The Forest as a Field of Mind

Abstract

In the Amazonian Indigenous context, despite the violent impact of colonization, the understanding that humans are an equal part of all life systems has enjoyed a long uninterrupted history from which we have much to learn at this time of global eco-crisis. At the example of several video works and the co-creation of an Indigenous university in Colombia, this text introduces a new charismatic signifying figure, the Indigenous Scientist, who has the capacity of merging the contradictions of being at once scientific and political actor, studying the natural world while being part of it. Drawing on scientific as well as shamanic perspectives of knowing the world, these forest projects take an ecocentric position in search for the intelligence of nature. The artistic research also highlights new genetic technologies that have been practiced by indigenous medics for time immemorial, allowing them to interact with the cellular energy fields on the molecular level of DNA.