The Ghost of Rain: Investigating Petrichor as Companion Molecules in the Critical Zones through the Arts
Scientia PhD (September 2019 to December 2023), UNSW Sydney, School of Art and Design
In this PhD research, I became a companion with a set of molecules called ‘petrichor’, which give off the scent of earth after rain. Using Donna Haraway’s theoretical framework of ‘companion species’, my term, ‘companion molecules’, extends her concept to recognise molecular agency. Following petrichor’s molecules that move and transform, I collaborate with them to produce a body of work elaborating our companionship in the climate crisis.
This investigation is situated in the Critical Zones. I take this understanding from geoscience, and from curatorial work by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel who add a socio-political dimension. I develop the concept of ‘critical matter’, or materials emerging from the Critical Zones that have agency to speak to our current situation. From the petrichor in soil that transforms under conditions of climate crisis, critical matter — ash, petroleum, speculative scents, and toning materials— is worked with across this research.
Trained in science, I have been informed by my scientific experience with molecular transformations in my artistic research. This leads to creating artworks for this PhD across multiple media including: a reconfigured olfactory wheel illustrating how scent changes under climate crisis; sculpture and paper works utilising ash from the Australian Black Summer bushfires; a melting ice chess game played by climate experts examining petrichor as petroleum; and speculative images and experiments about petrichor on Mars.
My research is embedded within artscience practices that have also engaged with companionship. I draw from artists curated by Latour and Weibel; David Haines and Joyce Hinterding’s practice that explores our multisensory perception of the more than human world; and Anicka Yi’s tentacular and odorous matter with which she becomes companion. Scientific knowledge revealed by Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas on petrichor speaks to their molecular materiality and drives my choice of media for artmaking. I draw on ecocultural knowledges of David Abram and Tema Milstein; and ecocultures supporting companionship with the more-than-human world.
My contribution to artscience practice-based knowledge is to generate new paths for companionship that can persist in the climate crisis. An ongoing petrichor-human companionship may foster more caring relationships with the more-than-human world.
Projects
Catherine Sarah Young 