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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Valladares, Nancy Dayanne.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gediminas Urbonas.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138579

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/138579