Displaying hybrid materials as an arts-based path to transdisciplinary research

Academic knowledge is constrained by the ties of a disciplinary organization that creates ever-increasing specialization, producing knowledge that is efficient in solving technical problems but often unsuitable for dealing with complex, socio-ecological issues, like the health of soils. New ways of practicing research, and of thinking its role in society, appear necessary to overcome the empasse and ground a production of knowledge which is relevant, inclusive, contextual and relational, subject to a plurality of legitimate and democratic accountability (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1993; Jasanoff, 2004; Nowotny et al., 2003). We propose here an experience of arts-based knowledge-production realised within the BRIDGES project, aiming at experimenting, on the case study of soil health, innovative methods of research, pivoting on transdisciplinarity, hybridization and participation. By sharing a concrete example, we will involve conference participants in the experience of curating the display of hybrid materials produced during an experience of soil digging led by two artists. This method is particularly suitable to ground transdisciplinary research: investigating the dimensions of hybridity incorporated in the exposed materials, as well as their narrative unfolding, has the potentiality to overturn the traditionally reductionist research setting to include contextual, relational, experiential dimensions, and to expand the range of engaged social actors (in particular involving young researchers and citizens). With Haraway, we mean to explore collectively, since the very initial phase of research, "(...) what matters we use to think other matters with; (...) what stories we tell to tell other stories with; (...) what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories" (Haraway, 2016). We will discuss how this method, privileging visual, performative and processual dimensions over traditional, rational, scientific reporting, is able to ground transdisciplinary knowledge-production, valuing attention to experiential, sensorial and contextual elements, and promoting a structural, conceptual, shift from anthropocentrism to include more-than-human communities.