Submission Deadline for the Proposal: 2. August 2021
Contact: info@hooops.de
hooops is inviting writers, artists, poets, illustrators, plant-and-mushroom-lovers and scholars from various disciplines to share their knowledge and manifest contemporary narratives around plant magic and plants as poison and remedy.
In the ruins of capitalism still bloom mighty plants with the potential to heal and to drive people insane, to transform their brains. Fragile and powerful agents that throughout time and cultures have been used as medicine and create a sense of connection to something larger…and aren’t these plants still fascinating and simultaneously frightening?
Psychoactive PlantsMushroomsSubstances return to scientific research in a therapeutic context to treat depression, addictions, end-of-life anxiety and PTSD after decades of international political suppression as noxious in a ‘War on Drugs’. Researchers have been supposedly instructed by mushrooms to research them, some suggest that mushrooms are agents of the universe to remind humans in urban spaces of the interconnectedness of all earthly things. Western science struggles to make sense of the spiritual experiences that their guinea pigs report. They are baffled in the face of magic, whilst Silicon Valley companies are maximising potentials of an expanded mind. As the third wave of psychedelic research rises at the horizon many questions wash up at the shore.
The current hype around psychedelics and plant medicine are rooted in ancient healing practices and are entangled within many myths, horror stories and political agendas - especially with colonialism since the history of medicinal plants is tightly interwoven with the annihilation, oppression and exploitation of indigenous people, their land and knowledges. In a European context it feels that most of the knowledge has been burnt with the witches and in a contemporary discourse it is enmeshed with esoteric, new age ideas and facist Nazi ideologies.
Healing with plants is messy, complex and astonishing, These plants, which are poisonous and healing at the same time, seem to hold the potential for resistance by being unpredictable and contradictive in their existence and effects. They may they be our guides and allies in dismantling and healing the schism of the patriarchal-colonial-capitalist complex
Information for the submission
hooops is encouraging experimental approaches to style and medium. We are looking for a multi-perspective and many-headed approach, critical positions, love letters, funny experiences, spells, recipes, instructions, journalistic texts, weird and otherworldly writing, historic artefacts, essays, research papers, experimental words, images, photographs, collages, music, interviews.
Possible topics
Local (Poison) Plants/Nightshade Plants/Witches Wisdoms/European Indigenous People/History of Resistance against Capitalism and Colonialism/Epistemological Violence/Oppression of Non-Scientific Approaches of Knowing/Sharing Knowledge/Embodied Knowledge/The Brain the Body/Mindaltering/Healing/Therapy/Sickness/New-Age Spiritualism and its Connection to Racism and Nationalism/Political Agendas/War on Drugs/Expanded States of Consciousness/Plant Intelligence/Queer-Feminist Botany/Healing Plants in Contexts of Gender, Sexuality, Class, Race, Ecology, (Bio)Politics/New Materialism and Non-Human Agencies/Re-enchanting of the World/Cyborg/Sci-Fi/Fictional/Trip Reports/Plant Portraits/Foraging/Growing/ …
Submission guidelines
Please submit proposals/concepts/images/ideas with no more than 500 words to info@hooops.de until 02.08.2021. If your submission got selected, the deadline for the finished entries is 4.10.2021. It is also possible to submit a finished text or work. We prefer entries in English but this is not a must! If you want to submit in another language let us know and we will figure something out.
What is hooops?
hooops is a community of plant & mushroom friends. It is about connecting people, knowledges and disciplines around plants and mushrooms that are used in the context of healing. An experiment for sharing, exchanging and making feminist, anti-capitalist and decolonial knowledge cultures around healing plants and substances with a focus on the European context. Currently hooops is running a community garden library and planning a workshop series and a prospect publication.
Background Information
The community library and publication is coordinated by Elisa Pieper and Lena Astarte Posch. With the publication we aim to create a platform for interdisciplinary research, artistic interpretations and distribution of different kinds of knowledge about plants and mushrooms that are used in healing contexts. With the publication we also intend to create attention for the hooops library and invite more like-minded people.
The first print publication is a self-organised, non-profit project and partly financed by a private sponsoring (which covers basic production and no personnel costs). At this point we cannot offer payment for the submissions but we are working on making the whole project more sustainable in the future - also from a monetary perspective. If you have questions or remarks regarding this topic please do not hesitate to contact us.
Submission Deadline for the Proposal: 2. August 2021
Contact: info@hooops.de
hooops is inviting writers, artists, poets, illustrators, plant-and-mushroom-lovers and scholars from various disciplines to share their knowledge and manifest contemporary narratives around plant magic and plants as poison and remedy.
In the ruins of capitalism still bloom mighty plants with the potential to heal and to drive people insane, to transform their brains. Fragile and powerful agents that throughout time and cultures have been used as medicine and create a sense of connection to something larger…and aren’t these plants still fascinating and simultaneously frightening?
Psychoactive PlantsMushroomsSubstances return to scientific research in a therapeutic context to treat depression, addictions, end-of-life anxiety and PTSD after decades of international political suppression as noxious in a ‘War on Drugs’. Researchers have been supposedly instructed by mushrooms to research them, some suggest that mushrooms are agents of the universe to remind humans in urban spaces of the interconnectedness of all earthly things. Western science struggles to make sense of the spiritual experiences that their guinea pigs report. They are baffled in the face of magic, whilst Silicon Valley companies are maximising potentials of an expanded mind. As the third wave of psychedelic research rises at the horizon many questions wash up at the shore.
The current hype around psychedelics and plant medicine are rooted in ancient healing practices and are entangled within many myths, horror stories and political agendas - especially with colonialism since the history of medicinal plants is tightly interwoven with the annihilation, oppression and exploitation of indigenous people, their land and knowledges. In a European context it feels that most of the knowledge has been burnt with the witches and in a contemporary discourse it is enmeshed with esoteric, new age ideas and facist Nazi ideologies.
Healing with plants is messy, complex and astonishing, These plants, which are poisonous and healing at the same time, seem to hold the potential for resistance by being unpredictable and contradictive in their existence and effects. They may they be our guides and allies in dismantling and healing the schism of the patriarchal-colonial-capitalist complex
Information for the submission
hooops is encouraging experimental approaches to style and medium. We are looking for a multi-perspective and many-headed approach, critical positions, love letters, funny experiences, spells, recipes, instructions, journalistic texts, weird and otherworldly writing, historic artefacts, essays, research papers, experimental words, images, photographs, collages, music, interviews.
Possible topics
Local (Poison) Plants/Nightshade Plants/Witches Wisdoms/European Indigenous People/History of Resistance against Capitalism and Colonialism/Epistemological Violence/Oppression of Non-Scientific Approaches of Knowing/Sharing Knowledge/Embodied Knowledge/The Brain the Body/Mindaltering/Healing/Therapy/Sickness/New-Age Spiritualism and its Connection to Racism and Nationalism/Political Agendas/War on Drugs/Expanded States of Consciousness/Plant Intelligence/Queer-Feminist Botany/Healing Plants in Contexts of Gender, Sexuality, Class, Race, Ecology, (Bio)Politics/New Materialism and Non-Human Agencies/Re-enchanting of the World/Cyborg/Sci-Fi/Fictional/Trip Reports/Plant Portraits/Foraging/Growing/ …
Submission guidelines
Please submit proposals/concepts/images/ideas with no more than 500 words to info@hooops.de until 02.08.2021. If your submission got selected, the deadline for the finished entries is 4.10.2021. It is also possible to submit a finished text or work. We prefer entries in English but this is not a must! If you want to submit in another language let us know and we will figure something out.
What is hooops?
hooops is a community of plant & mushroom friends. It is about connecting people, knowledges and disciplines around plants and mushrooms that are used in the context of healing. An experiment for sharing, exchanging and making feminist, anti-capitalist and decolonial knowledge cultures around healing plants and substances with a focus on the European context. Currently hooops is running a community garden library and planning a workshop series and a prospect publication.
Background Information
The community library and publication is coordinated by Elisa Pieper and Lena Astarte Posch. With the publication we aim to create a platform for interdisciplinary research, artistic interpretations and distribution of different kinds of knowledge about plants and mushrooms that are used in healing contexts. With the publication we also intend to create attention for the hooops library and invite more like-minded people.
The first print publication is a self-organised, non-profit project and partly financed by a private sponsoring (which covers basic production and no personnel costs). At this point we cannot offer payment for the submissions but we are working on making the whole project more sustainable in the future - also from a monetary perspective. If you have questions or remarks regarding this topic please do not hesitate to contact us.