The Microbiopolitics of Pots and Compost Making

Abstract

This visual essay explores more-than-human relationships between microbes and humans emerging across agricultural fields and scientific laboratories. Through material collected across fields and labs, and drawing on the concept of microbiopolitics proposed by Heather Paxson, the essay reflects on emerging attitudes of both affect and management. These relationships arise and become visible through growers’ and scientists’ practices, the objects they employ and the spaces they occupy. Seen in this light, pots and compost become the manifestation of attentive relationships with invisible nonhumans, potentially important in tracing the unfolding of ongoing environmental crises.