal zone for the first time in my life and look at the photo I just took. From a bird's eye view, I have captured an oval, fossilized-looking remnant of former life. Having grown up in a culture with a lack of marine identity or education, I think I have found an archaic impression.
August 9, 2024, Stuttgart (DE): The ancient, dead eye surrounded by past barnacles inscribed itself into my daydreams. Spurred on by this, I am looking for help. Katarzyna Vončina, PhD student at Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, Frankfurt am Main, names the mysterious critter a Chiton – S. pelliserpentis.
For me, this experience represents a fundamental shift in sympathies: as a child, I learned to be intrigued by species with "good looks and good luck to be anthropomorphically cute" (Probyn, p. 25/26). However, a chiton does not necessarily belong to the group of beings that will play a leading role in the next Disney film. So different from my human body, they are capable of curling into a ball, sensory perception through their shells, and bearing an unbelievable evolutionary lineage. For me, this indicates to not only speculate what I can learn with and from these critters, but to start with the challenging correspondence with this marine mollusc.
Chiton Double Date, Fountainstown Beach, 09/06/2026
T-Junction w/ Claudia Barton, 4 June 2026. Poster design by Mick O’Shea
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