Mining the Animal - Silk Town

Mining the animal is concerned to address the relation between the non-human animal, landscape and people. Specifically, we will explore how the voice of the animal reveals itself, whether through its absence or artistic intervention. Michael Mersinis’ presentation will focus on the silk worm as both an agent and an interlocutor. Following a research project in the small village of Soufli in the north part of Greece, Michael Mersinis examined the animal that was single handedly responsible for the rise and fall of a community that solely relied on its existence. People who worked in the factories of silk are brought forward to weave a complex narrative of economy and ecology in fringe societies. Following on from this, Elizabeth A. Hodson will turn to the work of contemporary artists working in Scotland to explore the transformative and disruptive potential of vocal mimesis in art. Speaking as if animal sheds light on our relationship with the non-human; its symbolic function but also its gendered dynamics. From Butler (1990) to Irigaray (1985), mimesis has been theorized as a platform for subversion. But it can also be a route towards a potential symbiosis with the non-human. Contemporary art practice offers us paths through the climate change crisis in the era of the anthropocene by suggesting a reconfiguration between the human and the non-human animal, an realignment which hears the voice of the non-human animal as equal, autonomous and instructive. Soufli – Silk Town Sometimes places surprise you. Upon accepting an invitation from the Weavers of Glasgow to embark on a research trip to a small city in the north of Greece, the promise and the context were simple and straightforward. I was to do research with the intention of setting up a small programme of residencies for the Maters of Letters Programme at GSA. Soufli is a small city in the north of Greece that is notable for a couple of key elements that I was interested in – first and foremost it is at the border between Greece and Turkey, and the location is notorious because it is a known entry point of immigration, drug trafficking. The geography of that small town allows covert passage between two countries that have long engaged in dispute over land sea. The interesting thing for me was to discover that this small town has had a rich history of silk production and manufacture of silk goods and that it is because of its particular geography that it was once a node of the Silk Road. A small town with rich societal impact (the manufacture of silk goods were renowned for their intricate work and their quality) Soufli seemed to fall into obscurity that coincides with the decline of sericulture. What was once a material that was as precious as silver and gold and extremely hard to come by was substituted by a complex process that emulated it completely. Natural silk comes from silkworms and as such the collection of the primary material is extremely difficult, time-consuming and relies on knowledge that is hard to come by. Soufli was once a small city with potent history, a long and established genealogy of makers and a place where specialist knowledge of a fascinating material was at its core. In the later years it has become a ghost town. The rise of synthetic silk and its adoption by the industry left Soufli now barren of materials and knowledge of production. The field trip had manifold purposes – primarily to think through Soufli as a place of potential residencies as a means of rejuvenating the area, to consider how the facilities and spaces could be of potential use to Postgraduate students and to research the history of the city with the intention of thinking through a project that could function as a shared point of interest and departure in the areas of Design, Architecture and Fine Art. During my time there I became aware of a dimension in sericulture that led me to think through an established condition of silence. The principal workers, the people who have been historically involved in the production of silk in Soufli were women who now found themselves in dire financial difficulties. Their only means in supporting their household was a process that was arduous, long, delicate and relied on bringing up silkworms with the intention of killing them to obtain the coccons that were needed in order to extract the silk from. Both silkworms and women were silenced in terms of labour, significance and even life. Speaking to a variety of women in Soufli and familiarising myself with the process of the production of silk allowed a transformation of the small town. Soufli was known to always have been a town of production – but walking through the streets of Soufli now it became apparent that it was also a town of sacrifice. Both production and sacrifice now resonate still in the barren places of production, but also in the memories of women that are still alive and can recount the days where they collected cocoons with their bare hands from boiling water. The tale of the silkworm is spun now in silence and is indicative of the tensions that arise following the move from agriculture to technocapitalism and the mining of the animal as a means of survival and progress