Visualisation: Thomas Mayer

On Being Ruderal

°Lecture Performance°

¬ 2023 ¬

A multimedia lecture performance on spontaneity, adaptation, bad herbs, and unwelcome thoughts.

On Being Ruderal combines academic research with spoken word, soundscape, animation and projection mapping, within a tactile installation environment, to investigate the lessons we can draw from urban ruderal ecologies; plant species which thrive amongst rubble and disturbed environments.

Beginning from the perspective of a drifting seed, the performance adopts a more-than-human perspective to explore what it might mean to stop eradicating what grows in the cracks (materially, socially, and mentally) and instead attend to the conditions which create disturbance in the first place.

Ruderals here become unlikely teachers: persistent, unruly, often unwanted, but potentially instructive. On Being Ruderal is an academic and poetic inquiry into ways we might learn to coexist on a disturbed planet.

¬ Read the full lecture text here.

Further notes and links:

¬ Text and concept by Maria Paula Maldonado. Dramaturgy, visuals, animation, and sound by Thomas Mayer. Special thanks to Constanza Carvajal with whom we created the performance environment.

¬ Part of the program Ruderal Practices organized by Make-up e.V. Publication PDF here.

¬ Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds - NEUSTART KULTUR, and the Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM).

Photos: Matteo Walschburger

A performer sits on stacked wooden blocks holding a microphone and a clipboard. They wear casual clothing, lit by soft, colorful light. The setting feels intimate and focused.

Man in a white hoodie reads from a paper while holding a microphone. The background wall is textured and rustic.

Performance installation. A warmly lit room with peeling wallpaper, a glowing floor lamp, scattered papers and stacked wooden blocks.

"Uncomfortable or not, ruderals are catalysts inviting connection and regeneration in disturbed and eroded worlds."

Quote from the text by Mariah Paula Maldonado

A person in a white hoodie uses a metal tool to strike a brass candle holder on a wooden stump. The background is textured and rustic.

A man in a white hoodie lifts a polystyrene cube covered in orange tape over his head. He appears animated, with a focused expression.

A person operates a sound mixing board and effects pedals on a table, illuminated by colorful projected light patterns.

A weathered wall with a rectangular niche contains an artistic projection of a leafy plant and a trowel.

Photo: Mariah Paula Maldonado

“We live on a disturbed planet. There is no way back, but there are many ways to continue. Into the cracks, where life and possibilities persist.”

Flyer: Mariah Paula Maldonado.

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On Being Ruderal

°Lecture Performance°

¬ 2023 ¬

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Visualisation: Thomas Mayer

A multimedia lecture performance on spontaneity, adaptation, bad herbs, and unwelcome thoughts.

On Being Ruderal explores the cracks of urban ecologies and the resilience of ruderal species within them.

Part of the program Ruderal Practices organized by Make-up e.V. Generously funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds - NEUSTART KULTUR, and the Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)

Text by Maria Paula Maldonado. • Visuals, animation and sound by Thomas Mayer. • Special thanks to Constanza Carvajal