The Art of Response-Able Collaborative Survival with Other-Than-Humans
This presentation will present some of the conclusions of the recently completed practice-based PhD, Occultural Production as Re-vision and Weird Worlding (McLaughlin, 2024). The study undertook an autoethnographic and post-textual analysis of occultural practices, providing a comprehensive exploration of the concept of occulture in both theory and practice.


By integrating practice-based methodologies with theoretical analysis, the study not only advances the discourse on occultural theory but also establishes a framework for future practical investigations within occulture and an emergent field of occultural studies. Through a transdisciplinary lens, the research explores the complex relationships between the art and science of occulture, activism, and (oc)cultural resistance. Furthermore, it highlights the transformative potential of ecologically concerned esoteric art and occultural production as forms of emancipatory worlding and response-able collaborative survival with other-than-humans. Tsing (2015) argues collaborative survival is the necessity of cooperation across different interdependent species within broader ecosystems that facilitate the transformative encounters that reshape their participants. Occulture and occultural studies extend these efforts into other-than-human collaborations within and, crucially, beyond the bios to include all manner of esoteric and seemingly alienated agencies that co-create and co-constitute our wordings.


This presentation will examine these various intersections and advocate for an extension of the cultural studies agenda to address the ecological and ethical concerns surrounding encounters, collaborations, and intra-actions with a radical array of other-than-humans.

Bio
Cavan McLaughlin is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England (UWE), with research interests the study of occulture. Editor of the volume Trans- States: The Art of Crossing Over (2019), Cavan is also an artist with over twenty years in creative media practice. Cavan is the founder and Chair of Trans- States (trans-states.org); co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Monad: Journal of Transformative Practice (monadjournal.com); a trustee of the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices (www.rensep.org); and, Vice-Chair of the South-West Association for the Study of Esotericism (SWASE). Cavan has a profound affection for cows, fungi, and rainbows.