sympoiesis / situated residencies

Sympoiesis (from the Greek sún, “with,” and poiesis, “creation/production”) is a term coined by feminist biologist and philosopher Donna Haraway. She closely connects it to Lynn Margulis’s theory of endosymbiosis, which explains how life evolved through cooperation and the fusion of different cells.

In her book Staying with the Trouble, Haraway proposes that nothing is created alone (autopoiesis); rather, everything is created “with” others in complex, dynamic, and situated networks. In an artistic context, this means moving beyond the 20th-century anthropocentric idea of the artist as a solitary genius, and instead inviting collaboration between humans and “non-humans” (plants, animals, microorganisms, materials, technology). It involves approaching nature—not as a mere material resource—but as an ally with whom to create jointly. It is about generating the conditions for nature to express itself through associative processes, and recognizing the landscape, the land, and its elements as co-authors of the work.

We can also understand sympoiesis as an art of interdependence, revealing how human actions and ecosystem responses are intertwined. Similarly, participatory and community-based art projects can be seen as ways of weaving networks and generating new social ecosystems.

We propose adopting this model of production across any artistic discipline: sound and listening, sculpture using biomaterials or living organisms, or the use of technologies to establish dialogue with other beings are just some examples of how this concept can be approached. Ultimately, what is proposed is to establish, through art, new alliances with our environments.