Abstract
The I.N.S.E.C.T. Summer camps are annual gatherings of interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners exploring more-than-human perspectives through creative, embodied, and ecological practices. They take place in a scout camp in Hvalsø, Denmark. This area belongs to the Skoldjungernes Land („Land of the Turtles “) National Park where the Bidstrup forest meets the Særløse Overdrev grasslands. The 2024 Summercamp focused on vibration as a sensory and communicative modality shared among humans, plants, and insects. Building on our established methodology of Mapping Ecologies, Critical Making, and Being/Becoming, we adapted our approach to the local context by engaging with insect and plant species involved in vibrational communication. Our aim was to cultivate a deeper understanding of local multispecies relationships and the role of substrate-borne vibrations within these communities. Participants selected a plant or insect companion, created species profiles, investigated the mechanisms through which insects generate vibrations, engaged in listening and shapeshifting meditations, and produced vibrational probes inspired by these mechanisms. This paper advances the concept of embodied vibrational methodologies by detailing how a group of humans collectively engaged with local insect communication systems. It discusses how our practices and vibrational probes facilitated liminal multispecies connection and critically reflects on the challenges of interpreting and translating scientific knowledge about insect physiology into meaningful human and design contexts, particularly in relation to materials, tools, and scale.
Keywords
More-than-human; Biotremology; Insect vibrational communication; Embodied
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.932
Citation
Keune, S., Cerna, K., Ilgün, A., ter Schure, A., Mühlethaler, R.,and Heinzel, T.(2025) Embodied vibrational methodologies: Exploring Vibration from a Multispecies perspective in a co-created Summercamp, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.932
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 1 - More Than Human-centered Design
Embodied vibrational methodologies: Exploring Vibration from a Multispecies perspective in a co-created Summercamp
The I.N.S.E.C.T. Summer camps are annual gatherings of interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners exploring more-than-human perspectives through creative, embodied, and ecological practices. They take place in a scout camp in Hvalsø, Denmark. This area belongs to the Skoldjungernes Land („Land of the Turtles “) National Park where the Bidstrup forest meets the Særløse Overdrev grasslands. The 2024 Summercamp focused on vibration as a sensory and communicative modality shared among humans, plants, and insects. Building on our established methodology of Mapping Ecologies, Critical Making, and Being/Becoming, we adapted our approach to the local context by engaging with insect and plant species involved in vibrational communication. Our aim was to cultivate a deeper understanding of local multispecies relationships and the role of substrate-borne vibrations within these communities. Participants selected a plant or insect companion, created species profiles, investigated the mechanisms through which insects generate vibrations, engaged in listening and shapeshifting meditations, and produced vibrational probes inspired by these mechanisms. This paper advances the concept of embodied vibrational methodologies by detailing how a group of humans collectively engaged with local insect communication systems. It discusses how our practices and vibrational probes facilitated liminal multispecies connection and critically reflects on the challenges of interpreting and translating scientific knowledge about insect physiology into meaningful human and design contexts, particularly in relation to materials, tools, and scale.