Affective, Embodied Empathetic Ruptions at the Posthuman Summer Lab

 

Affective, Embodied Empathetic Ruptions at the Posthuman Summer Lab

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which I learned the following. I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present, and recognise their ongoing connection to Country, culture, and knowledge. I also acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

In February 2025 I had the pleasure of attending a Posthuman Summer Lab in Melbourne, Australia. The Lab’s purpose was to engage participants in Indigenous/Posthuman knowledges to weave into their work. My time there ended up being an exploration of what it means to engage with affective, embodied empathy in a world shaped by colonial histories, deep ecological knowledges, stories passed down through generations and more-than-human entanglements. By affective, embodied empathy I mean it is relational, interconnected and grounds empathy in the lived, material experiences of bodies, both more-than-human and human, and their entanglements with histories, environments, and technologies. As such affective embodied empathy is entwined with Indigenous/Posthuman knowledges.

Throughout my time there I engaged in what I call ‘walkthinking’, a practice of walking around environments whilst thinking, that I often do when trying to make sense of theory and experiences. Much of this thinking is accompanied by photographs of more-than-human/human intra-actions that I then make into assemblages which I see as cartographies of place. Braidotti (2013 & 2019) see cartographies as a critical tool for mapping subjectivity, power, and relationality in posthuman thought. In her work, she argues that cartographies are not neutral representations of reality but rather dynamic, situated, and politically engaged processes that help us navigate the complexities of identity, knowledge, and ethics in a changing world. This Lab was no exception.

This blog is an explanation of some the moments of experience I encountered on the Lab that led to the production of the assemblage I made. You can see the assemblage here: Posthuman mattering’s in Melbourne.

Becoming Creative: A Shift in Perception

I arrived at the Lab not particularly seeing myself as a creative person. Many of the participants were already artists, writers, and makers, and for them, the posthuman/Indigenous knowledge framework fit naturally within their practices. But for me, engaging with these frameworks made me creative. I wanted to write, create sculptures, draw and take photographs. Doing this transformed how I saw and expressed the world in many ways. I wanted to know more, experience more. Engaging in Posthuman theory and Indigenous knowledges was not just an intellectual exercise, but an embodied experience that rewired my understanding of what creativity is and where it emerges from. Chappell (2019) argues that creativity in education has emerged in her research as an embodied dialogue between human and other-than-human actants, which she defines as a posthumanising creativity. Therefore, it was useful for me to be aware of the intra-actions taking place through the embodiment of human/more-than-human when being creative to understand what dialogue is taking place. This creative dialogue, I would argue, emerges through affective, embodied empathy.

One of the workshop sessions was about creative writing which I really enjoyed. We were asked to write down words related to our Lab experiences and then connect them through writing. I decided to try to write with-the-more-than-human in places to incorporate it into a story of connection. Here is the outcome of my attempt:

On Ruption

Stepping into the unknown there was an element of confusion and excitement. Following dialogue, movement began. Wood was pressed on wood through hands, paper pressed into concrete through feet, plastic surrounded wood. I started to think about who am I to stand on this land and try to understand it? I felt the tension between chalk and rubber, so I used my hand to bring them together, creating a ruption or bursting open to begin conversation about this. In this way the more-than-human/human engaged themselves agentically to create this new beginning.

This conversation moved into the next space where lips and mouth bend, air pushes out and sound emerges and creates a new space where ethics of care took place. Natasha held our space well throughout our collective ruptions. We (Chappell, Turner and Wren, 2024) call these ruptions rather than disruptions because we see them as a place of affirmation rather than negativity. The constant voice of Hazel brings us back to thinking about how we are both on Country and of Country creates a new space to think about who we are. I find this particularly difficult and sometimes feel like I should not even be here. Piano keys press down, air compresses and sound emerges. This creates another ruption. A lightening of the thinking space, a release from the tensions in the body to situate us in our space and look outwards. At the same time a hand meets fan, moves air around, pushes air towards skin, lowers heat which creates a ruption of relief and allows the mind to cool down.

Allowing each other to create ruptions as well as noticing the ruptions through more-than-human/human relations has led to an overwhelming sense of care between us. As a collective we become a caring community sharing stories and inviting others to add to them. Suddenly it becomes apparent that engines heat to move metal bodies forwards which makes electricity push sound out of plastic containers. The ruption of music ends the day with a lightened feeling.

Objects/instruction/chaos/confusion/noise! I feel safe.

Fear and the Dead Spider: A Pedagogy of Emergence

Dead Spider

On the first day at the Lab I noticed a spider climbing on the face of one of the participants I was talking to. I alerted her to it, and she flicked it off her face. The fear of the spider led to it being brushed onto the floor and killed accidentally. This made me think of how I had learned to be fearful and cautious in Australia whilst walking, sitting and swimming in the sea because of the snakes, spiders and sharks. When talking to Australians about this I found that this fear led to an understanding of their behaviour and a deep respect for their role in the ecosystem. Fear, then I thought, is simply a reaction that can lead to destruction if not understood or an opportunity if learning takes place. Posthumanism invites us to consider fear as an affective force that shapes human/more-than-human intra-actions, and Indigenous knowledges show us how respect and deep listening can transform fear into relational understanding. I argue that it is affective, embodied empathy that emerges from these intra-actions/relational understandings and that if it is understood as this it is more likely that fear would lead to learning and respect because thinking/learning about it has already taken place.

The Tensions of the Digital

The tensions between digital and embodied experience surfaced throughout the Lab. Discussions about AI led to me thinking about how we ethically use it if it enhances learning. Where do we find softness in a world increasingly driven by extraction for our digital parts, by fast consumption of knowledge and resources? As Donna Haraway (2016) teaches us to sit with discomfort is to acknowledge the complexities of knowledge. Posthumanism teaches us that knowledge is not singular but entwined (Braidotti, 2016). To deal with these tensions I propose that if the digital is understood as arising from intra-actions between more-than-human/human then affective, embodied empathy emerges because the digital apparatus is seen as an agentic body.  Activism arises from this because empathy invokes ethical understanding of the world.

The Feather on My Shoe: A Moment of Belonging

Feather on my Shoe

One morning, after days of walkthinking across Melbourne, I noticed a small feather stuck to my shoe. It felt like a sign, a question posed by the land itself, who was I here? Did I belong? The affective, embodied empathetic intra-action between shoe/feather/human/path had triggered ethical thinking within me. Later, I spoke with an Indigenous elder about this, and they shared stories of how land speaks to those who listen. I was then asked by another participant ‘what did it invoke within you?’ I told her that I had felt accepted, as though the land had acknowledged my presence and accepted my reason for being there. This moment deepened my understanding of relationality. Belonging is not about ownership but about attentiveness, about being open to the invitations the land offers. Affective, embodied empathy, then, is not an individual feeling but a relational attunement to land, to histories, to the more-than-human world.

The Importance of Storytelling

The importance of telling stories arose throughout the Lab. I was mesmerised by the way the Indigenous Elder would disrupt scientific thinking through gentle storytelling. Briggs (2021) highlights the importance of storytelling for knowledge sharing.  I felt the power of this, and it alerted me to the differing rhythms, starting points and perspectives within our group and I saw how together we created an assemblage of connected stories. The group felt this too and we decided to distribute some of our stories to the other Lab participants during one presentation. This exercise created differing cultural intra-actions which crossed over each other and alerted us to how sometimes the truth gets blurred. How do we stay true to the stories that hold ethics of care? I felt that by activating affective, embodied empathy by understanding the more-than-human to have agency within stories, then this can lead to care of the planet because they are considered within decision making.

Eating Together: Connection & Knowledge building

I noticed how mealtimes were particularly significant in connecting the group. Conversations about growing food, Indigenous plants, likes/dislikes alongside eating the beautiful food cooked for us onsite brought us together. It made me think about how affective, embodied empathetic intra-actions of eat-talking prompt interest in each other and we find connections to discuss further. From this new knowledge arises. This alerted my interest in food as a source of connection and knowledge building (Nowak et al., 2012) and I wondered how to create spaces for eating with the Indigenous ancestors. Back home I am working towards the creation of transdisciplinary learning gardens within my local community where growing and eating will be shared. Fed by Indigenous and Posthuman knowledges I am hoping that this prompts connection between many human/more-than-human species to think about how to care for the world differently to how we have been for many years. 

The Teachings & Memories of Water

Water became a central motif, invoked by the intense heat of the Australian summer. On the hottest day of the programme, we laboured on in the large warehouse type room without air conditioning. I couldn’t help thinking that the heat was entwined with our learning. So much that it forced us to retreat to the library which did have air con. Later that day the skies opened, and the rain came down so hard. However, instead of retreating inside some of the staff ran outside to greet the rain followed by her little children. I watched how the little girl embraced the rain, dancing in it, opening her mouth to drink it, taking of her clothes to feel it on her skin. It was such a joy to watch a child enjoy the rain. I thought that I hadn’t seen this happen for many years in the UK. In this moment I saw how affective, embodied empathy arose from the past, present and future where the past heat had led to the present enjoyment of the rain because of the knowledge that the air would be cleared in the immediate future. Barad (2007) would argue that these are material-discursive practices which overlap and influence each other. So the heat affects people/rain and the rain affects people/heat etc.

Later that day one of our presenter’s Dr. Deborah Wardle, who joined us for one of the sessions, presented us with an idea to think about storying with ground water. If we do this, she said, we bring to the forefront the invisibilities of water that are largely ignored but extremely important in today’s climate (Wardle, 2023). This reminded me how affective, embodied empathy can highlight invisibilities when senses are opened and slowness is enacted and that these can lead to political activism because whatever was invisible was fore fronted. 

Another day we were led to the Birrarung Marr – a part of the Yarra river to discuss swimmable Birrarung, a project that hoped to make the Melbourne river swimmable again. This brought me back to my swimming-with-my-data exercise that I did for my PhD. I remembered how memory is ingrained in water from when the world began and how swimming in it produces affective, embodied empathetic intra-actions that brings bodies together to make new memories. Throughout the Lab we were constantly reminded by Rosi Braidotti and Professor N'arwee't Carolyn Briggs to remember, to not forget, to archive everything. In this sense I could argue that ‘becoming-with-the-sea’ could be seen as a ritual of remembrance.

Moving Forward

The work of affective, embodied empathy is ongoing. It requires staying with the trouble, embracing the unknown, and remaining accountable to the stories we tell and the ones we have yet to learn. Writing these down I see as a form of becoming, a commitment to emergence, to disruption, and ultimately, to care for our beautiful planet. If seen through the lens of affective, embodied empathy, then my experience at the Lab was not just about learning how to think-with-Indigenous-and-Posthuman-knowledges, it was enacting them too.

References

Braidotti, R. (2013). The Posthuman. Polity Press.

Braidotti, R. (2019). Posthuman Knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Chappell, K. (2019). Posthumanising creativity: New materialist perspectives on creative learning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 31, 100302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100302.

Chappell, K., Turner, C., & Wren, H. (Eds.). (2024). Creative Ruptions for Emergent Educational Futures. Palgrave Macmillan.

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw25q.

Monash University. (n.d.). Professor N'arwee't Carolyn Briggs AM. Monash University Art, Design and Architecture. Retrieved March 23, 2025, from https://www.monash.edu/mada/art/people/carolyn-briggs

Nowak, A. J., Kolouch, G., Schneyer, L., & Roberts, K. H. (2012). Building food literacy and positive relationships with healthy food in children through school gardens. Childhood Obesity (Formerly Obesity and Weight Management), 8(4), 392-395.

Wardle, D. (2023). Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003270416