oTHER MoTHER

  

OTHER-MOTHER portrays a posthuman birth, 

a birth out of fermentation, symbiosis 

and interspecies care, a motherly

relationship to the other-than-human.

 

 

 

The theme of Foto Wien 2022 is Rethinking Nature. In challenging times of a pandemic and climate change we are forced to rethink our relationship to nature. OTHER-MOTHER is a proclamation for a role reversal in our constellation with the other-than-human, with others that play crucial roles for our existence. In troubled times of climate change, mass species extinction and a pandemic our relation to the natural world can no longer stay a passive or naïve one, we can not just stay in the comfortable role of care receivers. OTHER-MOTHER pictures an eco-emancipated act of care-giving and suggests to rehabilitate a bond to those that were at the very beginning of life. It is a plea for a microbial Renaissance. 

 

Maaijke Middelbeek, Interspecies Care, Other-Mother, Postanthropecene, Posthumanist, Donna Harraway, Anna Tsing

 

 

OTHER-MOTHER 

 

Mother SCOBY, Baby SCOBY 

Self-Portrait with Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast

(photoprint 78 x 100 cm)

-

2021

Regeneration

 

In the process of fermentation SCOBY (Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast) grow an organ on top of Kombucha tea that works much like our skin or a placenta. The hull protects the maternal culture and newborns in the fluid, it is an expanding and renewing natural defence. If it gets damaged or removed the symbionts will immediately start to repair or create a new cover. A new tissue layer can only grow from a mother culture and is therefore also called Baby SCOBY.

 

SCOBY biofilms are inspiring self-sustaining care communities. Microscopic organisms living together in complex systems, bonding in mutually beneficial constructions, depending on one another, contributing to each other’s joy and growth. 

There's something growing,

outside and inside of me

 

 

Ancient

Otherworldly

 

very different

yet..

strangely familiar 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to go through the process of

building organs

building worlds 

 

We know each other 

I am kin to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERSPECIES CARE 

  

 

Umbilical Cord

 

from SCOBY cellulose

Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast

-

2021 


Maaijke Middelbeek, Other-Mother, SCOBY, interspecies care, post anthropocene

 

Reclining mother and child

 

baby SCOBY and placenta from SCOBY cellulose

SCOBY Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast

(37 x 50cm)

-

2022

 

A microbial Renaissance

 

Regeneration with microbes

It seems to go through the process of building

organs, building worlds. 

It is capable of healing,

                                   of

 

 

re-generation

     

 

Maaijke Middelbeek, SCOBY, Other-Mother, Interspecies Care, Microbial Renaissance

  

Microbial Renaissance

The Placenta

 

Placenta (biofilm from Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast),

amniotic fluid, dish on photo print of the atmosphere

(60 x 60cm)

-

2022