ABSTRACT
At the edge of a humanly caused environmental catastrophe in which an evermore resource-absorbing technosphere has spiraled out of control, which speculative futures of inhabitable soil can we possibly imagine? How can the Earth's stories, its granularities, and microclimates be heard and told within a complex entanglement of spheres, time scales, and knowledge systems? This virtual conversation with filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu and geologist Peter Haff was inspired by two of their pioneering works—Kahiu's film Pumzi and Haff's text “The Far Future of Soils.” (Haff, Peter, 2014, The Far Future of Soil, in G. Jock Churchman and Edward R. Landa (eds.), The Soil Underfoot: Infinite Possibilities for a Finite Resource, pp. 61–72, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.) From a mutual fascination, common visions unfolded—on an agency of soil, Earthly awareness, institutions as spaces to interact with the future, storytelling between science and the artistic imaginary, and transdisciplinary dialogues as a ground for resistance.
