Culture and Power in Human Societies

Response Paper: New Materialism

Name: Mahnoor Saleem ERP: 17786

Anna Tsing’s Mushroom at the End of the World urges us to accept the world that we currently

inhabit as a space of capitalistic ruin and a shattered dream of utopia. The reading informs us

about global economic hardships, and inhabitable ecological landscapes and instills the fear of

the ability to pass a livable environment to our future generations, regardless of our mundane

efforts of sustainability. The reading builds hope by denoting matsutake (a prized delicacy in

Japan) as a symbol of hope and resistance.

Uncertainty is a happening reality, especially post-COVID, and the example of Matsutake

empowers us to employ resistance and extend our creative imagination. The problem of the

Anthropocene further directs us to the notion of collaborative survival – multispecies, a

phenomenon that is disrupted through concentrating land and people as assets for capitalistic

growth and similarly abandoning spaces that turn into ruins. Although Matsutake embodies

uncertainty and resistance, it does not survive alone i.e., it needs pine trees, etc. Similarly,

humans cannot survive alone, we need a habitable environment, and our survival necessitates

preserving our environment which includes other species. The reading urges us to extend our

creative thinking faculties and emphasizes we employ a way of collaborative living that is not

powered or limited to capitalistic modes. The shortfalls of capitalism and the economy appall

me, and the reading gives me hope for survival and collaboration.

Bennett’s third chapter – Edible Matter – from her book, Vibrant Matter, enabled me to view

food as an actant. Before reading this chapter, I thought that the desire for food is dependent on

mood, and its effect on us is subjective to our tastes; however, this chapter developed the
understanding that food is vital and has agency of its own. Not only does it provide us with

nutrition, but it also forms us, and allows our body to become and change. Food operates as an

actant in a non-linear fashion i.e., the affect brought by food is not certain or fixed – it

corroborates with environmental factors, individual context, personal beliefs, and other variants

(assemblage), and the fact that we may never be able to reach the calculative potential of foods is

also fascinating. I have a sweet thought and I knew that chocolate excites me but the excitement I

felt every time varied. The reading helped me to put things into perspective.

A particular ingredient may channel different emotions or substantial effects to different bodies,

or differently to a singular body is impressing and appalling simultaneously. Essentially, what

we eat impacts our emotions, memory, and reactions. It is scientifically proven that omega-3

fatty acids reduce violent tendencies and improve concentration. Similarly, tea and coffee,

although awakening and refreshing, dull memory and may deplete our creative faculties. In a

nutshell, this information strongly persuades me to be concerned about my diet. Furthermore, it

also strikes a realization. As Muslims, we are condemned to eat pork, and some animals are

termed haram. I heard that consuming pork instills anger and violent tendencies, and I used to

regard it as hearsay and stereotypes. Reading Edible Matter enabled me to conceptualize the

causal relationship between food and the organic body (humans), acknowledged the idea of food

as an assemblage converter, and understand the context behind the religious obligation.

Furthermore, the idea of vibrant materiality can also be extended outside the paradigm of food

and associated with nature and other objects like the aesthetic of a restaurant (colors) which adds

to hunger, or green leaves and clear water that restore peace in us. They act as an assemblage and

mediate with our emotions, allowing our bodies to become.

nature, landscapes, and workspaces have vitality and agency. Her work critiques capitalism and

states that the encounter of human bodies with unhealthy workspaces administers an affect on the

bodies of the working class, allowed by the permeability of the body. The backdrop of her text is

the notion that bodies are social and material, which affects the exterior while the exterior affects

the interior. In addition, the relationship between environment and racism, further extended with

class and history is interesting and supplements the notion of the transcorporeal body.

Alaimo’s and Bennett’s texts are similar, as they describe the material objects as actants,

encapsulating agency, and dismantling the assumed hierarchy of the organic body (humans)

being above food or environment as both material bodies act, react, and change together. While

the environment can make us feel vulnerable, it extends my thinking to believe that the absence

of an environment, in collaboration, may also make our bodies feel vulnerable. During the

staunch lockdown in COVID-19, zoom classes and staying home full-time with no social

interaction instilled anxiety, overthinking, dullness, irritation, and sonophobia in me. I felt

alienated and comfortable with myself (as a result of decreased social tendencies). While I

blamed COVID entirely, I can now understand this because of being hyper-exposed to my home,

and a lack of spatial experience of IBA. I am also able to acknowledge my anxiety, dullness, and

developing sonophobia as my bodily resistance.

Sambara Gallery's artworks allowed me to materialize Alaimo’s work. I experienced

understanding the environment as an agent, permeating and affecting my body. Extreme bright

lighting with acrimonious music was extremely disturbing and gave me a piercing headache.

Acknowledging light pollution, and light as an actant was also eye-opening. I found Cosmic

Tribe and Disco Apocalypse extremely relevant to the course. Disco Apocalypse personified the
usual form of pleasure at a cost of our environment and brought climate change into instant

consideration. Turning on flashlights and seeing bees being attracted towards the light and bats

moving away, was insightful regarding the varying affect of light and its inherent agency on the

material bodies. The use of artificial intelligence exemplified the concept of multispecies, and

instilled the understanding of the body as material, social and corporeal, interacting and being

affected by material and immaterial actants, and a constantly changing material state.