(Archief) Permeance

To permeate, permeability, permeance: the action to diffuse through or penetrate an entity

Permeance is a conceptual lens through which to approach the entanglements of earthly life. It implies an awareness of our participation in symbiotic relationships with Earth, dismantling our parasitic use of the environment and its forms of life. The impermeable membranes created by modernity deteriorate into a pile of compost which stimulates exchanges of substances, nutrients, molecules and microorganisms through principles of physics and chemical processes, as well as molecular exchanges and biological absorptions. The notion of permeability enables us to trace pollutants and understand the ruins we inhabit. This research indeed follows a history of pollution, which has been the ruination of both ecosystems and indigenous cultures. Unfortunately, too often we —in the West— are blinded by our perception that our actions are impermeable. Instead, permeating is only possible if we see beyond our limits: rivers flow between confines; histories of pollution can be displaced but not erased; contaminations can be absorbed but do not vanish; material histories can take you back to their geologies and along them stories of extractions and colonial violence emerge. Permeating unsilences.