Inviting Seeds to Draw

Aware of the limitations of conventional ethnographic methodologies for inviting vegetal beings into research projects, SeedValues seeks to foster alternative knowledge practices for the investigation of collectives involving plants and humans. We contend that tracing offers practical and material occasions for diverse kinds of actors to engage in dialogic communication across their respective experiences. In this vein, we appreciate drawing as an opportunity to cultivate politeness towards plants when conveying them in our research activities. Our sense of politeness is shaped by Vinciane Despret’s insistence that researchers formulate questions that are of interest to their interlocutors (2008). This is an elementary condition for offering others the chance to articulate interesting responses. Could tracing enable us to extend a polite invitation for plants to participate in a research project ?

As part of SeedsValues, we are exploring drawing practices as occasions to meet seeds and to open shared situations between plants and researchers. In concert with artist and researcher Camille de Ginestel, who proposed to research the experimental conditions which would allow seeds to leave traces, we have begun to investigate the technical implications of this invitation of seeds to draw. The specificities of this research have led, since April 2026, to our experimentations being welcomed by the Faculty of Sciences at the Université libre de Bruxelles, in its greenhouse.