Talking about what shine's at the People's Climate March

[Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, ERG PhD Candidate]  

GREETINGS, PHENOMINISTAS!

We couldn't be in the streets for the People's Climate March, so July Cole and I sent a provocation as part of the Rare Earth Catalog project. Our contribution is a Phenomenisto--an anti-manifesto as call for trans-species solidarity-- a method for attending to phenomena that emerge in particular instances of climate chaos and human mitigation strategies--a mobile you can cut out and hang above your bed.

The "anti-manifesto"/mobile cut out (click to enlarge)

[Below: Text from the "anti-manifesto."]

GREETINGS, PHENOMINISTAS!

Anxious about the future?

Grieving the sixth extinction?

Wondering what’s left to talk about?

Try your hand at the mixed-up optimistic writing that is equally joyful anywhere: beside the river, on the sidewalk, in the gutter, along the road, or under any kind of sky! It is also equally desolate anywhere.

We call it a PHENOMENISTO—
→ from PHENOMENON: something that happens, as we know it through our senses;

→ in turn, from ΦΑΙΝΩ: to appear, to bring to light, to show forth, to shine!

PHENOMENISTAS are humans / cyborgs / poets / aliens who participate in PHENOMENA.

A PHENOMENISTO is a song—a science project—or something else that:

• occurs anytime! anywhere! (see above)
• gives a good-faith account of a PHENOMENON . . .
• . . . as involving entities, animacies, responsiveness

Discards modes of generalization, solution, isolation. Not an allegory: doesn’t buy into any higher world, better story, or truer truths. Not a manifesto: discards centrism and locatablevanguard. Hands wide open. Won’t instrumentalize any entity. Including: won’t use entities as symbols of anything other than themselves.

How do you know if you made one? Our Phenomenological Flow Charts —on the reverse of this sheet—run you through a series of questions to help you identify both a PHENOMENON and a PHENOMENISTO.

You will also find on the reverse a frame of adjectives. These indicate qualities a PHENOMENON and a PHENOMENISTO might share.

"Frame of adjectives" (click to enlarge)

Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.