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GEO—Design thesis drafts, 2021
This is an unauthorized and incomplete collection of the thesis drafts from the DAE masters department.
This material has never been officialy published by the authors or the institution.
7-12-2021
SMUGGLING: DECEPTIVE DESIGN
AND THE POLITICS OF LEGALITY
Ayla Kekhia
INTRODUCTION
In front of my house here in Eindhoven is a bakery called “Al-Fourat”, which is Arabic for
the Euphrates river. I go there at least twice a week and eventually became friendly with the
man at the counter. Like me, he is Syrian. A few days ago, he finally asked: “So are you here on
Visa or on ‫[ ﺗﮭرﯾب‬tahreeb]?” The question he meant to implicitly pose was whether—like many
Syrians—I made my way here with a forged passport. The noun [tahreeb] refers to “smuggling”,
and is rooted in the verb ‫[ ھرب‬haraba], which means “to flee”.
Smuggling is the illegal movement of goods into or out of a country. It is considered a
criminal activity and is punishable by law. This research seeks to explore smuggling as an
operation, a business, a means to an end, a last resort, and finally, a byproduct of systemic
violence. Most of all, it seeks to examine smuggling as a practice that is inherently deceitful and
thus intrinsic to deceptive design: a clandestine practice that seeks to find a way to navigate a
world that has made it difficult—or even illegal—for some communities to do so. In its attempt to
bypass the establishment, deceptive design rebels. Examined through the lens of deceptive
design, how can smuggling become a form of resistance? And in a time where the transit of
1
humans and goods is as pervasive as ever, what does the urgency of smuggling say about the
current politics of movement?
I. INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SPACES: WHERE DOES SMUGGLING OCCUR?
Smuggling is a modus operandi that can be perceived as a model that is replicated in

different contexts and geographies. But on a conceptual level, what are the spaces that enable
a smuggling activity? The first reaction to such a question is to note that smuggling does not
occur within a space, but rather within in-between spaces, or “contact zones”, in the words of
Mary Louise Pratt (2). What comes out the other side is never the same as when it came in.
a. Europe and non-Europe
The first in-between that the research identifies is the line separating Europe from
everything outside of it. According to Žižek, violence—and absence thereof—is the main
signifier of this distinction: within Europe, violence manifests in the form of occasional
aggressions inflicted by external forces (Žižek 10). While an extremely poignant threat in the
public imagination, these attacks are few and far in between. In contrast, many countries in the
developing world, particularly in the Middle East, view this violence as a “permanent fact of life”
(Žižek 10). From here and with the onset of globalization is born a new global architecture
identifying two counter-spaces: Europe and everything outside of it. Žižek likens the first to a
glasshouse (Žižek 10).
“What does it mean for us to be Europeans?” Žižek asks (23). One way to answer this is
by looking at what unites forty-four national populations besides their presence on the European
continent. It’s hard to say, especially given the vast spectrum of economic models, ethnic
backgrounds, political alliances, past tensions, and—particularly now—diverging foreign policies
among many of these countries. Perhaps a much easier, more strategic question to answer
becomes: “What makes others non-European?” According to 20th century schools of thought,
the notion of the Other (“L’Autre”) is defined as the antithesis of the self. In other words, the
Other is that which is distinct from a central entity. Tzvetan Todorov writes: “No one is
intrinsically other—he is only so because he is not me (302).” There are two ways of looking at
it: one which highlights the precarious status of the Other as a collateral entity that only exists in
relation to something else and never in the service of itself as an independent agent, and the
2
other which testifies to the unique opportunity of self-affirmation the Other provides to that
central entity.
In a time where European cohesion is more than ever called into question, the Other
becomes a potent undercover ally. It is used as a mediatic tool to reaffirm European values—
whatever that means—and endow European identity with a newly-found sense of purpose by
positioning itself as a force of good against the demonic fundamentalist enemy. In doing so, the
Other becomes a tool to reinforce European cohesion, using smuggling as its primary device.
In this context, smuggling is a channel—a tunnel, an underground route—connecting the
outside space to the inside space. The EU’s stance in regards to it is crystal clear: next week,
the European Commission is set to announce new measures that would blacklist travel firms
that aid in migrant smuggling (Nardelli, Follain). What the law tells us and what the news feeds
us is that smuggling must be stopped; that it is the enabler through which all the violence from
the “outside” trickles down and finds its way to European footholds where it can spread chaos,
corruption, and terror. While the common narrative tells us that smuggling, whether involving
human or non-human bodies, is a threat to European way of life, this research argues that
smuggling is actually vital to European identity.
b. Legal market and black market
The emergence of a black market for any commodity is an inherent reaction to the
establishment of legal frameworks defining that which is within the bounds of the law and that
which is outside of it. The outside forms the black market. The perception of the black market as
an outside space is a testament to its otherness as well. Any significant movement within the
legal sphere produces direct ramifications within the illegal one, and the inverse also stands
true. While one’s existence depends on the other, their influence is mutually exercised and
experienced. Perhaps black markets and the illegal structures that operate them can be
perceived as disruptors of the status-quo held by hegemonic entities. They do not alter the basic
relations of exploitation and inequality. But by redistributing value across the global networks of
capitalism, they threaten the ability of the global North to maintain a one-way transfer of power
in perpetuity.
Like fungi growing underneath the surface, the black market is akin to a fantastic
creature growing in the underbelly of the establishment. It exists and thrives at its expense. Not
only that, it grows so long as the latter shrinks: the more regulatory apparatuses exist to control
a commodity or an activity—hereby constraining the inside space—, the bigger the landscape to
hack them becomes. Much like its legal counterpart, the black market is defined by its own
3
parameters and limitations. Ironically, it is an infrastructure of its own where new rules apply. It
is also a market of its own defined by the demand for law evasion on one hand, and the supply
of law evasion services on the other. Here is where legality becomes more complex than just a
flat plane between right and wrong: it is the collateral breeder of illegal practices. Its power is
even greater when we think of the sheer scale of its influence, as this duality can be applied to
every single anthropogenic activity that is regulated and monitored.
The relationship, however, is not a symmetric one: the legal world still yields the original
legislative wand that imposes, constraints, and decides. Through this lens, the black market is
the chicken, and the legal one is the egg.
II. CASE STUDIES: WHAT IS SMUGGLED?
a. Case study 1 // human: John
JOHN
The following account is that of a man whose identity has been concealed for his own
protection. His name has been changed. Dates have also been purposefully vaguified, but the
described events happened during the peak of the Syrian war, sometime between 2012 and
2018.
John is a civil engineer from Homs, Syria. A staunch opponent of the Assad regime and
an ardent activist, he had taken part in a large number of protests during the early days of the
Syrian revolution. As the crackdown on opponents became aggressive, and as the situation in
his hometown became increasingly dangerous, John fled to Lebanon. He stayed in a foyer in a
popular Beiruti neighborhood and worked as an engineer for a local company. Up until that
point, residence conditions in Lebanon were still lenient: Syrians were automatically given a six-
month right of stay. But as the war intensified and conditions worsened, more and more Syrians
fled to the adjacent country. Soon enough, residence conditions tightened and John had run out
of options. He could not go back home because he was blacklisted on the border as a dissident.
He could no longer stay where he was, either.
He spoke to a friend who gave him the contact of a smuggler. They called him ‫[ اﻟطﯾﺎر‬Al-
Tayyar]: the pilot. Al-Tayyar used stolen EU passports and paired them with his closest client
profile, changing only the headshot. A singular meeting was held in a cafe in Raouche, a busy
area by the waterfront. He asked for six thousand dollars. The instructions were simple but
4
blunt: once a passport match was found, John would receive a call. From that moment, his
window of opportunity to leave the country was as long as the time it would take for the passport
owner to declare it missing. This wasn’t an exact timeframe, so a lot of it depended on sheer
luck. The sooner he was out, the better.
When the call came, John was ready. He went to the airport and booked a ticket for the
first flight heading to Europe. Five hours later, he was in Nice, France. Upon arrival, he stood in
the line dedicated to EU passport-holders. The next minutes were a blur, but he was in. He then
took a train to Amsterdam and arrived in the middle of night. The first thing he did was destroy
the stolen passport. Paranoid, sleep deprived, and filled with adrenaline, he vigorously rubbed it
against his t-shirt in a final attempt to wipe out any fingerprints before throwing it in a big canal.
A few hours later, after asking decrepit strangers for the nearest police station, he found one.
He walked in. There was one man at the counter. John told him he was Syrian, that he had just
arrived in the Netherlands, and that he wanted to be taken in as an asylum seeker. The officer
looked around and gave him an indicative look: there was no one here to handle this right now.
John asked if he could stay at the station for the night, as he had nowhere else to go. The next
day, an immigration officer woke him up. According to John, she gave him a turkey sandwich
and a bottle of water, and told him, word-for-word: “you are safe now”.
SURVIVAL TACTICS OF DECEPTION
Though they might have seemed spontaneous and rushed, the events described above
entail an important use of strategy on John’s part. Without necessarily being aware of it, John
employed various deceptive tactics that allowed him to make it inside European territory. This is
in no way an attempt at discrediting the urgent conditions that compelled him to flee. But in the
grand scheme of things, John made specific choices that were instrumental to the success of
his self-smuggling operation.
John’s act of smuggling is first and foremost a performative one, using a passport as his
enabling device. In many ways, John is staging a performance, a tragicomedy in which he
obliviously plays the protagonist. His audience is the law, materialized through the officers at
passport control and the digital monitoring devices at the airport. In order for John to enter
Europe, the audience needed to believe his act. He inadvertently partakes in a suspension of
disbelief—a phenomenon usually reserved for the audience, not the actor. According to Aristotle
who first explored the concept in relation to theater, suspension of disbelief sought to achieve a
feeling of catharsis (Aristotle 28). Catharsis for John was European soil, or so he thought. The
quality of his act is directly associated with how well he could pretend to be who his stolen
5
passport claimed he was. The closer his phenotypic behaviour was to the original passport
holder, the more he could claim ownership of the stolen document. This is no easy task,
because mechanisms of control are inherently built to doubt, not to believe. All it takes is one
deviation from a norm—a norm that, for better or worse, comes with articulations of class,
culture, ethnicity, and behavior. Any noticeable divergence from a supposed identity’s norm
would raise immediate suspicion. As such, John had to appear as bland and as low-profile as
possible. His dangerous body had to be concealed, stripped down, and covered with a layer of
innocuousness. In John’s play, safety became synonymous with ordinary.
Aside from a stolen passport, identity is also appropriated. As such, John becomes a
mirror of the new document he carries, forging certain rituals and performances of travel that
would match the identity of the passport holder. In John’s case, the French passport he was
given belonged to a young Christian—you could tell by his family name—Lebanese man who
also carried French citizenship, as is the case with most affluent Christian families in the
country. He would most likely be wealthy, speak fluent French (most likely having had a private
French education), and travel often to Europe on short holidays. John had to adhere to that
image. He managed to articulate a relationship that did not exist—him being a wealthy Christian
Lebanese young man who spoke French—without speaking a word, as his Syrian accent and
exclusive use of Arabic would immediately betray him. By identifying the behavioural patterns
that are considered threatening and modifying them in order to become non-threatening, John
diffuses the danger that is the Arab man.
These various strategies fall into the description of deceptive survival tactics, a paradox
that poses entangled notions of necessity and criminality, distorted perceptions of identity, and
reflections on the particular end that may or may not justify the means.
ACCOUNTABILITY IN LIEU OF MORALITY
But do these tactics constitute strategies of empowerment, or ones of deceit? After all,
this staged performance is nothing but an artifice performed with the intention of lying. By using
someone else’s passport, John is committing identity theft, temporarily stealing another person’s
identity for his own convenience. John broke the law—but was the law ever in his favor? How
does society judge a man fleeing war and desperation by means of corruption and deceit? Does
such a moral compass exist? Morality carries little to no relevance in the larger context of this
research, and the reason why is shown in case studies like John’s, where conflicting moral
positions are imposed on the subject. We are quick to impose an ethical evaluation upon the
hapless pawns of war and trade: are they innocent victims or threatening criminals? But
6
somewhere along the line, we forget to ask: who is responsible for all this, and why is it
happening?
Shifting the conversation from moral judgement to accountability is the starting point to
recognizing that illegal human smuggling is the byproduct of clashing power structures and
ideologies. Boris Dolgov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of
Oriental Studies in Moscow, bluntly asserts: “That the refugee crisis is an outcome of US–
European policies is clear to the naked eye. The destruction of Iraq, the destruction of Libya and
attempts to topple Bashar Assad in Syria with the hands of Islamic radicals – that’s what EU and
US policies are all about, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees are a result of that policy
(Alexandrova).”
On top of the systemic violence inflicted internationally upon individuals who then
attempt to force their way into Europe, there are also nascent economies that are born out of
these realities and that profit from them. This mainly concerns the business of refugee
transportation, a thriving industry that is worth billions of dollars (Melchior)—a success many
relegate to Europe’s disjointed response to the largest population shift since World War II. And
while internal borders of the European Union have been made increasingly porous since the
early 1990’s, the external borders have been progressively closed off (Korody). As such, many
have died on their journey into Europe, so much so that the Mediterranean Sea is now
considered the deadliest migration route in the world (Missing Migrants Project).
THE MIGRANT AND THE WEST: AGENDAS OF PERCEPTION
Asylum seekers such as John form a very polarizing group to the Western public. On
one hand, the anti-immigration right considers migrants to be a threat in regards to their national
economy, security, and most of all, identity. Right-wing media publish stories focusing on the
looming threat that poor, uneducated, non-white migrants pose on European society. On
September 1st 2019, far-right Valeurs Actuelles magazine came out with an article called “The
‘grand remplacement’ in question” (Maulin). The sub-heading reads: “In a methodical and
unbiased study, Jean-Paul Gourévitch shows that the “grand remplacement” coined by Renaud
Camus is not ineluctable, but a credible scenario.” Camus is a French novelist who believes that
French civilization will eventually be demographically and culturally replaced with non-
Europeans via mass migration, demographic growth and a European drop in the birth rate
(Camus 66).
Such fear-mongering speculations fall in heavy contrast to leftists, which view migrants
as destitute and powerless victims capable of no harm or foul, eternally seeking empathy and
7
redemption. In 2018, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist John Moore took a photo of a girl
crying at the American border.
Fig.1: Moore, John. :Crying Girl on the Border”. Getty Images. 12 June 2018. Fig.2: Cover. Time, 2 July 2018.
The photo was cropped and used as part of Time Magazine’s July 2018 cover, with a
looming Donald Trump glaring over at the girl and a caption reading “Welcome to America.”, in
the context of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, whereby children as young as babies
were separated from their families in detention centers along the border. Both the photo and the
cover went viral, and sparked a wave of anger within the American public. In a video published
by Time (Time Staff), Moore explains the circumstances around the newsworthy photo. As it
turns out, the original photo was not depicting a family separation at all. The mother and the girl
were never separated (Keneally).
Whether the photo depicted a true separation or not is beside the point. The relevance of
this example in the context of this research is to address how the recontextualization of
narratives—specifically when used to provoke passionate responses from the public such as
anger, pity, or incredulity—constitutes a disservice towards migrants. Eternally subjected to the
sole role of innocent scapegoats, this narrative is just as imposing as its counterpart, because it
operates on muting the subject just the same. To omit one’s potential for harm and violence is to
reject their humanity. And thus, hate and pity become the same thing.
Both positions taken vis-a-vis smuggle-migrants-turned-asylum-seekers are intrinsically
anchored in society’s relation to the notion of stranger, which is in turn linked to the notion of
8
otherness. Indeed, the leftist dogma exploits the stranger by loving the stranger. It declares that
it should blindly and simply welcome refugees as a basis for an ethics of alterity, making the left
radiate in a universalist form of political activism (Ahmed 4). The right exploits the stranger by
fearing the stranger. In Strange Encounters, Sara Ahmed refutes the notion of ontologizing
strangers altogether, questioning the many different discourses that society imposes on
someone we simply do not know: an initial example she gives is the “stranger danger” premise.
This image is one of many other discourses imposed on the Other, and illustrates how strangers
are coated with a layer of narrative (or as she puts it, are “inhabiting a certain body”) that
bypasses their linguistic and bodily integrity (Ahmed 4) and omits any possibility of self-
determination.
These perspectives are one and the same in their ideological flatness and do not benefit
the migrant. But if they do not serve the migrant, then why do they exist? They exist to provide a
reflection. Like a mirror, the West profits from the image it chooses to bestow upon “strange”
bodies in order for it to reflect a specific image back. By viewing them as the other, the alien, the
outsider, the right asserts itself at the center, the norm, the original. By viewing them as poor
lambs in need of help, the left asserts itself as a savior capable of and powerful enough to save
those who do not demonstrate their unparalleled qualities.
CATHARSIS
A stolen passport granted John a momentary right of mobility, deconstructing the

political economy of the freedom of movement monopolised by governments. As for Al-Tayyar,
his role reminds sovereign countries that their powers are exercised through material and non-
material articulations that can be reversed or co-opted by the very same articulations. Smuggled
migrants and their facilitators are a testimony to the current politics of movement, their tyranny,
their violence, and their fragility. By changing identities, so does one’s right to move.
The word catharsis is traced back to the Greek word kathairein, meaning “to cleanse,
purge (Kuiper).” In Poetics and in the context of theater, Aristotle anchors it in a more
metaphorical context: through an emotional release, our spirit is purged from the negative
emotions it may harbor (Aristotle 29). When the curtains close, the temporary space that allows
for the evacuation of grief, sorrow, hate, jealousy, anger, or pity, is forever shut. But for John,
the violent space he inhabits is neither temporary nor escapable. It is very much his reality—one
that is overwhelming to the point of shaping his identity and path in life. It is a chimera that
looms over his head, weighs on his shoulders, and cripples his speech. But John does not
9
wallow about it, nor does he see himself as a martyr. He is resigned to his fate. Baudelaire
describes this beautifully in Chacun sa Chimère:
“Tous ces visages fatigués et sérieux ne témoignaient d’aucun désespoir ; sous la
coupole spleenétique du ciel, les pieds plongés dans la poussière d’un sol aussi désolé que ce
ciel, ils cheminaient avec la physionomie résignée de ceux qui sont condamnés à espérer
toujours (Baudelaire 12).”
(Transation: “Beneath the splenetic cupola of the heavens, their feet trudging through the dust
of an earth as desolate as the sky, they journeyed onwards with the resigned faces of men
condemned to hope for ever.”)
And so in the end, catharsis never came. After crossing the airport gates, John recounts
standing on the exit sidewalk and feeling completely paralyzed. The reality of anything beyond
border control had never crossed his mind until now. He literally had not thought about any
moment past it. He recalls standing there for about twenty minutes, letting a new kind of fear
sink in. “‫ ”؟اش ﺑﻌﻣل ھﻸ؟ ﻟوﯾن ﺑدي أروح؟ ﺷﻘد راح ﯾﺿﺎﯾﻧوﻧﻲ ﻣﺻرﯾﺎﺗﻲ ﻟﻲ ﻣﻌﻲ ﺑﺟﯾﺑﻲ؟ ﺣﯾﺎﺗﻲ اش ﺑدا ﺗﻛون‬All the
questions his mind had no space for up until that moment came down on him in a new yet all
too familiar cloud of uncertainty.
b. Case study 2 // non-human: captagon pomegranate
POMEGRANATE
In Sneak it Through, Michael Connor attributes a successful smuggling operation to

ingenuity (Connor vii). His stance on smuggling is clearly admirative. The book is essentially an
extensive list of objects he dubs “places of concealment” (Connor 3): innocuous containers
carrying contraband goods. Examples include a ladder, a flute, a baguette, a kitchen paper
towel roll, and a tennis racket. Each of them is introduced as a promising smuggling candidate.
While it is unclear whether any of the fifty-eight items listed were actually tried and tested, a
similar real-life case was recorded in the last few months.
The story made international news outlets, when in the spring of 2021, the Saudi
Arabian port customs seized over five millions pills of captagon hidden in a shipment of
pomegranates coming from Lebanon (Issa, Kumar). Captagon is an amphetamine
manufactured in Lebanon, Iraq, and allegedly Syria, according to the French Observatory for
Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA 4). It mainly caters for the Saudi Arabian market
(EMCDDA 6).
10
It’s hard to imagine a world where amphetamine and pomegranates would one day
collide, but in Lebanon, they are produced on the same soil. The Bekaa Valley, a fertile plain in
the East, is a source of opium and hashish production. Factories producing captagon pills have
been recently discovered there as well, according to a report from Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera
01:19–01:24). Once ripe, pomegranates are picked off their trees and mounted into small plastic
crates that are stacked on top of each other and loaded onto trucks headed either to local
supermarkets or to the port for international shipping. With little control at borders, no scanners
for incoming or outgoing products, and corruption in governance, smuggling is a rampant
phenomenon at the port of Beirut. From there, a standard cargo ship heading to Saudi Arabia
travels 951 nautical miles via the Suez Canal for an average time of four days at sea
(ports.com). Upon arrival at the Jeddah Islamic Port, all goods undergo thorough examination,
where security and monitoring practices are much stricter. It is there that the captagon
pomegranates were reportedly discovered. It is unclear how or at which point throughout this
itinerary the contraband was introduced inside the fruits.
Fig. 3: Saudi Press Agency. April 22, 2021.
Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest markets for Lebanese fruit and vegetables (Blair). As
such, the Saudi import ban constitutes an important blow at a time when the country is
economically collapsed. The relevance of this loss in the context of this research lies in the way
it allows us to observe the breakdown of a larger organization once a smuggling scheme is
uncovered. On a small scale, the vast majority of Lebanese sharecroppers are left with an
overflow of product with no one to buy it. On a large scale, this closes one of the few doors that
11
were still open to inject dollars into Lebanon. A little contraband pomegranate thus adds to the
downfall of a nation.
INGENUOUS TACTICS OF DECEPTION
According to an article in Arab News magazine, the use of agricultural products as a

container for weapon and narcotic smuggling has become an established modus operandi in the
region (Alamuddin). This is why the Saudi ban on Lebanese fruits and vegetables came as
nothing remarkable. What did, however, was the ingenuity of the operation, which lies in the
novel and innovative gaze that is bestowed upon a day-to-day object. The pomegranate has
been used as a smuggling container due to the potential found in its shape, construction, and
design. With a shell like exterior and a chamber-sequestered core, the captagon pills found
temporary shelter in pomegranate rooms. Indeed, the number of seeds in a pomegranate can
vary from 200 to about 1,400 (Stover 44)—an equal estimation for the amount of captagon pills
it could carry. Their white walls are formed by the fruit’s membrane, the cupped hollow crevices
of which would make you believe that they were designed to fit the round, white amphetamine
pills—except they weren’t, and the pomegranate is just a fruit. It was made to contain
pomegranate seeds. The masterminds behind this operation didn’t just use any container to
smuggle their pills—they found one that intrinsically fit them in its design. They found a match.
Was this the first time someone tried to smuggle captagon pomegranates into Saudi
Arabia, or was it just the first time they were caught? No one has an answer to that question,
since smuggling operations that succeed are ones that are never caught, and thus never heard
of. This begs the prototypical thought experiment on the possibility of unperceived existence
raised by George Berkeley: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make
a sound? It egotistically equates human perception to the truth: if we don’t hear it, the sound
doesn’t exist. And if we didn’t catch it, smuggling never happened.
DISOBEDIENT OBJECT AND POLITICS OF PERCEPTION
In the evolution of the research, it is important to note that the focal point in the context
of the captagon pomegranate is not the captagon, but the enclosing container that is the
pomegranate fruit. “But why?” one might ask. “The smuggled object is the methamphetamine
batch, just like the smuggled subject was John.” Yes, effectively so. But the purpose in John’s
case was the examination of his phenotypic exterior and all the codes they signified—so in a
way, his container. It just so happened that the smuggled object and its container were one and
12
the same. In the case of the captagon’s smuggling from beirut to Jeddah, it is the pomegranate
in its role as the inconspicuous container that is vital.
From this perspective, the smuggling container is much more interesting than the
smuggled object. We all know that amphetamines are bad. The pomegranate, however, is a
much more complex protagonist: a charming winter fruit grown across the West-Asian
peninsula, a national emblem for Armenians that have fled genocide and built new lives further
South, a symbol of fertility and good fortune.
From a moral perspective, the captagon pomegranate’s underlying motives are far more
malicious in comparison to John. While one aims to seek refuge and safety, the other attempts
to make financial profit through a potentially addictive and harmful substance. In reality, John’s
smuggling is much less consequently damaging. The captagon pomegranate bears far more
dangerous fruit, so to speak.
As this case study shows, the pomegranate harbors a potential for deception. It is even
more machiavellian because of its superficially innocent image—a fruit! Its construction and
interior architecture grant it the ability to deceive. It is an object that lies to its audience, and as
such, also partakes in a performative display of innocence. As such, the captagon pomegranate
becomes a “disobedient object”. A term coined by Catherine Flood and Gavin Grindon, it refers
to items that people have used to exert a form of counterpower in the context of object-making
within social movements (Flood, Grindon 9). While smuggling is not a social movement, it would
be a mistake to ignore its role in the production of dissenting material culture. This introduces
multiple points of vulnerability where skill and ingenuity become tools for deviation and
appropriation. Design as an intrinsically anthropogenic activity can propose a more nuanced
vision of legality by revealing an unavoidable fact: if humankind made the law, then humankind
can and will find ways to circumvent it. After all, legality is a human-made, designed practice.
Consequently, it is the very materiality of the world that allows the performance of illegal
practices. Here we can define the smuggling of an illegal object within a legal package as a
subversive act of material reappropriation.
SYMBOLISMS OF DANGEROUS FRUIT
Pomegranate stories are ubiquitous around the world and imbued with symbolism. In a
way, it has always been more than just a fruit. In ancient times pomegranates were symbols of
fertility (Ovid 422). The ancient Greeks associated the fruit with Persephone, who was tricked by
Hades into eating four pomegranate seeds, thus condemning her to spend four months a year
with him in the underworld. These four months would constitute winter, as nothing would grow in
13
Persephone’s absence on Earth. Furthermore, the fruit’s relation to fertility is apparent to
anyone who has cracked open a pomegranate, revealing the hundreds of tiny red jewel-like
seeds surrounded by a protective womb.
Ironically, the ancient fruit of fertility also inspired one of mankind's deadliest weapons in
traditional artillery: the hand grenade. The word grenade stems from the classical French
appellation of the fruit, “pomme grenade” (Harper, Douglas). The name was bestowed upon the
weapon due to striking similarities in the interior architecture of both objects. Like the
pomegranate, the grenade houses tiny balls of shrapnel enclosed within its casing. Both the
seeds and the shrapnel are temporarily lodged into the container, waiting to be released. One is
delicious and the other is deadly. This is a testimony to humankind’s aptitude in biomimicry and
how we can learn from nature. But whom does this ingenuity serve, and to what purpose?
The captagon pomegranate is a true story, but in the context of this research, it is also a
metaphor. Like a seed, John is a singular unit amongst hundreds of others forming a collective
of smuggled migrants, all having been uprooted and in search of new soil. Once replanted, they
in turn bear their own fruit, reproducing offspring that is genetically the same but that will grow in
much different environments. The idea of reproduction points to the biblical connotation of a
male’s sperm through dissemination of semen, like the seed Abraham had promised his
forefathers. Seeds can evoke growth in a positive light—little organisms in need of water, sun,
and care—but this growth can quickly veer into an alarming fear of dissemination, propagation,
expansion, and invasion. As mentioned, this is also the spectrum through which migrants are
perceived: pity and fear. It begs the question: when the migrant seeds are planted, what
happens to the seeds that are already there? Is the soil fertile enough to support them both? Is
it large enough to contain all the seeds that want to be planted? Some fear that the new seeds
might even change the soil itself, and that it will never be the same again: an ominous
articulation of Donna Haraway’s notion of contamination as the inevitable consequence of
anthropogenic activity (Haraway 37). The fear of the unknown is an intrinsic part of human
nature. Fear is how the seeds are consumed, and their digestion is manifested through the
current global crisis today. Indeed, when planted, all seeds are the same. But when they are
grown, who’s to say what they will become? Surely some will grow into prosperous, beautiful
fruit-bearing trees. Others will grow crooked, disobedient, and ugly—Abraham’s bad seeds.
If we examine the pomegranate as a symbolic device for collective migration, then the
analogy with the grenade becomes even more apparent. To begin with, the notion of time
acquires a much more urgent dimension. Like a ticking time bomb, it is only a matter of days,
minutes, and seconds until the pomegranate detonates, bursting its red capsule and with its
14
implosion, spreading the bloody, dangerous jewels all over Europe. When faced with a grenade
at your feet, how do you react? There is not much time to think. Decisions will be made
hastefully, and instinct will rule over logic. Do you diffuse it? Do you kick it and pray it lands
somewhere far away? Do you throw it in someone else’s yard? Or do you run and seek refuge?
Europe has tried many of these “solutions”. All it takes is to look at what some European states
have resorted to in the face of the crisis: Italy with its many precedents of blocking migrant boats
from docking, leaving many to drown at sea (Berger), Greece with its detention facilities where
surveillance is prioritized over human rights (Petra), and most recently Poland resorting to water
cannons and tear gas to push back the hundreds of migrants “marooned in freezing weather”
amidst the Belarus-Poland border clashes that have so far resulted in twelve casualties at the
time this thesis is being written. In an article published in the New York Times on November
16th, Akram, one of the many who have tried to get into Poland, said: “We are just a stick that
they are beating each other with (Higgins, Santora).” From all the examples, the icing on the
cake remains the EU’s six billion euro bribe to Turkey in a desperate attempt to limit the
migration influx. In exchange, President Recept Tayyip Erdogan vowed to prevent new
migratory routes from opening and to limit refugee travels by all means necessary. As a result,
migratory groups were essentially held ransom (Terry).
Perhaps the lingering question is: who is throwing the grenades? In 2017, the New York
Times followed shipments of bombs from a holiday island in Italy to Saudi Arabia, then found
those bombs at the scene of civilian deaths in Yemen (Browne, Malachy, et al.). By heading to
Europe, fleeing migrants are heading straight into the belly of the beast.
There is a sense of complete loss of control, chaos, mayhem. Grenades are
unpredictable—a fact that is not lost on migrants who have experienced first-hand the
bloodshed of war and conflict. They are messy, erratic, and imprecise. The only element that is
controllable is where we choose to throw the grenade, making the destination perhaps the only
intentional factor, and the most important one as well. Today, while most actual grenades are
thrown in the Middle-East, their metaphorical counterparts are catapulted towards the West. All
their seeds can do is hope for the best. Boom.
CONCLUSION
The exploitation of smuggling practices as an incentive for the development of rigid

borders and reinforced laws is failing, because the borders are failing. And yet, more people will
come, regardless of the law—an acknowledgement of the malleability of smuggling from a
15
design perspective as a practice that is in constant reformation. This acknowledges the need to
formulate a design that addresses ever changing modes of smuggling in reaction to the laws
that are imposed upon it. For now, the powers that be are sending bombs to countries that in
return send back waves of migrants. Smuggling levels rise as a byproduct of the economy of
war, and in return European laws and mechanisms of control are tightened. Who is really
winning here? Meanwhile, the glasshouse crumbles.
16
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18
A STORED NATURAL NARRATIVE.
"A seed bank is a documented collection of seeds held for long-term security or for ease of
access. It is one of the oldest forms of gene bank, where genetic material essential for
agriculture, forestry, or plant conservation is preserved, curated, and made available to user
communities from off-site (ex situ) storage conditions.” 1
The Seed Bank is the concrete passage between the manifold biodiversity and its possible
future. It expresses all our capacity for cultural projection, which shapes and defines the
pattern of our future nature. The wild is dissected and recomposed according to our
naturalcultural2 image, the garden of Eden.
Fighting for a more ecological world by defending and preserving nature apparently has no
objection. But what is Nature? This question resounds like an echo, the word has no
corporeity, behind it there are only subjective imaginaries shaped by culture. What idea of
nature are we referring to? Let’s start from the assumption that the discourse concerning the
conservation of nature is a human discourse. Humans talk about nature in order to talk about
themselves, the need to locate themselves within the ecological landscape serves to define
their future actions, but at the same time, the act of defining places them a priori detached.
This writing tries to analyze the ex-situ conservation as a language of representation, a

specific medium for preserving and reconstituting the Natural scenography consolidated in
our imagination. Looking at the theoretical and technical processes that contribute to its
representation as tools of a design process, that serves to build an imaginary, a
scenography. As humans we have the urge to design our own notion and narration of what
is nature in order to conserve it. To unpack this matter I will start from the narrative space
between the Selva Oscura and The garden of Eden in Dante’s Divine Comedy as a pathway
through this conservation process and as a way to position the Seedbank in a bigger
perspective.
BETWEEN THE SELVA OSCURA AND THE PARADISO TERRESTRE THERE’S THE
SEEDBANK.
Dante begins the Divine Comedy inside the Selva Oscura, inhospitable and full of dangers. It
is not recommended to enter the Forest at dusk, many animals come out at night and we,
humans, do not have great night vision. We find ourselves disoriented and frightened in front
of an infrastructure with unknown and unpredictable rules. Dante describes himself inside
the Selva Oscura (Dark Forest) because he has literally been brought to face life outside the
city after he has been exiled. Deprived of all his civil rights and properties, he was banished
from his Florence and forced to move between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. He crosses
the Apennines mountain chain, passing through the ancient Casentino’s forests that certainly
does not leave one's soul unmoved. This landscape reflects the Dark Forest narrated in the
Divine Comedy, where he is hindered by wild animals. Dante confronts himself with different
species, probably because a human without rights is no longer part of civilization at that
moment he is neither human nor animal, no world wants him until he finds Virgilio, his guide
who shows him the way.
1 Way, Michael. “Seed Banks.” Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, 2018, p. 1., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_345-1.
2 Naturalcultural: Nature and culture are always a matter of composition. In the specificities of history, nature and culture intertwine without priority or foundation, […].
TIMETO, FEDERICA. “DIZIONARIO PER LO CHTHULUCENE.” 24 Settembre, 2019 Not Magazine.
What kind of nature does Dante describe? His narrative follows a solid binomial of the
western view of Nature, the human being is in contrast to the forest. The opposition between
human and nature is unleashed through an archetypal motif the fear of the Wild Forest.3
“Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.”4
Dante's allegories on the Forest environmental object5 may help answer the question; “what
is our idea of nature?”. Dante, during the Canto I, changes the environmental scenery
unannounced, from the Selva Oscura (dark forest) to the piaggia diserta (deserted beach).
The latter landscape is the Forest’s opposite, here Dante can resume his path by walking in
a straight line without obstacles. But as soon as he tries to walk that safe way, he is stopped
by wild animals, the Lonza (Leopard-like beast), the Lupa (She-wolf) and the Lion, allegories
of the three capital sins. These beasts force him to stop and take another route with Virgil,
Dante’s essence is neither human, nor non-human; he can not follow the straight path
through the desert, nor be safe in the forest.
Beyond the Selva Oscura, Dante describes another wood in the Divine Comedy, the
Paradiso Terrestre (Earthly Paradise). On the summit of Purgatory, there is this other
Nature. So Forest is both the point of departure and point of arrival. The crucial difference
between Selva Oscura and Paradiso Terrestre (Earthly Paradise) is what is missing in the
latter representation of Nature, the wild. The ancient forest does not induce fear, but rather
enchantment and wonder.6
“Already desiring to explore inside and out

the divine forest, so dense and alive,
which tempered the new day before my eyes,
without delay I left the bank,
proceeding slowly slowly through the country
whose ground exuded fragrance everywhere.”7
This marvellous Selva governed by God's laws, which Dante longs to explore without fear,
has a substantial difference from that of Canto I.
"The ancient Selva is the dark Selva deprived of its dangers, its ferocity, in short, its
wildness".8
The different souls of those same forests are a very powerful image of what contemporary
reality is going through regarding the definition of Nature. On a superficial level we can easily
understand how Dante's allegorical apparatus is based on Christian cosmology, on the
savage as sinful essence. Spirituality has shaped our relationship with nature, before the
oneness of God, beliefs about natural elements were prosperous, perception was so
different that we had to deal with another ontology to understand it.
The dimension of the SeedBank is the midpoint on a line. It lies in the middle of these two
Natures: The Selva Oscura (the Dark Forest) and The Paradiso Terrestre (The garden of
3 Harrison, Robert P. Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. Univ. of Chicago Pr, 2009.
5 Casetta, Elena. “Making Sense of Nature Conservation after the End of Nature.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, vol. 42, no. 2, 2020, pp. 6–9.,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-00312-3.
Eden). The first one can be considered as the spontaneous nature where seeds are
collected in a wild condition, the second one is the gardened nature, where seeds stored in
the SeedBank, are then used to repopulate a specific species in a specific habitat.
SeedBank is stretched between these two extremes of the line, it is not a place of arrival, but
one of transition, the functional structure being the only constant. This aseptic
instrumentation through which the organic material passes is the setting, the background
against which the real actor is confronted. Germplasm9 enters and leaves the bank, it goes
through a meticulous and careful process to be put to rest and reactivated one day if
necessary. Germplasm is the genetic make-up of a given species, it is the value that we try
to protect inside the refrigerated cells.
We preserve the freezed result of the relationships that the plant has exchanged with the
ecosystem in which it lives; the transcription of this experiential apparatus is preserved in the
seed, the evolutionary relay par excellence. Preserving this baggage is power, pure potential
evolutionary energy, a direct lens on what may be.
WHERE NATURE IS A MATTER OF DESIGN.
Since I am researching this topic, I visited two SeedBanks in Italy. I wanted to ground my
thoughts about this place and methodology, both sites were conserving spontaneous plant
species, not agricultural ones, but just those that grow and reproduce naturally without
human intervention. There is a main difference between the two, one is National, the CNCB
(National Carabinieri Biodiversity Centre) and the other one is under the faculty of Botany at
the University of Pisa and its related Botanical garden. The difference lies in the approach
and in the number of species preserved, National one focuses only on few forest species
and huge quantities, while the ones related to universities are research based, they preserve
small quantities of a lot of different types of taxa. Though the methodologies followed are the
same, this difference of approach is essential, what I will explain later is based on what I saw
and what I read after I visited the Pisa SeedBank.
The Germplasm Banks related to the Botanicalgardens, as the Pisa one, are more
numerous; most regions have a dedicated conservation site. In Italy the regional SeedBanks
are coordinated through the Italian network of germplasm banks (RIBES).10 This is the start
of the planning of the collection expeditions, which are carried out at different times and in
different ways depending on the species. Collection is the fundamental stage of transition
between in-situ multiplicity and its more faithful representation in the bank. The extraction
methods are species-specific, presenting similarities, but each plant must be treated
individually. Depending on the rarity and distribution of the taxa in the specific habitat,
different collection patterns are implemented. The number of plants collected, the different
populations present in the area to be visited and the amount of material collected shape the
representation proposed by the seedbank. Each specific plant has its own genetic reference
traits, so sampling will still give an interpretative result of the individual taxa and therefore
relative and never absolute.
Not all species are obviously conserved, there are classification criteria that determine the
priority of some species over others. The reference selection is provided in the form of a Red
9 […] The material capable of transmitting hereditary traits, which directly preserves biodiversity at the genetic and species level, while indirectly contributing to the
diversity of the environment. biodiversity at genetic and species level, while indirectly contributing to the diversity of ecosystems. ecosystems. The term germplasm often
refers to seeds […]. Bacchetta, Gianluigi. “Presentazione.” Manuale per La Raccolta, Studio, Conservazione e Gestione Ex Situ Del Germoplasma, APT - Agenzia per La
Protezione Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, p. 7.
10 Bacchetta, Gianluigi. “Reti Nazionali.” Manuale per La Raccolta, Studio, Conservazione e Gestione Ex Situ Del Germoplasma, APT - Agenzia per La Protezione
Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 35–36.
List, drawn up according to the criteria dictated by the IUCN (International Union for
Conservation of Nature) for each reference country. Taxa are distributed on a risk scale
according to a number of assessment criteria, which are adopted in relation to the reference
species. These 5 criteria are based on different assessment assumptions in order to
maximise the accuracy of placement for the given taxa. 11
The Pisa Seedbank bases and updates the collections on these parameters focusing on the
Tuscan regional species, for which they are responsible. This selection is a fundamental
projection grid that allows us, humans, to bring order to this multiplicity. The Selva Oscura is
flattened and ruled by this grid projection, is a conceptual filter through which nature
becomes a pixelated pattern. Despite the reliability of the results and the reference
categories, each selection criterion is a construct and as such a method of representation.
We represent the spectrum of species most at risk by means of an interpretative
methodology for this multiplicity. This first fundamental step, already so full of meaning,
triggers a complex conservation process.
The collection moment is a real excursion, boots, backpack and gardening tools are needed.
The walks can take hours, wild species habitats can be reached just on foot, a lot of time is
needed, the environment needs to be explored and analyzed. Is not just walking, there are
stops and go, it is a real moment of research, the focus is on specific species but every time
the operators have to understand if the landscape changed, what is new and what needs to
be reported. This is the moment where the Selva Oscura vanishes, the taxonomic grid with
which the species and taxa are identified deconstructs the landscape by highlighting the
specific spots of interest. These spots represent threatened habitats, probably destined to no
longer exist. The wild garden among which the researchers move in search of material to
conserve becomes a place of sampling. Each plant is described through different media and
materials, the seed is only the specific reference product, but the information that the
SeedBank records is much more. 12
As Virgilio shows Dante the way to proceed, scientists has the taxonomic system that reveal
them the right path, it can not be a straight line because they have to deal anyways with
multiplicity, for this reason we designed a grid that could describe us this diversity, although
it is an organized diversity, a controlled one. This scientific setting saves us from getting lost
conceptually in multiplicity, the latter is gridded and so biological relations, that characterize
a determined ecosystem, are left out. A flux that can not be classified because in constant
process.
This information accompanies the collected germplasm; a seed without a contextual

description loses its value, its narration is an integral part of conservation. For this reason,
predefined forms are compiled, with predefined spaces in which to enter information related
to the operator who is carrying out the collection, the taxon from which the material is being
extracted, the final location of the material and the reference project, the environmental
references during the collection, such as temperature and humidity index, the sampling
method used, the number of individuals collected and the type of material collected, the
condition of the population, the geographical location of the site and its size in square
metres.
These details are just some of what is recorded during the expeditions. They are
fundamental, a plant necessarily needs the link with its habitat of reference, the aim of
Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 35–36.
12 Pellegrini, Pablo A., and Galo E. Balatti. “Noah’s Arks in the XXI Century. A Typology of Seed Banks.” Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 25, no. 13, 12 Sept. 2016, pp.
2753–2769., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1201-z.
conservation is the desirable repopulation and new germination of the taxon in case of
extreme reduction of the population still present in nature. The information becomes a
fundamental tool to represent this organism outside the environment, the reference card, the
herbarium and the seed are the projection of the ecosystem inside the seedbank, the
ingredients of a natural image to be recomposed later. The path for the Garden of Eden has
been embarked upon. The rigid conceptual grid has been stretched over the Selva Oscura
collecting just what we think will be valuable, samples of information that will be used to
reassemble what is called under the ambiguous name of nature.
The day/s trip ends with the selected nature placed in paper bags to maintain proper
transpiration, large bags from which branches and leaves emerge are placed in the boot, the
germplasm is not detached from the branch before entering the bank. The delivery to the
bank is an essential step, the material is usually accepted and examined, avoiding any
possible infection or pathogen that could proliferate.13 All information is then entrusted to the
bank, each envelope with its detailed reference is placed in temporary boxes identified by a
code that contains the basic information to distinguish the lots between each other.
Of course this combination of numbers and words is integrated with an electronic barcode,
which links to wider information transcribed during the field research. This code stands at the
heart of the archiving system, it follows the species from the beginning, it needs to be always
in relation with the real matter it belongs to, it is a fundamental part of the representation
process.
When I entered the Pisa SeedBank, I found myself in a lab. You walk around and what
comes up is the contrast between fresh collected material and the environment's asepticity.
Before starting to manipulate the material, paper bags with vegetal material are arranged in
the fume hood.
Fruits are then separated from the plant, branches and leaves are collected and thrown
away. Then the relevant material is put in plastic or iron boxes where it is left maturing for
two weeks until a maximum of one month, depending on the specific species. The
environment temperature and humidity is controlled, 20 degrees and a maximum of 40% of
humidity, the material is stirred every 2, 3 days to obtain an homogeneous result. 14
After the seeds are mature need to be carefully cleaned, each impurity is dangerous, and
can compromise the perfect conservation. Usually, before cleaning all the material, only a
little part is firstly analyzed to be sure about their conditions. The entire lot of seeds can go
further in the conservation process just if the 50% of the experimental ones are considered
suitable during germination tests. There are many different ways to clean the chosen
material, of course it depends on the seeds’ needs, but in general this cleaning can be done
manually, mechanically or both ways together. In Pisa, there were almost only manual
tools, it is usually done for little quantities, also because it is safer and less harmful. The
operator places the material on a soft plastic base and with a wooden board starts crushing,
splitting the seeds from the floral or fruiting organs. On the Seed Bank laboratory desk you
always find piles of sieves, it is the best way to separate the rests with different mesh’s
widths that go from 1 cm to 0,1mm.
Usually the manual sifting is reinforced by a second mechanical step, the most used
machine creates an adjustable air blast that can separate the material based on their
different density, the lighter follows the air, while the heavier stays in position. This
technology is a constant in Seed’s labs, it is everywhere and, as the Pisa’s Botanic Gardens’
director told me, it is produced only in the Netherlands. If the process through the machine is
not precise enough and some particles are still mixed with the relevant matter, then it needs
13 Bacchetta, Gianluigi. “Reti Nazionali.” Manuale per La Raccolta, Studio, Conservazione e Gestione Ex Situ Del Germoplasma, APT -
Agenzia per La Protezione Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 63.
another passage through the sieves and in some rare cases, an operator needs to extract
the last impurities with tweezers and a magnifying glass. 15
The Seedbank becomes a designed scenography, seeds are brought through an amazing
design process where, slowly, they are convinced to be still not ready to grow and
germinate. Every chance they have is cleaned or removed from their proximity. The illusion
is then definitely built, when the seeds are safely stored, the show is successfully concluded
the seed is no more being, but is going to be.
Once the material is completely cleaned and just the precious seeds are left, these must be
counted. Quantity is really needed to understand and plan other steps before the
conservation, usually it is done relating the total weight of the cleaned germplasm with the
medium weight of one seed. In the meantime seeds’ samples per each species need to go
through another check to identify any kind of anomalies or specific characteristics of the
taxa. Of course the material that is treated needs to stay alive, but not to start germinating,
the seeds breath can be determined through water quantity in their body. This is why
scientists need to know how much humidity is in it, so that they can plan the drying process
and slow down the biological processes without compromising the vitality.16
To know this data there is another steady instrument, it completely dries a sample of seeds,
then weighs it and compares the weight with a non-dried sample of seeds, giving directly the
humidity percentage results. In this way they can decide in which way and how much the
seeds need to be dried. During this check also germinate ability and vitality are verified.
I saw rooms for the germination tests, at Pisa there are small refrigerating rooms in a row
where Phd students and professors experiment with germination. They set some
parameters, such as light, temperature and humidity and then see how many seeds
germinate from the sample.17
Before the seeds are packed and stored they need to pass through the last step, the
dehydration. This is the last and the core of all the conservation method, seeds are split in
two macro typologies depending on their response to the dehydration process. Basically
there are seeds that can be dried and seeds that can not, the firsts are called “Hortodoxes”
while the seconds “recalcitrants”. Of the overall studied species, recalcitrant seeds are much
less, just 7% of 7000 known species. (references) The rest are usually Hortodoxes, where
fibers don’t get damaged during the drying process so can be conserved for much longer
time.
The drying process for Ortodox seeds can happen without the use of machines, just laying
the material in a shady, ventilated and dry environment. Though in Banks like the Pisa one,
for less quantities and for a much more optimized process most of the Seed Banks use
dehydration rooms. Here germplasm can be left from 30 to 180 days depending on the
taxon, in a controlled environment, low humidity 10/15% and a constant temperature,
between 10 and 25 Degrees. Periodically water activity is checked, and when it matches the
expectations seeds are ready to be stored. Seeds are at the end of the process and can be
finally stored.18 The storing process is very simple, the material is collected and put inside
threelayerd aluminium envelopes, these are then vacuumed sealed with a zig-zag pattern to
prevent any possibility of air infiltration. The second container, where the enveloped seeds
are stored, is in transparent glass with a silicon gasket to keep it hermetic. On the aluminium
Agenzia per La Protezione Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 68-69.
16
Bacchetta, Gianluigi. “Reti Nazionali.” Manuale per La Raccolta, Studio, Conservazione e Gestione Ex Situ Del Germoplasma, APT -
Agenzia per La Protezione Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 71-72.
17
Bacchetta, Gianluigi. “Reti Nazionali.” Manuale per La Raccolta, Studio, Conservazione e Gestione Ex Situ Del Germoplasma, APT -
Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 75-77.
envelopes is finally stuck a white label where the identification code, that has followed the
material since the beginning, is finally printed, from now on the seeds are no more touched,
until there’ll be a need.
The methodology adopted by Pisa Seedbank is globally homogeneous, the conservation

chain from the collection to the packaging and then to the conservation, follows essentially
the same criteria and rules. This standardisation has been developed in recent times, since
the Rio conference in 1992, European and global awareness of biodiversity has increased
exponentially. In 2004, thanks to European funds, the European Native Seed Conservation
Network (ESCONET) was formed, a coordination network for the major European
SeedBanks, for an overall monitoring of European ex-situ conservation. The Millennium
Seed Bank (MSB), as a pioneer in this field, is coordinator of the Network and leader in
methodological and technical updates.19 The other European banks, which have developed
on this reference, have adopted techniques and criteria tested and developed by the MSB,
which is today the ex-situ bank with the most propagating material from 190 different
countries.20 The role of undisputed leader has allowed the MSB to build its own network,
forming a direct partnership with its headquarters, the MSB Partnership. It is in fact one of
the few, if not the only bank, that stores germplasm from other countries and not exclusively
from its own.
THE SHAPING NARRATIVE
The dimension where ex-situ conservation lies, is in between the relationship inside and
outside. This is the reason why, when we speak about SeedBanks, we must speak about
representation. The practical effort, but above all the conceptual one, lies in the method of
representation that is adopted to bring inside the genetic information collected outside, that
one day may no longer be available. A strong imaginative effort is required, how to
reconstruct the present in a possible future? Unfortunately, we are talking about a biological
process that cannot be transcribed for what it really is, but needs to be interpreted and
translated, necessarily making certain choices. As of today, the scenario does not seem very
sharp, it is not easy to perceive the actual value of this biological capital, dystopian
imagination effort needs to be made to grasp how influential this translation practice will be.
Botanists extract seeds or other propagating material from nature to conserve the genetic
biodiversity of specific plant species. Howereve, biodiversity is not comparable to a series of
boxed taxa, it is rather a complex network of species interacting through biological
processes. Extracting a piece of nature from nature implies certain assumptions, a species is
extracted from a particular place because it is thought that this will no longer be safe for it to
thrive. This dynamic defines a paradox, what is the value of a seed without the future habitat
to let it grow?
Species change according to the place and vice versa, evolutionary and selective dynamics
are preserved in-situ, species change their genetic heritage through their relationship with
the habitat. When humans extract the germplasm is a biological snapshot of a given
moment. Conserving implies several assumptions, selecting and influencing. To conserve I
have to make a choice, we cannot imagine preserving the whole spectrum of a certain
category, even less likely if the category in question is a biological process. Noah's ark is an
utopia, the act of selection is the tool that ferries the utopia into the dimension of reality.
Dell'ambiente e per i Servici Tecnici, Roma, 2006, pp. 41.
20 Liu, Udayangani, et al. “The Conservation Value of Germplasm Stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK.” Biodiversity and Conservation,
vol. 27, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1347–1386., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1497-y.
Unfortunately, human reality has very precise boundaries; selection, for any reason, is an act
of exclusion. We are only able to represent a portion of reality, the representation has
precise consequences, none is objective. Conserving flora biodiversity of a given place
points out a certain representation of nature. So which idea of nature are we conserving? As
we said biodiversity is a Network, it is multiplicity of relations and multiplicity of responses to
the proviouses. We might almost dare to call it a hyperobject21; its true network is still hidden
and cannot be reproduced. We’re able to conserve only an infinitesimal portion of what is
actually the complete system. The seed is a genetic photograph of a specific plant at a
specific moment in its evolution, that seed is a piece of what our idea of nature is today. It
crystallises in the Germplasm Banks and remains available to propose it again tomorrow.
Even if it may appear an extreme statement, it is an act of future influence. We do not rely on
a complex network concept to describe biodiversity, but on a mosaic/pyramidal system, each
piece being a species that goes to make up the landscape we know and call Nature today.
This ontological shift brings us back to the historical passage from the pagan beliefs to
Catholicism. Theodosius I, with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, defined the Nicene
creed, which considered the oneness of God and Jesus, as the unique religion of the state.
With this edict all pagan rites and beliefs related to non-human beings were condemned and
prosecuted by the Roman Empire.
What does the forest or the concept of nature have to do with it? The edict of Thessalonica
did not succeed in putting an end to pagan rites, the beliefs were so widespread and strong
that a real persecution had to be carried out over the years to eradicate them.
The word "eradicate" is not accidental, the pagan rites were closely linked to natural
elements, in particular trees and forests played a key role, the sacred groves were real
spontaneous sanctuaries. Evangelists, from all over the empire, were sent to convert the
pagans to Christianity, "and one of their first tasks was to prohibit the worship of trees and to
destroy the sacred groves. In 452, the Edict of Arles banned the worship of trees, fountains
and stones, and in 568, the Council of Nantes condemned all those who worshipped "in wild
places and hidden deep in the woods".22
Ingenious methods were adopted to physically eradicate these beliefs. One of the most
widely used methods was the direct felling of sacred trees, but perhaps the most fascinating
and fitting at this writing is that of occupation. The monks carried out a proper occupation of
land, founding monasteries in forests previously worshipped by pagans. The economic
exploitation and rational organisation of the forests proved to be an excellent way of erasing
beliefs linked to the savage that the forest carried within itself. 23
The eradication of these pagan beliefs through the material exploitation of the forest clearly
defines the different vision and relationship established with the "Wild" element.
The parasitic action of occupation changes forever the internal essence of sacred woods,
economic rationalisation and technical exploitation of wooden material drive away wild
animals and the internal ecosystem balances. The ingenious and devious action lies in
realising that the superficial aesthetic of the forest remains largely unchanged, but the
relationship with it is totally altered. Forest's inner essence is simplified to mere figurative
level, alienating the agency that pagan cultures had attributed to it. Forest was an element in
its own right, with its own internal autonomy; the fact that it was sacred did not make it
protected or to be protected, but rather untouchable precisely because it was nobody's "res
nullius".The pagan belief system took shape in the sacred woods, many gods found their
alter-eco(logical), plants become, or rather are, gods and the narrative of their mythological
21 Morton, Timothy. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
22 Brosse, Jacques. “Il Bosco Sacro e Le Anime Degli Alberi.” Mitologia Degli Alberi: Dal Giardino Dell'Eden Al Legno Della Croce, Rizzoli, Milano, 2010, pp. 226.
23 Brosse, Jacques. “Il Bosco Sacro e Le Anime Degli Alberi.” Mitologia Degli Alberi: Dal Giardino Dell'Eden Al Legno Della Croce, Rizzoli, Milano, 2010, pp. 225-228.
interaction is the mystical mirror of nowadays bio-chemical exchange of a given ecosystem.
This network of beliefs establishes a relationship of profound subjectivity between the human
and the forest, the relational tone is multifaceted between human and non-human, with the
right balance of respect, fear and wonder.
There are no subjects in this multifaceted narrative, plurality confuses every feeling, nothing
is still and schematic, everything moves, death becomes entangled with life, right is not
present and neither is wrong, there are no rules but myths. In this stupendous scenography,
human is one of the actors, one of the many species, the Forest is autonomous, the absence
of a subject, or the presence of multiple ones, guarantees its agency. Nature proposes itself
as “res-nullius”24, of everyone and of none, it is complex and never static, it has an essence
that you cannot define, it is a loop of connections in which as a human you are closely
involved, you cannot design its shape from within.
The Nicene and monotheistic creed cancels out the 'archaic' animism, cancels out the
multiplicity, establishes itself within it and capitalises on its essence. From the moment of
occupation it loses its autonomy, not only because it is exploited as a source of raw material
and therefore of income, but above all because from that moment on, the agency of being of
all and of none no longer exists, now the subject is unique, there is a unique divine property
and therefore nature must be protected. Two Dante’s forests may be aesthetically
interchanged to an unobservant eye, but even before the exploitation, even before the eco-
systemic loss, there is the 'essence' loss of the Forest, which is the trigger for the rest of the
sensible changes.
This is the place they have left us, the Dark Forest aims to be illuminated, but actually we do
not know what the Dark Forest is, whether it can still exist or whether it ever existed. In the
contemporary, this historical legacy has remained, Western ontology still bears traces of
ownership and removal of multiplicity. The ecological movements themselves bear an
ambiguous relationship to the concept of Nature. In spite of the egalitarian doctrine between
humans and other species, the real attitude is salvific, the human destroying nature but also
saving it, the detachment is therefore evident. We cannot think of doing ecology based on
the ontological assumption that humans have superior faculties to other species, this is an
assumption for non-communication or sterile communication.
ABOUT A NATURE THAT DOESN’T EXIST.
There are three main definitions of Nature. The first is nature as the essence of something,
the fundamental characteristic that distinguishes one specific element from another by
reference to its first origin. The second reference is nature as the whole sensible spectrum,
anything having to do with the physical world, the opposite of this concept being, not
surprisingly, the supernatural. Finally there is nature in contrast to artifice, the activity of
human transformation and influence as opposed to natural activity that takes place and is
consumed without human intervention. This last point in turn also includes the dichotomy of
urban environment and natural environment. 25
All three definitions intertwine and contradict each other. The real crux is again, where to
place the human element and its activity within the natural discourse. There are two main
ways where humans can place themselves. Human outside nature provides for the
24 Chiaramonte, Xenia. “Fare La Natura Con Le Parole Del Diritto. Note Su ‘L'istituzione Della Natura’ Di Y. Thomas e J. Chiffoleau • Le Parole e Le Cose 10 ᴬᴺᴺᴵ.” Le Parole e
Le Cose 10 ᴬᴺᴺᴵ, 1 Aug. 2020, https://www.leparoleelecose.it/?p=38991.
25 Casetta, Elena. “Making Sense of Nature Conservation after the End of Nature.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, vol. 42, no. 2, 2020, pp. 2-3.,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-00312-3.
natural/artificial dichotomy, where there is the human or its influence, nature disappears and
artifice appears in its place. We could therefore predict that in the era of the Anthropocene
everything is now human artifice, as are biological and ecosystem activities, altering the
climate and the progressive warming of the earth, the whole globe is affected. The ocean,
which absorbs 30% of the CO2 in atmosphere and thus acidifies, has become an artefact.
The same applies to forests, which are unstoppable climate transcribers, and traces of
radiation can be read in samples taken from trees. The logic behind this view is even more
problematic: the human being is external to nature because he is beyond it, he is both an
untore (plaguespreader) of artificiality and a possible saviour at the same time.
So categorical expulsion of humans out of nature is still an action that transcends the
human. This logic is not ecological but still Cartesian: nature remains in the human domain,
studied and altered through its laws.26
If, on the other hand, the human falls under the conception of "One species among others",
and not above those, then our anthropocentric actions are finally justified, the preservation
and protection of fateful nature no longer has any value of meaning, if not aesthetic and
satisfying for us. This view can easily become fodder for deniers, but in reality, if analysed
more carefully, it conceals very useful information. Considering human beings as one
species among others, it gives us the faculty and intrinsic need to interact with the
environment, modifying it together with other inhabitants of the planet according to their
evolutionary modalities. Humans are part of the intricate network of ecosystem exchanges,
they are extremely numerous and influential, there is no place on earth that they have not
stained directly or indirectly. When I use the term stained, I am referring to the actual
disturbance that many human activities consciously or unconsciously create against other
species.
These disturbing actions must still be considered natural, despite the fact that they go in the
opposite direction to our ecological conception. This conception is not intended to justify the
actions taken; certainly the dynamics have to change, but the assumption cannot be that
they are unnatural or artificial actions. If we continue in this imaginative direction, then we
will once again find ourselves elevating the human to a superior level, granting him magical
powers, turning nature into artifice and artifice into new nature. Everything that humans do is
natural, demonstrating that nature is not, is not and will not be as we imagine it. Nature
transforms, it will not always be as hospitable and luxuriant as we imagine to be, not least
because it never was.
NARRATOR’S AWARNESS.
Unfortunately, we must realise that our planet is not a priori suitable for any species, each
species adapts to the scarcity of resources through the continuous transformation and
exchange of the product of those resources.
As Donna Haraway said, “there is no garden and never has been”.
It should suggest how the concept of nature is filtered through a hermeneutic process, it is
just a redundant signifier with myriad meanings. Nature conservation is therefore an
extremely problematic concept, as the word nature is a cultural product.
The very criteria of scientific evaluation are the result of ontological naturalism, on which
Western culture has its roots. A concept that perpetuates the dualism between a unique
physicality, nature governed by mechanistic laws, studied and controlled through the
scientific method, and a discontinuity of the spirit, considered as culture that distinguishes
26 Descola, Philippe, et al. “Le Certezze Del Naturalismo.” Beyond Nature and Culture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2014, pp. 202–203.
human interiority from that of non-humans for example.27 The natural sciences arise from
this ontological approach, the ex-situ conservation process is not a neutral observation but a
social practice, the elements it describes are artefacts filtered through a working method and
a specific place, the laboratory.28
It is interesting how, once you are aware that there’s no nature to preserve, but just a
narration of it, you understand that everything depends on how we decide to describe and so
represent it. Trying to hide this medium is effortless, we should look at it clearly, embrace it
as our way through which we give sense of the world we live in.
"It is not scientific ideas that have caused the change in the idea of Nature. It is the change
in the idea of Nature that has enabled these discoveries." Merleau-Ponty.
We cannot afford to fight for an idea of nature disguised as ecology.
27 Brigati, Roberto, et al. “Modi Di Essere e Forme Di Dipendenza.” Metamorfosi: La Svolta Ontologica in Antropologia, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2019, pp. 97–102.
28 Thompson, Allen. “Steven Vogel. Thinking like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature.” Environmental Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 2, 2016, pp. 29–31.,
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil201613244.
“Bioplastics ≠ being ecological?”
Moe Asari
Introduction
"In an environment that is screwed up visually, physically and chemically, the best and simplest
thing that architects, industrial designers, planners etc. could do for humanity would be to stop
working entirely. In all pollution designers are implicated at least partially. But in this book I take a
more affirmative view: it seems to me that we can go beyond not working at all, and work
positively. Design can and must become a way in which young people can participate in changing
society.
As socially and morally involved designers, we must address ourselves to the needs of a world
with its back to the wall, while the hands on the clock point perpetually to one minute before
twelve." 1
This dramatic quote from Victor Papanek in his book Design for the Real World was haunting and
traumatic for someone who was studying design. It is the mixture between, being told that the job
of an architect, industrial designer, planner etc was more harmful than good, that it should be
stopped completely yet the alternative path was having one minute left to change society, that led
to being paralyzed as a designer. Despite knowing that this satirical strategy of exaggerating is
the way that Papanek provokes, it still raises questions to how designers are supposed to
navigate within design. Amelie Klein’s article on “Design for the Real World” comments on the
urgencies faced with designers at present, “yet another table, another chair, another soap dish for
a Swedish furniture store - for many designers this is not any longer a worthwhile career
opportunity in times of refugee crises and millions of tons of plastic waste in the oceans.”2
However she implies that this continuous mantra of “Design can and must become a way in
which young people can participate in changing society”3 can lead to naive enthusiasm and a
certain savior complex. Klein refers to the organization Ocean Clean up which set out to more or
less single handedly salvage the plastic in the oceans. This project is fronted by the then 24 year
old Boyan Slat who crowdfunded 2.2 million dollars to prototype the clean up system. Despite the
doubts expressed by oceanographers and biologist the project continues with Slat confident that
the oceans could be free of plastic waste.4 Her comment “If it were only that easy to save the
world”5 highlights the expectations of a designer that this book creates leads to solutionist
conclusions.
(So if I’m not supposed to design another table, another chair or another soap dish and there is a
refugee crisis and millions of tons of plastic waste in the ocean but know that savior complex is
not the solution, what am I supposed to do as a designer?)
A particular direction that the design industry is enthusiastic about is imitation materials to mimic
and replace existing materials which are seen as detrimental to the planet. This seems to be the
newest solutionist topic for designers to tackle and has the reoccurring theme of “trying to save
the world”.
Methodology
As a reaction to this, in this thesis I will explore the narrative approach of Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier
bag theory of fiction in the context of design. This theory is based on an anthropologist, Elizabeth
Fisher’s Carrier Bag Theory of human evolution. Fisher’s theory was that the first tool or cultural
device was not a knife or spear but containers used to carry food from where it was found to
5
home. Le Guin uses this anthropological insight to discuss the narrative of “linear, progressive,
Time’s-(killing)-arrow mode of the Techno-Heroic” versus “life stories” present in “myths of
creation and transformation, trickster stories, folktales, jokes, novels”.6 Although Le Guin’s theory
is based on her practice of writing science fiction, it is relevant to today as the anthropocentric
narratives which have been created about conquest or “techno-heroic” solutions are no longer the
narratives that need to be told, but the bigger picture, the “life stories” which have neither a
beginning nor ending are what is needed now.
I intend on using “bioplastic” as a subject to understand how the techno heroic and carrier bag
narratives can design the perspective people have with ecology. This is due to the awakening to
how the materiality of the capitalocene manifests physically in forms such as plastic. The quality
of plasticity has traced and moulded the overconsumption of humankind through giving form to
desire and shaping the landscapes with waste. It is easy to lay blame simply on a material that
directly has an impact on the ecology, just as easy as facing this as something to fix by finding a
solution for this problematic material.
My first case study aims to analyze the current narratives surrounding bioplastics. Looking into
the history of the narratives of plastic and plasticity starting with Roland Barthes essay on
“Plastic” in his book “Mythologies”. It was published in 1957, Barthes formulates myths to
uncover some of the narratives used to disguise a barer reality. In “Plastic” in particular, he starts
with the birth of the material and talks both about the celebration and the condemnation of this
imitation material. The relevance of this essay lies with the time in which it was written by
comparing the myth of plastics that existed when it became commercially popular to the myth of
bioplastics today. Through this thesis I intend on using the format of mythologies to read into the
quality of plasticity in relation to how it is used to shape people’s perspective on ecology. I will
also use Le Guin’s Carrier Bag theory to explore the existing techno heroic narratives.
My second case study is of a dutch material company Vibers and their bioplastic. I will analyze
the narrative that is created by the company as a marketing strategy and take a similar critical
approach to Barthes’ mythologies to probe the myth of their bioplastic. I aim to present an
example of an alternative narrative to the existing and portray the Carrier Bag theory with a carrier
bag narrative.
The research question is to explore how Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier Bag narrative can be used in
design to question the popularized existing techno heroic narratives of bioplastics and by doing
so can change people’s perspective on being ecological?
Case study 1: Bioplastics past/current narratives
The essay “Plastic” by Barthes was written in the mid-1950s, when the petroleum, chemical and
manufacturing industries promoted that plastic was the signature material of modernity as
remarkably versatile, durable and a "miraculous" substance. It was a pivotal point in the history of
imitation materials as imitation materials always belonged in the world of appearances and had a
pretension about them. Plastic however is a household material, it is the first time artifice aims to
be something common not rare. This reflects upon what the plastic is imitating, in this case
nature, plastic leaves behind the idea of imitating nature and is able to determine the very
invention of forms. Barthes implies that this quality of plasticity allows for God like abilities of
moulding. This is the myth, as what it is actually leading to was the "plasticization" of nature and
of minds. He saw the material was physically taking over through replacing other materials as well
as imply that there will be ideological conformity as the material quality of plasticity allowed wide
spread uniformity. 7
The evolution of plastic is driven from where Barthes left his myth of plastic, “ Plastic is wholly
swallowed up in the fact of being used: ultimately, objects will be invented for the sole pleasure of
using them. The hierarchy of substances is abolished: a single one replaces them all: the whole
7Roland Barthes and Annette Lavers, Mythologies, Vintage Classics, 14th print (London: Vintage,
Random House, 2000).
world can be plasticized, and even life itself since, we are told, they are beginning to make plastic
aortas.”8 Plastic now, not only permeates the body through aortas but as micro plastics with
environmental scientists calculating in a worst case scenario that people maybe ingesting around
the mass of a credit card’s worth of micro plastic a year due to the uncontrollable amount of
plastic waste.9 “The essence of an object has something to do with the way it turns into trash.”10
Only when plastic was seen out of its designed context, thrown out, absolved from its function,
did the reality of “thingness” and “unwantedness" hit. This thing which no longer fits into the
users daily life has no where to go. Ironically at the same time, the petrochemicals used within
plastics are created from fossil fuels which since then has been realized to be a limited resource.
Reacting to these signals, the evolution of imitation materials turns to deal with the way that this
plasticity turns to trash and limited fossil fuels in the form of bioplastics.
Plastic coming from the Latin word plasticus and the Greek word plastikos was coined in the early
1600s as a word long before the first plastic as a term referring to a quality of being able to be
moulded or shaped easily.11 The first plastic to be made was to replace ivory “with the elephant
population at risk and ivory expensive and scarce, a billiards company in New York City offered a
$10,000 reward to anyone who could come up with an alternative.”12 “In 1861 the British inventor
Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine, a plastic made from a liquid solution of nitrocellulose in
wood naphtha, and in 1867 Parkes’s coworker Daniel Spill produced Xylonite, a mixture of
nitrocellulose, camphor, and castor oil." Then in the late 1860s John W.Hyatt produced “celluloid”,
a mixture of solid cellulose nitrate and camphor, the first commercially successful plastic in the
US. 13 Interestingly Celluloid was marketed to put a stop “to ransack the Earth in pursuit of
substances which are constantly growing scarcer.”14This development of plastic made from
cellulose, a polymer found in plants changed to synthetic plastics when Bakelite was invented by
Leo Hendrik Baekeland with phenol and formaldehyde.15 It had the potential to be moulded into
infinite shapes and was lightweight and durable, “consumers primarily were attracted to its
9
11‘Where the Word “Plastic” Came From’, Today I Found Out, 2010 <https://
www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/09/where-the-word-plastic-came-from/> [accessed 28
April 2020]
September 2021]
13‘Major Industrial Polymers - Cellulose Nitrate | Britannica’ <https://www.britannica.com/topic/

industrial-polymers-468698/Cellulose-nitrate#ref608726> [accessed 25 September 2021]
14 @NatGeoUK, ‘We Made Plastic. We Depend on It. Now We’re Drowning in It.’, National
Geographic, 2018 <https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/2018/05/we-made-plastic-we-depend-
it-now-were-drowning-it> [accessed 25 September 2021]
September 2021]
aesthetic qualities: a sleek, stylish look coupled with a substantial, high-end feel.”16 The market
opened up through this material, it made it possible for consumers on a lower price range to
purchase goods that weren’t available to them before, it “helped change billiards from solely an
aristocratic pastime to one that working people play in bars.”17
Looking at the contemporary history of plastic, the development of biodegradable plastics began
at the same time and is not a new invention with its history running alongside on another parallel
timeline. As referred in the timeline above, Parksine was the first commercial biodegradable
plastic made from cellulose and in 1897, Galalith, a biodegradable plastic was invented with
casein from milk. Commercially it was not a breakthrough as it could not be moulded. It also
faced problems as milk was scarce and energy was put into oil based plastics during WW1. In
1926 Maurice Lemoigne developed polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from bacterium Bacillus
megaterium which was the first biodegradable plastic made from bacteria. In the 1930s Henry
Ford used soy plastics for parts of the bodies of cars but this would cease after WW2 there was
an abundance of cheap oil supply. From 1950s to the 60s W.R. Grace evaluates if PHA and PHB
created by microbes and bacteria could be produced on a commercial scale. Although patents
were applied, interest was lost due to cheap oil. In 1973, there was an embargo of Arab oil
producing countries supporting Palestine causing an oil and energy crisis. This became a push for
the development of plastic that wasn’t reliant on oil. In 1979 the Iranian Revolution and Iran Iraq
war oil prices rose, leading to huge debt and deficits in Western democracies. This causes
overproduction and oversupply of oil in the 1980s which slowed down the search for alternative
plastics. In 1983, the first biopolymer company called Marlborough Biopolymers was created in
the UK with Imperial Chemical Industries and local venture capital firm, Marlborough Teeside
Management. The plastic was produced by a bacteria called Biopol that was processed into
strips, chips, panels and powders. In 1990, Novamont a biodegradable plastics company was
established and became the industry leader. In 1996, Monsanto purchase the Biopol business
from Zeneca to explore using plant to produce biodegradable plastics instead of bacteria.
Leading to Cargill and Dow chemicals exploring the potential for biodegradable plastics from corn
in 2001. Rebranded to NatureWorks, it is the leading PLA producer. In 2010, Algopack become
the first to use seaweed as biomass. The plastic biodegrades within 12 weeks in the soil and 5
hours in the water. In 2018, Neste starts to industrially produce bio-polypropylene for IKEA,
polypropylene is the second most used plastics after polyethylene and by replacing fossil based
polypropylene could push to become a major player. 18
As seen throughout history the relationship between these synthetic and biodegradable plastics is
closely knit with the fluctuating market of oil. In the 1930s America, the chemurgy movement, a
branch of applied chemistry that was preparing industrial products from agricultural raw materials
was fueled by the industry and government to try to reduce dependence from foreign sources of
industrial raw materials and revive the agricultural economy. This movement is a precursor to what
can be seen with emerging “bio” materials at present, as engineering of new uses for plants and
setting up a cultivation based economy was a vision that chemurgy had. Holly Jean Buck, a
geographer and environmental social scientist makes an observation in her book commenting,
“But the first version of chemurgy, the eccentric path-not-taken, is worth keeping in mind as
proposals for expansion of the bioeconomy, as well as the Green New Deal, are floated in
16August 8, Published on, 2012 Article updated on October 29, and 2018, ‘Bakelite: The Plastic
That Made History’, Plastics Make It Possible, 2012 <https://www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/
whats-new-cool/fashion/styles-trends/bakelite-the-plastic-that-made-history/> [accessed 25
September 2021]
17 @NatGeoUK, ‘We Made Plastic. We Depend on It. Now We’re Drowning in It.’, National
Geographic, 2018 <https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/2018/05/we-made-plastic-we-depend-
it-now-were-drowning-it> [accessed 25 September 2021]
18‘The History of Bioplastics – Bioplastics News’ <https://bioplasticsnews.com/2018/07/05/

history-of-bioplastics/> [accessed 1 October 2021].
response to climate crisis. The failure of chemurgy showcases the challenge of mounting a
technologically rooted response to complex social problems.”19
How plastic was used to solve every problem, bioplastics has the same destined techno heroic
role. Using #worldwithoutwaste, campaigns are formed on social media with brand Coca-Cola
promoting their newest plant based plastic, Instagram posts of Phade, a bioplastic straw
company quote “Nearly HALF of all waste in the oceans is made of plastic.14% plastic bags,
12% plastic bottles, 9% plastic food containers and cutlery, 9% wrappers. That 44% equates to
more than 8 million metric tons of plastic waste entering our oceans every year.”20 Whilst
advertising, “It’s clear plastic is one of the biggest perps polluting our oceans - some 8.8 million
metric tons of it every year to be exact. Now with bioplastics like phade’s PHA at the world’s
disposal (eco-friendly disposal, we might add), we’re leading the charge in making marine
biodegradable products to help solve the problem. ”21 and the front page of the website for Green
Dot Bioplastics reads “A better bioplastic for a better world. Plastic is a revolutionary material that
has changed our world since it was first discovered in the early 1900s. Now we’re bettering it by
making resin that is more sustainable, compostable, and eco-friendly. Together, we can lessen the
environmental impact of products we love and use every day.”22 All these life style choices are
imbued in this material and in these materials are the hopes and dreams of the designer of being
ecological.
“But is this hoping for a new way to see or be really ecological, or is it just a retweet of the
agricultural-age monotheism that has got us to this stage in the first place? And if agriculture is in
part responsible for global warming and mass extinction (which it is), wouldn't it be better not to
use a monotheist reference frame or monotheist language? Wouldn't it be better to stop with the
sermonizing, the shaming and the guilt that are part of the parcel of the theistic approach to life
that arose in the agricultural age?”23 As Tim Morton, philosopher and author of “Being Ecological”
mentions a certain language packed with fact inducing guilt used for the bioplastics builds the
techno heroic narrative. The way that the agricultural-age monotheism frames peoples
relationship with ecology, creates separation with the sermonizing and shaming as part of the
narrative. Looking at how the narrative hasn’t changed and the need to narrate in an alternate
way, leads to Haraway commenting on Le Guin’s narrative theory "It matters what stories we tell
to tell other stories with; it matters what concepts we think to think other concepts with. It matters
wherehow ouroboros swallows its tale, again.”24 Writer Siobhan Lebby also comments, “We will
not “beat” climate change, nor is “nature” our adversary. If the planet could be considered a
container for all life, in which everything — plants, animals, humans — are all held together, then
to attempt domination becomes a self-defeating act. By letting ourselves “become part of the
killer story,” writes Le Guin, “we may get finished along with it.” All of which is to say: we have to
abandon the old story.”25
Case study 2: Bioplastics possible narratives
As established previously, to leave the dominating techno heroic narrative leads to seek the carrier
bag narratives. Vibers, a dutch company that produces bioplastics, concrete, paper and
cardboard presents such a narrative with their biodegradable plastic. The material began being
made from the elephant grass (Miscanthus) that grows around Schipol Airport which is to deter
the geese from the airfield. Elephant grass keeps the geese away as they can't land on it or eat it.
It is harvested annually for regrowth which then is seen as surplus and turned into bioplastics.
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Vibers markets this story as using a crop with high carbon absorption rate that grows in marginal
lands to show that they are an “ecological” company.26 However this sign being put out to be read
as ecological is the myth itself, as what makes this material ecological is the way in which that it
becomes a window into the ecosystem between the geese and the humans in this particular site
and gives a glimpse into the wider context of how humans fit into the ecosystem through being
narrated by the bioplastic. In this instance, the complex ecosystem of behaviors, migratory
pattern, eating habits of the geese intermingle with the adaptability, carbon absorption and fast
growing elements of the elephant grass alongside human global travel, waste management and
material development. This leads to the possibility of viewing this bioplastics as a narrative tool, a
“carrier bag” that holds together the story of the relationship between humans, elephant grass
and geese within this certain piece of land.
What can these carrier bag narratives do and why are they necessary in this moment in time?
Haraway describes what the Carrier bag narrative was to Le Guin and how it was instrumental to
create alternative narratives to those who seek to and that could empower those and generate
connectivity. For Haraway, she wants to steer away from the typically techno heroic nature of sf
stories but at the same time the stories that need to be told are not some sort of detached utopia
but the “strange realism - the serious fiction” that will make us “more able to discern and tell what
is happening and how it can still be different.” The narrative of the Vibers bioplastic does in this
sense provide the collection of stories, involving a broad and complex picture of co-existance.
Rather than the simplified narrative of “weaponize sciences and technologies” it guides us to look
beyond what is usually told and face the multiplicity that actually exist. It “mutes” those techno
heroic narratives by presenting at least part of the complexity of our world(s), and “strengthen(s)
the people who make and use them”.27
Morton in his book “Being Ecological” point to the reader of an embodied awareness of lived
ecology instead of intellectual or a factual understanding. The Vibers bioplastic narrative marketed
on their website points to the fact that elephant grass is fast growing, doesn’t need much water
and absorbs four times more CO2 than a European forest, is a typical techno heroic fact giving
message that spotlights one particular part of the process which leaves the individual wondering
how this fact can be quantified in a way that can be related to.28 When thinking about the carrier
bag narrative of the bioplastic, it makes one think of Schipol airport, that the airplanes fly safely
without the geese getting caught up in the airfields, the elephant grass being a signal from the
humans to the geese that it isn’t the best place to nest and the humans taking up this specific
space in order to be able to travel. This story is unresolved and ongoing and the actors don’t
necessarily realize that they are also in one of the carrier bags.
Lebby recognizes the carrier bag narrative, as a way to highlight the network of communities,
human, non-human and “more-than-human”. By holding the many actors, many moments in time,
the carrier bag narrative allows to go beyond the usual ways of describing climate change,
allowing us to “collapse nature as a category, recognizing we’re already a part of it.” 29 As it allows
to see beyond the human, it becomes vital in understanding the vastness of the ecosystems and
where one is situated within it. This leads to Haraway’s teachings of making kin and kinship
between humans and “more-than-human beings”. Asked what kinship meant to her, Haraway
replies, “To be kind is to be kin, but kin is not kind. Kin is often quite the opposite of kind. It’s not
necessarily to be biologically related but in some consequential way to belong in the same
category with each other in such a way that has consequences.”30 The carrier bag is seen as a
container to hold things that bear meanings but also “enable relationships”, this idea of holding is
a particularly powerful relation when thinking about care and connection that Haraway writes
about “making kin”. Furthermore when placed in a carrier bag narrative, this allows us to see in a
26
27
28
29
30
broader more-than-human world, where “kin networks can be full of attachment sites”31 which
can help contextualise humans with their connections within the eco system, and recognize what
it means to be ecological.
In this sense Morton reminds us that it is quite as simple as “you are already a symbiotic being
entangled with other symbiotic beings”.32 His definition of being ecological, to coexist nonviolently
with nonhuman beings is something that can be done at ease as it is already happening. It is
"realizing that there are lots of different temporality formats is basically what ecological awareness
is. It's equivalent to acknowledging in a deep way the existence of beings that aren't you, with
whom you coexist. Once you've done that, you can't un-acknowledge it. There's no going
back.”33
Conclusion
Through comparing Morton’s theory about being ecological and how the past and existing
narratives built on being ecological is portrayed in bioplastic, highlighted how techno heroic
narratives created relationships which focused on conquering or saving. This relationship
produces a hierarchy and divide whilst perpetuating the problem solving approach in design.
Exploring Le Guin’s carrier bag narrative opened up possible narratives for being ecological
which could enable a sense of co-existence through the complex network of ecology that we are
a part of. These changes in perceptions and alternative to this dominant narrative of being
ecological contributes to Haraway’s teaching of making kin between humans and “more-than-
human beings” which is fundamental to what it means to be ecological.
Reflecting back to a part of the first quote from Papanek, “design can and must become a way in
which young people can participate in changing society.”34 This statement no longer causes
dread and raises questions such as the entitled view of a designer, the generalized assumption
that it is society that needs to change as a subject through design and the dominant narratives
moulding design.
The Word For World is Forest is a story written by Le Guin, of a planet which is densely forested,
inhabited by the Athsheans. The Athsheans are peaceful, live in harmony with their environment
and know not of violent acts of murder or rape. However these rich supplies in wood attract a
colony of visiting humans who name it “New Tahiti” and start an industrialized logging operation.
This leads to a deadly confrontation and the Athsheans have to turn to violence to protect their
planet. This story has been compared to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, as both follow a
similar storyline of colonization however how the story ends clearly sets them apart as techno
heroic and carrier bag. In Avatar, the Na’vi are the native species of the planet and manage to
fight and kill off all the invading humans whereas in The Word For World is Forest as soon as there
was a deal made to stop the invading colony the killing stopped, even when one of the main
oppressors was at their mercy, the Athsheans left him to a barren island and were traumatized by
the fact that they now know of murder. Le Guin commented that in Avatar mass violence was
seen as the solution which was the reverse of the moral premise of The Word For World is Forest.
What this comparison illustrates is the essence of the difference between the techno heroic and
the carrier bag narrative. Although it is hard to estimate what effect it would have if all bioplastics
were to have a carrier bag narrative and how people would react to it, the techno heroic narrative
is at its limits. Simplifying the complexities of living on this planet would flatten the narratives and
create divides between the actors for the sake of narrative. The carrier bag narratives is the
narrative that can face the dominant narratives of design opening up to what people actually do
and feel, relate to others and leaves room for the unending story.
31
32
33
34
04.12.2021
Sebastian Q L
Geo-Design (Class of 2022)
Thesis Draft: Land/Sea Threshold
Research Question:
Considering that the typology of infrastructures populating the ocean is born of the
superimposition of a terrestrial formula onto ocean space, can the practice of Ship Husbandry
develop a cooperative sensitivity that acknowledges its interdependent role within the land/sea
threshold?
Text:
- INTRO: explaining the context, characters {incl. the ‘typology of infrastructures,’ the
human(s), ocean space, Ship Husbandry (as a practice), land/sea threshold, Razzle
Dazzle}, and maybe the research question.
Unlike terrestrial space, the ocean—or ocean space—changes at a rate that is so quick we
understand it to be fluid. Obviously water is a liquid and thus fluid, but fluidity takes on a more
complex role here; fluidity is the inability to be fixed. Terrestrial space is easily transformed into
territory because its topology is relatively stable. Terrestrial space becomes territory when
fixed-points that are defined within the topology can be triangulated—thus defining the space as
something relative to those fixed points of reference. The ‘fixed point of reference’ is an artifact
that is virtually non-existent in ocean space making it difficult to define, which in turn makes it
difficult to transform into territory. A clear example of this is seen in the practice of cartography
in which the points of reference that allow for the defining of territories in terrestrial space exist
within terrestrial space itself—think of a river or a mountain—whilst in the case of nautical
cartography, the points of reference are celestial bodies, such as stars and planets, found far
beyond the Earth’s surface.
A human understands the ocean as a space in which they are the only agent present, until on the
horizon they see another human—then there’d be two. Regardless of the exploitations we
humans are executing below the surface and the pollutants we visibly expel above the surface of
the water, our approach to the ocean is a two-dimensional one where the only agents present are
humans with varying interests. The surface of the ocean is our plane of understanding and the
various agents that move across it or sit within it are derivative of humans—whether they be
commercial freighters, cruise liners, oil tankers, offshore drilling rigs, wind farms, etc. All other
elements are still of concern, but only insofar as they affect the aforementioned infrastructures.
The oceanic flora and fauna, their migration, the water, the air, the waves, and currents, all of
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The chutney lyrics: A
collection of comic pieces in verse on Indian subjects
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The chutney lyrics: A collection of comic pieces in verse on

Indian subjects
Author: Robert C. Caldwell
Release date: July 29, 2022 [eBook #68640]
Language: English
Original publication: India: Higginbotham and Co, 1889
Credits: Al Haines
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

CHUTNEY LYRICS: A COLLECTION OF COMIC PIECES IN VERSE
ON INDIAN SUBJECTS ***
"I'LL SMASH THE HEAD OF THAT GOOSE JENKINS, OF THE
REVENUE SURVEY."
THE
CHUTNEY LYRICS
A
COLLECTION
OF
COMIC PIECES IN VERSE,
ON
INDIAN SUBJECTS.
SECOND EDITION (REPRINT.)
Madras:
HIGGINBOTHAM AND CO.,
By appointment in India to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
1889.
MADRAS:
PRINTED BY HIGGINBOTHAM AND CO.,
1/164, 2/164 & 165, MOUNT ROAD.
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
Mr. R. C. Caldwell, the lamented author of these humourous papers, was

the eldest son of Dr. Caldwell, the great Missionary Bishop of Tinnevelly.
He was originally intended for the Ministry, and went through a course of
Theological study at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. After passing out
of College, he returned to India and worked zealously and assiduously in the
Mission field in Trichinopoly and Tanjore. For some reasons, perhaps known
to himself alone, Mr. Caldwell did not take Orders but elected to become a
journalist as being more congenial to his tastes. Mr. Caldwell was known in
England as a frequent contributor to the English Journals,—the London
Daily News, the Athenæum, the Contemporary Review, the Illustrated
London News and even Punch. Some Ballads and Songs he had then written
were set to music by one of the most popular composers of the day and
produced on the stage. His "Chutney Lyrics"—some twelve of which were
originally contributed to the Madras Athenæum and Daily News,—first
prominently brought him to notice in India. On leaving the Mission Mr.
Caldwell took up for a short time the co-editorship of the Madras Times and
then transferred his services to the Athenæum and Daily News of which he
was for a short period sole editor. He conducted the latter journal most
successfully, but the general complaint against him was too much
personality in his writings. His weekly "Chit Chat" gave offence to not a
few, though all willingly conceded that these papers afforded much
amusement and effected considerable good in exposing many of the evils
that then existed in Madras. Mr. Caldwell was subsequently employed by the
Newspaper press of the Bombay and Bengal Presidencies and by the wit and
humour of his writings gained extensive popularity. He died in harness in
April or May 1878.
We reproduce "Chutney Lyrics" with the eight other comic pieces

published in 1871 as their popularity has not diminished and they are
frequently enquired for. We trust that this present edition will meet with a
renewal of the favor so readily accorded to the previous edition.
H. & CO.
October, 1889.
PREFACE.
My Book, adieu!
Good luck to you!
Sail forth. May you be fated
Unscath'd to ride
O'er every tide,—
With merry ditties freighted.
May fav'ring gales
Swell out your sails,
And bear you on your mission
To reach at last—
All dangers past—
Your port—a New Edition!
O mighty Mail
Lay by your flail,
That all Madras quakes under!
O Times, do thou
Unbend thy brow,
And lay aside thy thunder!
My lightsome rhymes
In thee, oftimes,
Have sunn'd them, Athenæum:
What thou hast nurst—
Shall they be curst?
Thy children—shalt thou d— 'em?
In legends old
Hath oft been told
How Mariner benighted
Ne'er pray'd in vain
To those bright, Twain
By whom all waves are lighted:
And thus to ye
O awful Three
Prefer I my petition!
My bark protect!
Its course direct
Safe—to a New Edition!
O Brama-Times
Receive these rhymes,
Sedate and ancient Being!
O Siva-Mail
Thy foes grow pale
Thy blood-red pen-spear seeing!
O stern yet sweet,
I kiss thy feet—
Great Vishnu-Athenæum!
South Indian Three
O bless ye me
Who sing you this Te Deum!
CONTENTS.
Sir R-ch-rd T-mpl-'s Ghost

The Jollipore Ball
Captain Brown of the Police
The Catastrophe
The Poet's Mistake
The Griffin's Love-Song
The Wonderful Discovery
Dr. Little's Grand Antidote for Snake-bites
The Good Sir Gammon Row
Miss Mantrap
Hindoo Maxims
Pat O'Brien to his brother Mike
The Engineer's Love-Song
Banghy Parcels
The death of the Rev. Melchizedec Jones
Urgent Private Affairs
The old Buffer's Advice
My Whiskers
Mr. Chutney's Confession
A specimen of an Indian "Poetical Puff"
CHUTNEY LYRICS.
Sir R-ch-rd T-mpl-'s Ghost.
It was midnight dark and dreary;

I was sitting lone and weary,
And, on public projects brooding, my poor head was aching sore:
When into my chamber striding
Came a sable stranger gliding,
Then, without pretence at hiding, squatted on the matted floor,
Squatted calmly on the floor,
Squatted; grinned,—and nothing more.
Starting up, I eyed the native

With an aspect legislative,
Saying sternly, "Off thou caitiff! know'st thou ME, vile
blackamoor?"
But the intruder, nought replying,
Nought asserting, nought denying,
Silent sat, my motions eyeing, chewing betel as before;
Squatting on the matted floor,
Chewing, grinning,—nothing more!
"Wretch!" I cried, with wrath rampageous,

"This your conduct's quite outrageous.
Get thee gone, or I will thump thee, thou audacious blackamoor!"
But the stranger, nothing caring,
With his daring ghostly bearing,
With his grinning, and his staring, madden'd me still more and more,
Squatting on the matted floor,
Chewing betel,—nothing more.
Now there rose in me a terror,

Thought I, "Are my eyes in error?
It is surely some black phantom come from Dreamland's shadowy
shore;
'Tis a Ghoul, or Shape of evil,
Lemure, Spectre, Imp, or Devil,
Wont to hold fantastic revel in the brain's distracted core:
Nothing squats upon that floor,
'Tis my fancy,—nothing more!"
Turning then, the Shape unheeding,

Straight I sat me down to reading,
Reading Balance Sheets, whereover 'twas my duty then to pore:
But:—'twas strange—methought the figures
Took to dancing sudden jiggers,
Like a troupe of dancing niggers, whirling, twirling, more and more;
While the phantom from the floor
Rose and watched them,—nothing more.
"Bogie!" said I, "You're right gracious!

Will you think me too audacious
If I ask you what your name is, since we've never met before?
Do you hail from hell or heaven?
Do you know a certain raven
That appeared, like you, one even, to the Poet of Lenore?
Tell me, Mr. Blackamoor,—
Tell me this, and nothing more!"
Grinning still, but still naught heeding,

Stood that silent Stranger reading,
Reading to himself the figures my Financial Statement bore.
"Fool!" I cried exasperated,
"Is your curious humour sated?
You will not seem so elated when I kick you through that door!
Speak, or quit my matted floor!
What's your business, blackamoor!"
Turning now, that spectre sable

Snatched The Budget from my table;
Through THE SURPLUS with his finger drew a broad phosphoric
score,
Then, while steamed a sulph'rous vapour,
Wrote in phosphorus on the paper—
DEFICIT!—then with a caper, straight evanished through the floor,
Vanished through the matted floor,
Breathing brimstone,—nothing more!
Filled and thrilled with trembling wonder,

Forthwith, with a voice of thunder,
"Boy!" I cried, "Bring me some cognac!"—and the Boy some cognac
bore:
But, from me, I know that never
Spirits shall that Spirit sever,
Though adown my throat for ever, peg on peg I wildly pour.
Still that phantom, o'er and o'er,
DEFICIT! writes evermore.
The Jollipore Ball
At Jollipore lived a sleek Parsee,—

RUNNYDASS, RUMMYBHOY, CURSETJEE.
With keeping the only shop of the Station,
He united a Sowcar's occupation.
A plump little man, with a waddling walk,
In mien most mild, most courteous in talk;
If you caught him cheating, you'd only smile,
He did it in such a pleasant style,—
As if he were only striving to please
By accepting from you a few rupees!
Ah not without meaning did Nature place
That keen little eye in that smooth sleek face,
That restless, inquisitive, hungry eye,
Which nothing could pass unscrutinized by!
Alone midst Hindoos, he lived like Hindoos,

Dressed in turband, and cloths, and light-yellow shoes,
Ruby and diamond rings gleamed on his hands:
He was rich in gold, and houses, and lands:
Massive chains on his person he wore,
And all knew his Phaeton in Jollipore.
When at evening he drove his pair of Pegus
He received low salaams from all the Hindoos;
And a nod from the Sahibs, as if to say,
'That's a good sort of fellow in his small way.'
Now Rummybhoy had his own aims in view
As stouter and sleeker and richer he grew.
"By Master's favour I'll rise," thought he,
"And be called by the Sahibs the Model Parsee.
And then—who knows—I may rise and rise,
And receive some tremendous, unlook'd for prize.
There's SIR SALAH JONG, there's SIR MADAVA ROW,
I dare say I'm richer than both of them now,
Then why should I not, too, rise to be
The great SIR RUMMYBHOY CURSETJEE?
Ha!—Good!—Let me think!—as the first step of all,
I'll give—yes—next week—a great GRAND BALL!"
He announced his scheme. To each gent in the station

He made a little verandah-oration.
To the Collector he said, "If Master please,
I will give for this Ball one thousand rupees."
A committee was formed of three or four
Of the leading gentry of Jollipore.
In their hands the Parsee entrusted all
The arrangements required for the forthcoming Ball,
They tasted the Champagne beforehand to see
It was real Simpkin, not gooseberry.
(Afterwards Rummybhoy used to say
Six dozens disappeared in this mild way!)
They issued the 'invites.' At length the night came
Which should inaugurate Rummybhoy's fame.
O what a rare sight was the "Public Hall"

On the night of the famous Jollipore Ball!
From above colour'd lamps their lustre flung;
And around gay flags and curtains were hung.
From the roof silk cloths, white, crimson, and gold,
Here tastefully droop'd in some elegant fold:
Whilst there some leafy device might be seen,
Whence grapes in cluster fell purple and green.
Each window'd recess of the Hall was a bower
Of pomegranates in fruit, and pomegranates in flower.
The doors were festoon'd with hollyhocks,
Rose, tuberose, myrtle, verbena, and phlox.
And creepers in flower, with tendrils of vine,
Around the pillars were taught to twine.
And now on the well-wax'd boarded floor
Throng'd the fair and the elite of Jollipore:
Twenty-six gentlemen, ladies eighteen,
Lent a life and a soul to the pleasant scene.
Merry music, fair forms in movement light,
And lovely faces aglow with delight.
There supporting the fragile Emily Moore
Whirl'd Snaffle, the pride of his cavalry corps.
Here Miss Flashleigh's dark-eye shot its fieriest glance,
As young Spoonington span her along in the dance.
Even old Judge Sneerwell was heard to confess
That the Parsee's Ball was a perfect success.
And sweet Alice Grey was heard to sigh,
As she sped in the arms of her lover by,
—"O George, how pleasant! I wish you could be,
To give such nice Balls, a wealthy Parsee!"
Ah little they knew what was coming to pass
Just that very moment to Funnydass!
For never before had Rummybhoy

Been so puffed up with pride, so elated with joy.
Grin after grin on his features glow'd:
Hither and thither he bustled and strode:
Dressed in his best, with bran new things on,
And the largest of all his diamond rings on.
Then off he went to the Public Hall
To see for himself the Jollipore Ball.
But first to the Supper-Room went the Parsee,

From whence, through the half-open door, he could see
The ladies fleetly and faerily pass,—
(What nautch-girls they'd make, thought Funnydass!)
A cluster of gentlemen stood near the door,
Round Rice the Collector of Jollipore:—
Said Colonel McDreepweel, "Rice, ma boy,
Wha's this canny body—'this What's-his-name-bhoy?
He's gin us a varra successfu' hop!
Is it true the auld nigger keeps a wee shop?"
The Parsee listened. His heart leapt high
With exultation and ecstasy.
Round the room he had entered he glanced with pride,
At the viands and wines he himself had supplied.
Then took a decanter that stood hard by,
Put its neck to his lips, and drained it dry.
Then thereby with sudden decision embued,
And fast grown elated (in other words, screwed,)
Took another small peg—deck'd his face with a grin—
Peep'd once more through the door—then straight stalk'd in.
Grim Major Cruncher, tall Captain Fusee,

Were 'Stewards' that night, and spied the Parsee.
They strode up and said to him gruffly, "Hullo!
Who the deuce, pray, are you? We don't want you here! Go!"
To which the Parsee, determined to stick up
For his rights, replied with a dignified hiccup,—
"I gave dis Ball, sare, I've come (hic) to see
B'ut'ful Ladies, bare necks, (hic) white arms!—He, he!
Dance up, dance down, go round, (hic) much charms,
Clasp'd very tight—like this—in Sahib's arms!"
—Hereat with a giggle the merry Parsee
Put his arms round the waist of th' astonish'd Fusee!
Need I say, in a trice, they half-pushed, half-bore

The struggling Rummybhoy back through the door?
He roar'd as loud as his lungs were able,
He tried to clutch hold of the supper-table,
Kick'd, gnashed his teeth, swore, pull'd Cruncher's hair,
And fell, with poor Fusee, over a chair.
Then while as yet he was down on all fours,
He was dragg'd by the Major, heels-up, out of doors.
Then spake fierce Cruncher to fiery Fusee,
"Let's teach him a lesson—let's duck the Parsee!"
The stars were bright: 'twas a lovely night:

In the tamarind glitter'd the firefly's light.
Not a cloudlet went through the firmament,
From whence the moon her sweet face bent.
Not a sound the balmy stillness broke,
Save a frog's luxurious, languid croak—
A frog that sat in his moist mud-hole
And in music gave vent to the joy in his soul!
And strange to relate (so mysterious is fate)
'Twas doom'd that the Parsee's luckless pate,
In that very site, that very night,
Should fearfully, suddenly, swiftly alight!
I've said the sweet moon looked down from the sky.—
She revealed a tank that rippled hard by.
Rushes and weeds grew round its brim,
'Twas a pretty place for a midnight swim!
Neems and Portias grew on its bank,
That rose some eight feet over the tank.
Now hither, to this embankment's top,
His captors dragg'd Rummybhoy, neck and crop.
"Heave-yo!" cried Cruncher. A splash, and a thud!
And the Parsee splutter'd in water and mud!
A group of Hindoos had gathered around.

They saw to the Parsee's not being drown'd.
He soberly homewards then quietly stole,
Steady of foot, and heavy of soul.
Resolved, as long as he chanced to live,
Never again a GRAND BALL, to give.
Enough, O my readers. 'Tis not my intention,

To give you a MORAL. I'll only mention,
That, as hours roll'd by, and the dances were done,
And the dancers drove homewards one by one,
That each to the other, and one and all,
Declared it 'a most successful Ball!'
Captain Brown of the Police.
Boy! The big tub from my bath-room, with a dozen chatties bring,
That, whilst seated in the water, o'er me may this punkah swing.
Pour the chatties gently o'er me; let me sit awhile in peace,
For one blissful hour forgetful, I am BROWN OF THE POLICE:—
Brown at whom Dacoits have trembled, Brown at whom the public
looks
As the active Superintendent of a dozen great Taluqs—
Great Taluqs in which each morning some dread deed of murder's
done,
And a score of arson cases flare before each rising sun!
But enough! Why should I boast me? Have not I this day been taught
That, to Woman's greater folly, all our greatness is as naught?
Foolish Woman! Foolish Alice!—Ah, how can my tongue repeat
That one name, which is so bitter, yet was once so very sweet,—
Sweeter still than breath of lilies, yes than music sweeter yet,—
Sweet as when you read PROMOTED to your name in the Gazette!
Alice, Alice! thou hast scorned me, though I woo'd thee many a day,
Jilted me for that goose Jenkins of the Revenue Survey!
Yet I thought that I had won thee. How I praised thy eyes, thy hair!
Told thee what the glass must tell thee,—false one, thou art very fair.
Curse thy beauty! Brown the dauntless, Brown the dread of
Wahabees,
To a woman, a weak woman, bent, in vain, his suppliant knees!
Shall I e'er forget this morning? How my heart leapt in my

breast
As I rode up to her compound, in full regimentals dressed:
Redder than my scarlet facings rose the blush upon her cheek,
When I took her hand, and, kneeling, cleared my choking throat to
speak.
"Alice!" said I, "Pearl of Women," (heedless of her sudden frown)
"Alice, ducky-darling, hear me, hear your own devoted Brown!"
"Sir," she answer'd, "Say no more please, I,—hem,—only yesterday,
"Was engaged to Mr. Jenkins, of the Revenue Survey!"
Blood and thunder, fire and furies! From my knees I leapt in wrath,
Knock'd my shins against a foot-stool, crushed a kitten in my path.
Leapt into the saddle wildly, madly homewards dashed away,
Gnash'd my teeth and swore at Jenkins of the Revenue Survey.
Boy, pour yet another chatty, for my head is getting hot,

Ha! There's virtue in the coolness of the water in that pot!
Let the water trickle, trickle, dropping like a gracious rain
To revive the wither'd fancies of my poor love-blasted brain!
Love? What word is this I utter! Lips of Brown, that word eschew!
Leave it to the spluttering idiot, or barbarian Yahoo!
Love? My watch-word shall be MURDER! Every thug
shall hear my name.
Blackest niggers blanch with terror at the thunder of my fame.
Ho! each bloated Brahmin rascal, who my visage stern may see,
Trembling with a vague amazement, shall perspire great drops of
ghee.
Yes! the Governor shall hear it, and my worth shall be confessed,
Till at length the Star of India blazes on my loyal breast.
Then, ah then, shall I take vengeance. Foolish Alice, thou shalt own,
—
Alice Jenkins,—what a treasure thou once lost in Captain Brown.
Terrible shall be my vengeance! I will wed a pariah maid!
Future Browns shall yet wax browner, till at length in black they
fade.
I will rear a score of children, teach them to be true Hindoos,
They shall worship cows or devils, or whatever they shall choose—
They shall chew the finest betel: on nice stale salt fish subsist,
And in their own bandies driving, learn their bullocks' tails to twist.
But enough! I'm getting chilly. There's a tickling in my nose.

Have I caught a cold, I wonder? Boy—atschi! quick, get my clothes!
Alice Jenkins, tschi! false Alice—there's a buzzing in my ear—
Tschi! Confound it, in the water I have stay'd too long I fear.
Vengeance? Tschi! But why defer it? Yes, I'll go this very day,
And smash the head of that goose Jenkins of the Revenue Survey!
The Catastrophe
(Break, break, break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea.)
TENNYSON.
Shake, shake, shake,

In thy shoes, O unfortunate Boy,
For you've somehow managed to break
Your Mistress's best Teapoy!
O well for the lazy cook,
Who sleeps in the kitchen all day;
O well for the horse-keeper's wife,
Who snores, with her head in the hay.
And the laden bandies jog on,

With their bullocks sweating in pairs—
But O, who will mend the teapoy again,
Or pay for the needful repairs?
Quake, quake, quake!

O Boy, thy howls shall be vain,
For each tender part of thy body shall smart
To-night, from thy Master's cane!
The Poet's Mistake
"O grim and ghastly Mussulman,

Why art thou wailing so?
Is there a pain within thy brain,
Or in thy little toe?
The twilight shades are shutting fast
The golden gates of Day,
Then shut up, too, your hullabaloo,—-
Or what's the matter, say!"
That stern and sombre Mussulman,

He heeded not my speech,
But raised again his howl of pain,—
A most unearthly screech!
"He dies!"—I thought, and forthwith rushed
To aid the wretched man,

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WHAT IS YOUR DESIGN QUESTION

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b. Legal market and black market

II. CASE STUDIES: WHAT IS SMUGGLED?

a. Case study 1 // human: John

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ACCOUNTABILITY IN LIEU OF MORALITY

THE MIGRANT AND THE WEST: AGENDAS OF PERCEPTION

A stolen passport granted John a momentary right of mobility, deconstructing the

b. Case study 2 // non-human: captagon pomegranate

In Sneak it Through, Michael Connor attributes a successful smuggling operation to

Fig. 3: Saudi Press Agency. April 22, 2021.

INGENUOUS TACTICS OF DECEPTION

According to an article in Arab News magazine, the use of agricultural products as a

DISOBEDIENT OBJECT AND POLITICS OF PERCEPTION

SYMBOLISMS OF DANGEROUS FRUIT

The exploitation of smuggling practices as an incentive for the development of rigid

This writing tries to analyze the ex-situ conservation as a language of representation, a

“Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

“Already desiring to explore inside and out

WHERE NATURE IS A MATTER OF DESIGN.

This information accompanies the collected germplasm; a seed without a contextual

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THE SHAPING NARRATIVE

ABOUT A NATURE THAT DOESN’T EXIST.

As Donna Haraway said, “there is no garden and never has been”.

We cannot afford to fight for an idea of nature disguised as ecology.

Case study 1: Bioplastics past/current narratives

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Title: The chutney lyrics: A collection of comic pieces in verse on

Author: Robert C. Caldwell

Release date: July 29, 2022 [eBook #68640]

Original publication: India: Higginbotham and Co, 1889

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

SECOND EDITION (REPRINT.)

Mr. R. C. Caldwell, the lamented author of these humourous papers, was

We reproduce "Chutney Lyrics" with the eight other comic pieces

Sir R-ch-rd T-mpl-'s Ghost

Sir R-ch-rd T-mpl-'s Ghost.

It was midnight dark and dreary;

Starting up, I eyed the native

"Wretch!" I cried, with wrath rampageous,

Now there rose in me a terror,

Turning then, the Shape unheeding,

"Bogie!" said I, "You're right gracious!

Grinning still, but still naught heeding,

Turning now, that spectre sable

Filled and thrilled with trembling wonder,

The Jollipore Ball

At Jollipore lived a sleek Parsee,—