zine #1 ENG

werden
kontaminiert
Forschen in
den Ruinen
der Reinheit

BECOMING CONTAMINATE
Found objects tree nursery
A group of researchers led by Anna Lowenhaupt
Tsing published the Feral Atlas in
2021. 1 The atlas assembles stories
of more-than-human beings that
challenge notions of human hubris
in the Anthropocene. The field
reports tells us stories of animals,
plants, or fungi. They thrive in
human-made infrastructures and
grow out of control. While the Feral
Atlas gathers stories of feral ecologies
from around the world, we
ask ourselves: What does a Feral
Atlas for Berlin look like? Searching
for answers, we follow plants and
their relationships to humans and
engage with the productive entanglements
of urbanism and plant studies.
Our understanding of becoming contaminated
and ruins of purity encompasses a complex of
interrelated and complementary concepts and
thoughts.
In urban space we encounter contaminated
diversity. 2 There, the most diverse world-building
actors meet. Anna Tsing describes contamination
as collaboration. Living beings are
reciprocally changed by their encounters with
one another. Individuality is a modern illusion.
Purity is not an option; rather, individuals are
comprised of all of their previous encounters. 3
Environment is the interaction of different
living beings in polyphony - be it interdependence
or unintentional coordination. 4 When
we enter those environments, we are confronted
not only with stories of toxicity, pollution,
destruction, and profit-seeking interests in
land and displacement, but simultaneously
stories of survival and attempts to protect

D
ecosystems.
With this comes the understanding that there
is no state of pure, pristine nature, nor is
there any way to return to it. We are currently
confronted with the proliferation of concepts
of nature who claim to dwell in the fractures
and continuums of nature and culture.5 This
condition drives our engagement with urban
nature.
Our discussions connect with the discourse
on Berlin‘s urban ecology. In 1979, a species
protection program, the ‘Artenschutzprogramm’
was adopted. It was prepared not
only by ecologists, botanists, and landscape
planners, but also by residents interested in
Berlin‘s wild landscape. The remarkably widespread
enthusiasm for urban nature resulted
in a species protection program that covered
the whole of Berlin - including industrial and
residential areas. In 1984, Herbert Sukopp,
botanist and ecologist at the Technical University
of Berlin, published a biotope map that
for the first time described urban habitats of
flora and fauna as new ecological structures
worthy of protection. As Sandra Bartoli
states: at that time, the antagonism of city
and nature seemed to be resolved.6 We are 6
Species protection
program of 1984

interested in examining what remains or has
developed out of this movement and which
political conflicts are being waged over urban
nature today.
The X-Tutorial looks for careful and ethical
research practices that do not solely stage
urban natures and their vegetation as research
objects.7 In this sense, becoming turns
into a mode of research. In the Anthropocene,
plants live in an environment dominated by
human activity. Agricultural areas are largely
defined by plantations and monocultures.
In Berlin, biodiversity strategies, nature
conservation, but also city cleaning and
green space maintenance determine which
plants are allowed to grow where. Following
these restrictions, we are interested in the
concept of becoming as a kind of minoritarian
becoming in a majoritarian system according
to Deleuze and Guattari.8 Becoming-plant
describes practices of living and surviving
in an environment that is at first alien and
oppressive. Plants subvert the meaning of
urban space by appropriating it.9 We discuss
the possibility of becoming-plant. How can
we form heterogeneous alliances with plants
and entangle ourselves in their milieus of
non-individual communication? 10 What is the
non-human vegetal in us? 11 The act of vegetating
is commonly seen negatively. But what
does it really mean to vegetate in the city?
12
With Donna Haraway we think of the concept
of becoming also as a becoming-with. This
implies an ethical relationship to the co-producers
of a shared environment. Between
practices of purification and those of impurification,
we look for a response-ability. 13 Once
the interconnectedness of nature and culture
is recognized, how can it be appropriately
dealt with? Our urban nature research thus

aims at collecting not only exemplary practices
of care 14 but also planned neglect. 15
When we use the term ruin 16 , we do not mean
to romanticise. We are not interested in the
beauty of overgrown ruins, nor in a nostalgic
memory of extinct plants. This city has never
been pure.
17
First of all, the term ruins of purity
means that notions of purity of
a nation-state, native or servant
nature, which are racist, discriminating,
othering, and/or speciesist,
are continually becoming fragile.
The question of who belongs
where is not posed and answered
by humans alone. We want to
question, deconstruct or ruin conceptions of
autochthony and invasiveness. We discover
intertwined human-plant stories of resistance,
Infrared aerial image
of Berlin
18
infiltration and overgrowth. The wild garden
Maria Mama in Kreuzberg‘s Hasenheide is an
example of this. Bettina Stoetzer recounts: A
sunflower grows from a sunflower seed that
has fallen on the ground. The Turkish German
Berliners who met there regularly became
gardeners. Most of them came to Germany
in the 1960-70s in order to find employment.
Now, unable to work due to overload and long
term neglect by authorities, members of this
community have often felt excluded from
German society. Stoetzer writes, they have

not been granted full citizenship and their
status as guests has been perpetuated. Maria
Mama is their self-created place to breathe. 19
20
Ruins of purity can also be created through
purification work 21 , for example in scientific
institutions such as Berlin’s Botanic Garden. 22
Nature and culture are seemingly being separated
from each other through the collection
and classification of plants, but also through
horticultural practices such as „Krauten“. Yet
it is precisely these moments that give rise
to nature-culture entanglements. Plants that
are persuading gardeners by their appearance
to let them grow on walkways bend
botanical discipline, according to Cornelia
Ertl and Sandra Calkins. 23 Other plants defy
24
the boundaries of the botanical garden and
escape from human order. 25
Ruins of purity are Brachen, construction sites
or disused infrastructures whose situation is
precarious. They define themselves through
disturbances and at the same time offer free
space for mutually changing encounters.
These places are sites of surprising biodiversity
and socializations that involve more
than humans. 26 They tell stories of what Tsing
and colleagues mean by „arts of survival on a
damaged planet.“ 27
The X-Tutorials first iteration took place over
the winter semester comprised by circa 20
students from the Berlin universities. 28 We
met weekly every Tuesday for 4 hours. An in-

troduction to the topic was followed by guest
contributions in urban space. First, Yann
Colonna presented his #Palmenforschung,
then Cornelia Ertl 29 introduced us to her
anthropological field research on gardeners
and plants in the botanical garden and; finally,
Prof. Sandra Bartoli guided us along moments
of transgression through Tiergarten.
Excursions
The participants conducted artistic research
on the relationality of humans, plants, and
cities, connecting what was discussed during
the sessions with their own findings. The goal
of the zine was to produce a rush of stories
that took different paths than anthropocentric
science.
30
“And why not make the strong claim and call
it a science, an addition to knowledge? Its
research object is contaminated diversity; its
unit of analysis is the indeterminate encounter.
To learn anything we must revitalize arts
of noticing and include ethnography and
natural history.” 30
The zine‘s contributions range from
multi-species anthropology and cultural

-historical to -philosophical human-plant
research. They are accompanied by contributions
on the collaborating fungus.
Melanie and Lola visit the reeds at the Grunewald
Tower and ask themselves what influences
the plants have had on political ecology,
or how ideas of nature, homeland and environmental
protection affect the reeds.
Berta‘s protagonist is the Galinsoga parviflora,
the so-called Franzosenkraut, whose colonial
past has brought it to Berlin. As a „garden
refugee,“ it gradually runs wild in Berlin‘s
urban flora and subsequently experiences
classification as a weed. Berta‘s questions
about multiple border crossings merge into
Lisa‘s work on a specific border - the former
Berlin Wall and its plants. Two websites have
been created for the Park am Nordbahnhof
and the Mauerpark, describing their spaces
from a vegetative perspective.
Jann‘s contribution finds moss in plant communities
in Berlin’s non-places. In a Berlin
shopping mall he encounters greened walls.
The „moss“ hanging there is colored!
Jul researches communities of indoor plant
lovers. Her Questionnaire begins with the
question, „Why did you choose to live with
plants?“ It ends with a speculative quote from
Donna Haraway in which houseplants take
over.
Emma, Maja, and Laura have also found
mushrooms. The Schmetterlingstramete of
Tiergarten leads to questions about cycles
of cleanliness and contamination between
plants, fungi, and their collaborations.
Daniel and Niklas tell a different story of the
eutrophic Plötzensee. Through the development
of a fictional blue-green algae lemonade
and algae cream they explore they are able to
explore the tipping points of

toxicity and healing effects.
Tizian describes the ambivalent attitude of
the tree of heaven towards its status as an invasive
non-native species, which is evident in
the tree‘s diverse urban lifestyles, highlighting
how mutable and unfinished ecologies can
be.
Anna follows the traces of the Krause Glucke
in Brandenburg‘s forests, a mushroom laboratory
and a restaurant kitchen. The cultivated
contaminants she encounters cross territories,
bodies, and ideas of fungi. In the end, we
will all be mushrooms.
Alena (Erbse) and Ari create an auditory
transect through the Schöneberger Südgelände,
overlaying cultural and natural histories.
Caitlin/Jasmine Parsley’s Artemis, one of the
few plants named after a goddess, rewrites
her vegetative-divine myths and concludes,
„Artemis was queer!“
Lauren and Leo look to food and self-contamination
as a way to encounter so-called
invasive species differently.

Endnotes
1 Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing et. al. (2021): Feral Atlas. The
More-Than-Human Anthropocene, in: https://feralatlas.
org/ (last access: 14.02.23).
2 Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2018): Der Pilz am Ende der
Welt: Über das Leben in den Ruinen des Kapitalismus,
Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin., 42-54.
3 Tsing 2018, S.45. Also: Scott F. Gilbert (2017): Holobiont
By Birth: “Multilineage Individuals As The Concretion
of Cooperative Processes”, in: Lowenhaupt Tsing et. al.
(Publisher): Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts
and Monsters of the Anthropocene, Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 73-90.
4 Tsing 2018, 40-42.
5 See https://www.instituteforpostnaturalstudies.
org/ (letzter Zugriff: 16.02.23); Hartmut Böhme
(Hg.): Dritte Natur, No.1, Berlin: Matthes & Seitz,
2018. From a landscape theory point of view, we are
interested in the definition of third landscape by Gilles
Clément (2004): Manifesto of the Third Landscape,
in: https://teh.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/
TEH-Publication-Manifesto-of-Third-Landscape-145x225mm-2022-WEB-Spreads.pdf
(letzter Zugriff:
16.02.23). Additionally, we are reading the preceding
concept of fourth nature put forth by ecologist and
botanist Ingo Kowarik, developed on the basis of the
Schöneberger Südgelände. See Ingo Kowarik (1991):
Unkraut oder Urwald? Natur der vierten Art auf dem
Gleisdreieck, in: Bundesgartenschau 1995 GmbH (Hg.):
Dokumentation Gleisdreieck morgen. Sechs Ideen für
einen Park, Berlin, 45-55.
6 Sandra Bartoli (2019): From Tiergarten’s Plant Societies
and Berlin’s Biotope Map to a Map of neglect, in:
Sandra Bartoli; Jörg Stollmann (Publishers): Tiergarten
landscape of transgression (this obscure object of
desire), Zürich: Park Books, 229-231.
7 Astrid Schrader writes about the exemplary knowledge
practice of Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, who emphasizes
the uniqueness of the insects she draws: Astrid
Schrader: “Abyssal intimacies and temporalities of
care: How (not) to care about deformed leaf bugs in the
aftermath of Chernobyl”, Social Studies of Science, Bd.
45 (5), 2015, London: Sage Publications. For conflicts
around non-discriminatory knowledge practices on
contamination and toxicity, see Shotwell, Alexis (2016):
Against Purity. Living Ethically in Compromised Times,
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 77-106.
8 Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari: Tausend Plateaus.
Schizophrenie und Kapitalismus 2, Berlin: Merve 1992,
396 and following. For an attempt to transfer Deleuze
and Guattaris notion of becoming to plants, see Karen
L.F. Houle (2011): “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics as
Extension or Becoming? The Case of Becoming-Plant”,
in: Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Bd. IX (1/2),
online-publication.
9 Plants use practices of growth and survival that can
also be described with Michel de Certeau: Strategy

is understood as a local manifestation imposed by
an authority, creating a self-legislated space that has
certain directive organizational structures. Whereas
tactics describe an action acting through this space. It
exploits the cracks in the rationalized, strategic space
to produce unpredictable effects within it. Michel de
Certeau (2011 [1988]): The practice of everyday life,
Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California
Press, S.38.
10
Michael Marder (2013): What is Plant Thinking?, in:
Philosophies de la nature, Ed.25, Klesis. revue philosophique,
online-publication.
11
Houle 2011, 110-112.
12
Donna Haraway (2008): When Species Meet. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press, 244.
13
Donna J. Haraway (2016): Staying with the Trouble.
Making Kin in the Chthulucene. London: Duke University
Press, 115.
14
The Berlin collective Hooops is in the process of
establishing a respectful dialogue with local medicinal
plants (https://hooops.de/, last accessed: 14.02.23).
Another example is the attempt to establish a permaculture
garden with „weeds“ at the UdK Berlin (https://
www.instagram.com/the.other.garden/, last access:
14.02.23).
15
Sandra Bartoli speaks of the garden architect Wilhelm
Alverdes, who had an instrumental role in planning the
reforestation of the Tiergarten after World War II. He
designed plant communities that grew in complexity
independently over the years and were then left to
develop on their own. This planning was further
reinforced by Berlin policymakers in the 1970s with a
freeze of tree-felling and other measures. “Tiergarten
experienced a relatively long existence of loving
indifference and forgetting from 1960 up to 2006, the
results of a laisser pousser [highlighted in the original]
attitude that generated this highly architectural and
diversely textured place, richly layered in human and
natural history.” Bartoli 2019, 232.
16
We borrow this term from the subtitle of Anna Tsing‘s
book, “On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins”.
While we are concerned with life in the ruins of capitalism,
we would like to open up Tsing‘s notion of ruins.
Lowenhaupt Tsing, Anna (2018): Der Pilz am Ende der
Welt: Über das Leben in den Ruinen des Kapitalismus,
Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
17
Bettina Stoetzer (2022): Ruderal City. Ecologies of
Migration, Race and Urban Nature in Berlin, Durham
Duke University Press, S.59.
18
Sandra Jasper says that there needs to be more discussion
focusing on the intersection of invasion biology and
cultural studies questioning metaphors such as invasiveness,
and a transfer of knowledge around ecological
occurrences needs to take place. See Exzellenzcluster
Matters of Activity (Prod.), Sandra Jasper (Speaker):
Wastelands. Botanical Afterlife (Deep Material Futures),
transcript of a discussion, Videoservice CMS 16.11.22,
digital publication at youtube, 08:54:57, english, https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFW2riuCrU (last access:
15.02.23), starting at 01:25:40.
19
Bettina Stoetzer (2022): Ruderal City. Ecologies of
Migration, Race and Urban Nature in Berlin, Durham:
Duke University Press, 91.
20
Stoetzer 2022, 93.
21
See Latour, Bruno (2008 [1995]): Wir sind nie modern
gewesen. Versuch einer symmetrischen Anthropologie,
Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp. Work of Purification,
according to Latour, can be understood as a set of
practices that separate nature from culture. In Latour‘s
understanding of modernity, language or discourse has
the task of purifying by signifying and representing
things and living beings (that is, forcibly assigning them
to nature or culture). We understand this to include
classifying and likewise gardening and ‚Krauten‘ in a
botanical context.
22
Given the imperialist and colonial heritage that is administered
in botanical gardens, it is questionable what
the task of botanical gardens should be. Events that
exoticize plants and seed banks that perpetuate colonial
access are particularly criticized. For an exemplary
postcolonial critique of the Potsdam botanical garden
see Naomie Gramlich, Lydia Kray (13.07.20): (Post-)
Kolonialismus und der botanische Garten in Potsdam,
in: https://pocolit.com/2020/07/13/post-kolonialismus-und-der-botanische-garten-in-potsdam/
(last
access: 11.02.23).
23
Sandra Calkins and Cornelia Ertl (2023): Botanical
discipline: the senses and more-than-human affect,
in: Millicent Churcher, Sandra Calkins, Jandra Böttger,
Jan Slaby (Ed.): Affect, Power, and Institutions, London:
Routledge, 125-143.
24
ibid, 139-141. The gardeners install weed fleeces to
allow the quick removal on the one hand but on the
other to also allow Althaea officinalis and Lythrum
salicaria to grow.
25
Julian Hees, Jonas Möller, Anna Romeo, Emil Widmer
(2023): Trans-plants and Translations: Green Becomings
between Berlin Botanic Garden and Urban Flora
Berlin, Berlin: self published. Wunderlauch (Allium
paradoxum) and Franzosenkraut (Galinsoga parviflora)
are followed here in their process of turning feral. They
were once brought into the collection of the Botanical
Garden as a botanical rarity, whereupon they quickly
escaped into the Berlin Flora and are now a self-evident
part of the Berlin flora. Wunderlauch, also known as
Berliner Lauch, is often confused with wild garlic and
is probably so widespread precisely because of its
apparent culinary character.
26
Tsing 2018, 205.
27
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing et. al. (Publishers): Arts of
Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of
the Anthropocene, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 2017.
28
The interdisciplinary group consisted of BA and MA
students from Berlin TU, HU, FU and UdK. While most
students study landscape architecture, students from

other fields of study such as urban design, cultural
studies, geography, anthropology and biology were part
of the X-Tutorial.
29
Cornelia told us about a past workshop similar to
the X-Tutorial. In May 2022, the workshop „Exploring
Unruly Sites of More-than-human Entanglements“ was
organized by Cornelia Ertl, Kathrin Eitel & Felix Lussem.
It included a keynote speech by Matthew Gandy. The
results are collected in: https://umweltethnologie.
com/2022/11/17/bericht-zum-workshop-exploring-un-
ruly-sites-of-more-than-human-entanglements-19-20-
mai-2022-berlin/ (last access: 12.02.23).
30
Tsing 2018, 57.

PLOETZ
BERLIN
‚Das neue Kultgetränk aus dem Herzen Berlins‘
Die Algenlimonade steht für wertvolle Inhaltsstoffe kombiniert
mit einem unverwechselbaren natürlichen Geschmack.
Planktothrix, die verwendete Algengattung wird in den
Sommermonaten im Plötzensee auf schonende weise geerntet.
Kombiniert mit natürlichem Mineralwasser ohne Zuckerzusatz
ist die Limonade das optimale Erfrischungsgetränk
für den Sommer.

IM RÖHRICHT

Das Röhricht bildet ein wichtiges Biotop an
den Ufern der Berliner Gewässer, der als
Saum das Ufer vom Wasser trennt. Es stellt
eine Pflanzengesellschaft dar, die von Arten
wie Schilf, Rohrkolben, Binsen oder Wasserschwaden
geprägt ist. All diese Arten wachsen
vorzugsweise im Flachwasser bei einer
maximalen Wassertiefe eines Meters. In der
Hauptwachstumsphase kann das Schilf seine
Ausläufer täglich bis zu drei Zentimeter
entwickeln und somit schnell eine große
Fläche besiedeln. Mit den Wurzeln und Rhizomen
des Röhrichts wird das Ufersubstrat
fixiert, was die Uferzonen vor Erosion schütz.
Gleichzeitig kann das Gewässer durch die
Abgabe speziell angepasster Mikroorganismen,
die in den hohlenå Stängel unter
Wasser zu finden sind, gereinigt werden.

Strandwall mit Gebüschsaum
Aquatisches Röhricht
Terrestrisches Schilfröhricht
Hochwasser
Mittelwasser
Niedrigwasser
Schwimmblattgürtel
Laichkrautgürtel
+ 2,5 m
+ 2,0 m
+ 1,5 m
+ 1,0 m
+ 0,5 m
Phragmites australis
Schoenoplectus lacustris
Typha latifolia
Typha angustifolia
Glyceria maxima
Phalaris arundinacea
Wasserstand
- 0,5 m
- 1,0 m
- 1,5 m
- 2,0 m

Kurzfügelige Schwertschrecke
Teichrohrsänger
Spiegelfeckiger Dickkopffalter
Waschbär
Nutria
Früher Schilfjäger
Seefrosch
Karpfen
Ringelnatter
Europäischer Hecht
Bergmolch
Neben der Funktion der Wasserklärung, bildet
das Röhricht auch einen wichtigen Lebensraum
für die Fauna: zahlreiche wirbellose
Tierarten finden hier einen Platz zum
Überwintern oder Nisten, Schmetterlinge,
Spinnen oder Käfer leben in und an den
Pflanzen. Einen Einblick über die verschiedenen
Arten liefert die beiliegende Grafik.
Das Röhricht ist jedoch gefährdet. Aufgrund
der intensiven Gewässernutzung,
der starken Nährstoffanreicherung, einem
intensiven Gewässerausbau (z.B. Senkrechte
Ufer) wurde ein drastischer Rückgang der
Pflanzengesellschaft festgestellt. Um dieser
Entwicklung entgegenzuwirken wurde
1986 das Röhrichtschutzprogramm in Berlin
beschlossen.

EINE PFLANZE UND
IHRE GRENZEN

EINE GRENZE UND
IHRE PFLANZEN

BERLIN MOSS STORIES

HOUSEPLANTS AS...

PILZ, PFLANZE UND
MENSCH

DAS BERLINER ALGENPR
KOMMT IN DIE REGALE

OBLEM

GÖTTERBÄUME
IN BERLIN

CULTIVATING
CONTAMINATIONS

TRANSSECTING SÜDGEL

ÄNDE

anarcheological
stratifictions
ANARCHEOLOGICAL
STRATIFICTIONS
written by jasmine
parsley
prologue
the following is a non-linear, non-chronological story, which moves
sponteously throughout space and time at will and integrates a
plurality of perspectives (which is not to say all or enough perspectives),
weaving a counter tale in response to a mythology that could
be creditted with creating the constructs of woman and nature for
western culture. the counter tale works to deconstruct a frontal
view popular in art history, particularly in theater and painting,
which flattens and objectifies. especially interesting is the collaging
of elements to create an idealised vision and the harmful consequences
of such representations. this tale is also a collage but,
unlike many historical representations of woman and nature, it
tries to make apparant the fact that it is one. incorporated are (the
good) bits and pieces from second wave feminist performance art,
ecofeminism, queer ecologies, science fiction, and fantasy. we follow
the goddess artemis through their embodiment as woman and as
plant. it is very rare that a plant is named after a female figure and
often when it is the case, the properties of the plant are connected
to a domestic characteristic of that female in order to undermine
her other qualities and capabilities and tie her to a certain ideal.
artemis the goddess was given powers at birth that force her into a
nurturing role which are also present in the plant. through the story,
semiotics and social structures are explored spatially, examining
principally ferality, the un domestic, in relation the city and that
which lies beyond. in ancient times, artemis was cast out of the city
for breaching heteronormative standards of being. the country or
idealised wilderness in that story exists in stark contrast to today,
as that which lies outside of the city is controlled by monoculture
agricultural production or under “preservation”, where plants are
carefully curated directly resulting in the removal of plant species
deemed unworthy or unbelonging. diversity, not only in terms of
plant life, is threatened and natural succession is held at a standstill
as plants are denied agency. in the story, artemis, as a plant
is seen as a weed and only allowed in the city in neglected spaces,
carrying with them stories, meaning, medicine, and history, taking
advantage of their own psychoactive properties and capabilities to
see in between binaries, space is contaminated and made queer by
undoing program and making accommodations with human made
infrastructure that are appropriated and changed by various entities
other than human and therefore have become out of human
control.

the twisted tale of artemis
ideological illusions mainting their grip
social apparatus takes up females as raw materials and fashions domesticated
women as products
goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals,
nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, chastity
symbols: the moon, bow and arrow, deer
myth #1:
the first of twins to be
born, Artemis at just a
few minutes old midwifed
the birth of her
own brother Apollo
myth #2:
when she was only three
years old she swore a
vow of chastity to remain
an eternal virgin
myth #3:
she asked her father for
80 nymphs to take care
of her boots and hounds
when she wasn’t busy
hunting
myth #4:
Artemis is a goddess
who delights in hunting,
is competitive with
men about her hunting
skills, and acts as protector
of wild nature
and children
myth #5:
she is a goddess with a
vengence - she is so aggressive
with retaliation
it should remind us of
the volatile relationship
between humans and
wild nature
myth #6:
Zeus, her father, disguises
himself as Artemis to
seduce her companion
Callisto
truth #1:
the idea that Artemis was
born a midwife confined her
to a role as nurturer and protector
of children and childbirth.
She believed The Fates
had destined it for her. She
grew up tricked into believing
that woman had a nurtuting
nature rather than being
culturally produced to be that
way. Through this act, she is
additionally stripped of her
sexuality, tied to an illusion of
naivity and youth.
truth #2:
in ancient Greece the
word for virgin meant
simply unmarried girl.
Artemis does not want
to give up her freedom
and subject herself
to the authority of a
husband who sets constraints
and limitations.
truth #3:
virginity loss in ancient
Greece required penetration,
therefore sexual
intercourse between women
would not be seen as a
breech in her vow of chastity.
nymphs would have
understood her plight being
regarded as personifications
of nature but seen as
sexually deviant: nymphomaniac
derived from nymph
truth #4:
Artemis only killed for
survival and sustenance
and never for sport.
she demanded respect
for animal life and only
targetted animals as a
source of food. those
who harmed young animals
and broke the rules
and rituals were punished
by the goddess
truth #5:
stories of her “retaliation”
normally detailed interactions
where she had to
protect herself from men
spying on her with her
companions bathing...
rape was really common;
therefore, it is very possible
artemis would have
to defend herself and the
women in her community
often
truth #6:
myth is truth and confirms
that Artemis was
queer!
...but let’s take a
minute to reflected on
how fucked up that
story is...

aka mugwort, silver wormwood, sailor’s tobacco, motherwort,
witch herb, maiden wort, cronewort, st. john’s herb,
chrysanthemum weed, old uncle henry, naughty man,
white sagebrush
sometimes referred to
as “the mother of all
herbs” some think of
it as the oldest of all
plants. it was discovered
by artemis and given to
chiron the centaur, master
of the healing arts,
who was thought to
have made the very first
remedy from mugwortGSPublisherVersion
mugwort can be taken
to ease childbirth or has
been used at the start
of a pregnancy because
of its potency to cause
abortion. it should not
be taken during a pregnancy!
GSEducationalVersion
1176.0.15.100
mugwort can benefit
people with a uterus
by regulating the menstrual
cycle, reducing
cramping, and easing
the transition into
menopause (regulates
urinary, digestive, hormonal,
nervous and
circulatory system)
the plant has psychoactive
properties from hallucinogenic
compounds
such as absinthin and
thujone. it works as a
dreaming agent and
has been taken in many
cultures to assist with
remembering dreams. it
was even used to aid
clairvoyance in the 16th
and 17th centuries
in pagan ceremonies
a belt of mugwort was
worn while dancing
around the fire during
summer solstice celebrations.
at the end of
the dance, the plant was
thrown into the fire to
ensure protection for
the upcoming year
the shimmery silvery undersides
of the leaf resemble
the moon and its shape
similar to a claw. therefore
thought to keep evil spirits
away a preventative against
the influence of witchcraft
and can be used to expel evil,
spirits, and disease. it was
often hung on doorways to
keep evil out of homes or on
the person to prevent bad
thoughts and dreams
the Ancient Greek name
Artemis derives from árktos
so the literal meaning of
the name is “strong as a
bear” probably referring
to the story of Kallisto,
artemis’ female lover, who
became a bear first on land
and then in the sky (as well
as referring to its weed status?
hardy, drought tolerant
plant that can live sun
or part shade and tolerates
many soil conditions)
mugwort can reproduce
sexually via flowers (one
plant can produce up to
200,000 seeds) as well
as asexually via underground
rhizomes which
is the main way the
plant propagates
mugwort was used as
one of the first flavoring
agent for beer, even
before the use of hops,
and that is how it got
the name mug-wort
it is a digestive aid
which is why it has a
traditional culinary
history of being baked
in with fatty meats
the german name beifuß
reflects the story of
roman soldiers stuffing
the leaves in their sandals
under their feet so
that they don’t tire. it
was known that romans
planted it on the side of
the road for this purpose...funny
that it is
today still found often (if
not mostly) on roadsides
because of its deworming
properties it is
often fed to goats as a
remedy. it has also been
used to treat malaria
and fever. additionally
protective properties
antioxidant, antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory
the old english word
mought, meaning
“moth”, refers to the
plant’s folk use to repel
moths - you can throw
a dried bundle in with
your wool sweaters to
keep them safe.
wort means plant or
root

Linnaeus chose a characteristic
uncommon to
all mammals to represent
them. Reinforcing ideas
that females were closer
to animals than males
and therefore closer to
nature consequentially
attaching a new value to
mothering which undermined
their power in the
public sphere outside of
the house
MAMMALIA
mamma = milk
producing breast

The word “colonial” is
derived from the Latin
“colere” meaning “to
cultivate land” and thus
already linguistically
refers to the idea that
areas and people who
supposedly do not have
any history and culture
must be civilized and
cultivated
caspar david friedrich
wanderer über dem nebelmeer
romantic movement idealising “nature”
directly leading to wildlife conservation
hiking in sächsische schweiz nationalpark
january 2023
mugwort growing on the side of the road
spontaneous vegetation allowed along the
street but weeded from domesticated parks

EAT THE UNKNOWN

Wir bedanken uns bei Prof. Dr. Robert Stock
für die Unterstützung bei der Antragsstellung
und für die Bereitschaft, das Projekt zu betreuen.
Überdies möchten wir uns bei unseren
Gastvortragenden, Yann Colonna, Cornelia
Ertl und Prof. Sandra Bartoli für die anregenden
Gespräche und Ausflüge bedanken. Dem
Kollektiv spätispäti danken wir für die Leihe
des Druckers, der uns in der Produktion des
Zines Gutes geleistet hat. Ein weiterer Dank
gilt Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux und Jamie Scott
Baxter, die sich bereit erklärt haben, bei dem
Publikations-Event mit uns ins Gespräch zu
kommen. Danke auch an Anna Romeo für die
vorbereitenden Gespräche und die Moderation
des Abends. Danke an Moritz Gansen
und diffrakt | zentrum für theoretische peripherie
für die Möglichkeit, die Veranstaltung
in euren Räumen stattfinden zu lassen.
Wir danken allen Teilnehmenden des X-Tutorials:
Alena Trapp, Anna Eckert, Antonia
Lembcke, Belinda Rhein, Berta Fischer, Bianca
Karsch, Caitlin Mulligan, Daniel Geiling,
Emma Baustert, Jul Neetz, Laura Ofschanni,
Lauren Felten, Lena Löhnert, Leo Grösch, Lisa
Grof, Lola Gnädiger, Lotte Thierbach, Maja
Poppe, Melanie Leuschner, Nelson Wilhelm,
Niklas Wobbe und Tizian Schneider.
Die Durchführung dieses Projekts wurde
von dem Student Research Opportunities
Programx (StuROPx) der Berlin University
Alliance möglich gemacht.

herausgegeben von Jann Mausen
und Jonas Möller
Berlin, Februar 2023