Invasive Species Creative Proposal Series

This talk focuses on the ethnobotanical application of exotic invasive plants for food. A big area of the discussion underpins the opportunities to effectively make use of a problem by turning it into a resource. We will take a look at some of the prime exotic invasive plants occurring in the U.S. & around the world which have a host of potential applications & their use for fermentation in particular.

Trajna's leading members Gaja Mežnarić Osole & Andrej Koruza, will present some of their creative strategies for designing with feral plants. They will speak about running the Notweed paper brand (Trajna’s Japanese knotweed paper business), designing micro-ecosystems for invasive goldfish & urban bees & initiating creative laboratory Krater, a mobile production space in a construction site rewilded with invasive plants.

Invasive species are often viewed as the drivers of ecosystem change....A more holistic view of invasive species places them within a larger social, economic, & ecological context as symptoms, rather than causes, of changing ecosystems. Factors including climate change, historic changes in land use & management, & even the modern concept of nature & wilderness ......Author of, Beyond the War on Invasive Species. 

Alyssa Dennis of Eclipta Herbal, addresses the social & ecological motives of her project, the Invasive Apothecary, & discusses the medicinal attributes of some of the “worst of the worst”. More importantly she takes a look at how the erasure of traditional ecological knowledge, about these plants, has been abandoned at the expense of dissociating the fact that their curative human virtues directly mirror the remedial virtues for the land. 

J. knotweed is an invasive plant that has spread rapidly in cities, reducing the diversity & activity of native ecosystems while accelerating soil erosion, & affecting soil nutrient availability. Despite the various methods of eradication Knotweed has been used as insecticide, fungicide, medicine, paper, textile fiber, biofuel, etc. Together with the community, Rozalija & her research team have started to develop & test an organic fertilizer made from J. knotweed. They have found organic fertilizer to be a suitable alternative to farmyard manure in urban environments. 

This talk focuses on Ellie's ongoing project, Feral & Invasive Pigments, about the migration & proliferation of certain plants in tandem with dense human populations. She gathers plant parts—berries, leaves, blossoms, pollen—from her spontaneous urban plant neighbors (also known as “weeds”), & processes them to create plant-based watercolor paints. She also teaches others how to do the same through walks & workshops. She uses the paints to construct portraits, maps & field guides that explore these plants, from their local presence, to their growth habits, to their migration around the globe. 

This talk considers edible & medicinal plants that thrive in anthropogenic habitats like trailheads, garden beds, sidewalk cracks, & just about anywhere soil has been disturbed. The same qualities that make certain plants "invasive" also allow them to thrive in stressful, climatically unstable environments. As requested by the presenters this recording is unavailable. 

This talk focuses on the results of a Master-level research course ‘Shifting Grounds’, organized at LUCA School of Arts (BE), where students explored artistic strategies toward building connection & understanding surrounding the nature of the invasive plant Japanese Knotweed.

This talk considers edible & medicinal plants that thrive in anthropogenic habitats like trailheads, garden beds, sidewalk cracks, & just about anywhere soil has been disturbed. The same qualities that make certain plants "invasive" also allow them to thrive in stressful, climatically unstable environments. As requested by the presenters this recording is unavailable.