Brigitte Adriaensen
Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas is a wonderful tool for my course on the Culture and History of Psychoactive Substances in Latin America, which I teach at Radboud University in the Netherlands. What I find most attractive about the website is the protagonism of the plants, and the exhibition of the impressive microscopic visuals. The structure of the page allows for many interesting debates on the relation between Indigenous knowledge and scientific approaches. The webpage actually proposes to think from the plants’ perspective, considering their agency in what Tim Ingold called ‘the meshwork of things’. The digital images are conceived as “art that breathes”, transmitting the enormous potential of these plants in the context of the numerous crises that affect our planet today.
Brigitte Adriaensen, Professor of Hispanic Studies at Radboud University, Netherlands. Director of the ongoing research project “Poison, Medicine or Magic Potion?: Shifting Perspectives on Drugs in Latin America (1820-2020)”
