Politics of poop – a collaboration between art and science

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

Taking a shit is as essential to life as eating, therefore it is radically a question of equality. From an ethical perspective faeces are a significant material phenomena, the ability to control one's bowel movements and the deposits of faeces detached from our bodies are more essential to the modern human than usually admitted. Poop is political. It creates culture. It affects city planning, infrastructure, the creation of the nation state and economical wellbeing as well as our behaviour and use of language. Shit is contradictory. It evokes aversion, it is dangerous, dirty, transgressive, liberating, necessary, intriguing, powerful and informative. Faeces challenges anthropocentrism, it traverses boundaries and entangles in multispecies worldmakings. It takes the blame for death and it is praised for healing. It is enjoyed. Faeces are implemented in market capitalism. This proposal consists of two collaborations between arts and science: The first one: “Capitalization of coffee producing bodies” is a continuation to artist duo Harrie Liveart and anthrozoologist Jes Hooper previous project, The Humancoffee Room. Their collaboration combines methodological praxis of the arts, humanities, and biological sciences, to investigate the ethics of bodily mechanisation and faecal commodification. During the second collaboration Harrie Liveart and societal researcher Anna Rajala deepens into the media and political discourse with their project proposal called “Radical shit”. The results address the toilet as a common space by shedding light on taboos of urban defecation.