A dedicated mechanism for forgetting : fiction and the ghosts of the plantationocene

Abstract

A Dedicated Mechanism for Forgetting, narrates the process and research behind the films Botanical Ghosts and The Density of Breath, expanding on two years of my artistic research and practice. Part fiction, part epistolary exchange, A Dedicated Mechanism for Forgetting is a meditation on conceptions of vision and sensitivity to light beyond anthropocentric views. Narrating the story of Dorothy Hughes Popenoe and her encounter with the fruit of the Ackee Tree ( Blighia Sapida) at Lancetilla Botanical Gardens, the project retells histories of plant transportation and botanical exchange in the north coast of Honduras through the lens of plant agency, filmmaking, critical plant studies, and magic. Utilizing this approach, this thesis locates itself within recent botanical and speculative turns and points towards the potential of a vegetal configuration for art practice and fictioning.