Breathing into the Ecological Trauma: The Case of Gruinard Island

With the performative investigation of Gruinard Island, Scotland, an exemplary non-site of anthropocenic extinction, this research exposition aims for alternative ways of encountering space in the midst of the present ecological crisis. The research exposition suggests an inclusive way of breathing, thinking, and living that merges “with experience, art, ethics, technology, mysticism, science, etc.” (François Laruelle: Principles of Non-Philosophy). Facing our own imminent extinction, ecological thought can no longer fall back on ideologies toward-death but has to investigate how the immediacy of our planetary all can be encountered in the fullness of its ambivalence. With this affirmative approach, a feminine, birthing approach unfolds, that makes the otherness of the environment an ally for forging practices of vibrant becoming, political responsibility, and mutual trust.