The Ontopolity of Feral Landscapes: An anthropology of tools negotiating relationships between other-than- human and human collectives : WestminsterResearch

Chapter title	The Ontopolity of Feral Landscapes: An anthropology of tools negotiating relationships between other-than- human and human collectives
Authors	Guibert, E.
Abstract	In “feral landscape” practices, humans co-create landscapes with the ecosystems and species. These landscapes are neither wild nor fully designed. This is a diverse spectrum with varying degrees of control and scale, including “rewilding” and ecological forms of landscape architecture. In such practices, ecosystems and species are self-willed; they are given a voice. An analysis of the categories of human tools and techniques used in these feral practices and how they are applied reveals a particular ecological polity. The physical tools, used sparingly as the landscapes evolve, negotiate the tensions and conflicts between multiple other-than-human and human communities, adjusting the ecological balance, meaning, and livelihood. The polity is primarily a bottom-up process, led mainly by other-than-humans. Surprisingly, feral approaches that give the most agency to all living beings and systems are primarily guided by limited but mostly violent acts, analogous to libertarian approaches. Yet feral landscape practices are far from a laissez-faire survival of the fittest attitude; there is benevolence in the care applied in this form of ontopolitical libertarianism, in which humans’ primary ecopolitical role is to expand and balance an ontologically heterogeneous body politics, and weave humans with their other-than-human demos.
Book title	Collective Landscape Futures
Year	2025
Publisher	Routledge

Related outputs

Co-creating with Feral Landscapes: Delineating a useful definition and ontology of (re)wilding for the architectural fields
Guibert, E. 2025. Co-creating with Feral Landscapes: Delineating a useful definition and ontology of (re)wilding for the architectural fields. in: Krag, M., Meeres, S. and Stringer, B. (ed.) Rescaling the Rural ORO Editions/AR+D (Applied Research + Design Publishing).

Design Practices
Mr Wilfred Achille, Ayuso, A., Batty, S., Boulanger, A., Cascone, P., Durelle, K., Dr Ana Gatóo, Girardin, F., Golzari, N., Guibert, E., Kramer, M., Maragiannis, A., McLean, W., Nieva Mesas, G., Pollock, B., Zaide, P., Zhang, J., Sharif, Y., Silver, P., Urna Sodnomjamts, Tankard, J., Thwaites, A., Watson, V.A. and Wilkinson, C. Watson, V.A., McLean, W. and Urna Sodnomjamts (ed.) 2024. Design Practices. University of Westminster DPRG Publications.

Feral Landscape Tools - Gardening, knowledge, and design tools for co-creating with wildness
Guibert, E. 2023. Feral Landscape Tools - Gardening, knowledge, and design tools for co-creating with wildness. Collective Landscape Futures. University of Greenwich 18 - 19 May 2023

Feral Systemic Design: (re)wilding methods and methodology for systemic architectural design
Guibert, E. 2022. Feral Systemic Design: (re)wilding methods and methodology for systemic architectural design. RSD11 – Relating Systems Thinking and Design. University of Brighton 13 - 16 Oct 2022 RSDX – Systemic Design Association.

The fictional soils of a ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene: A new materialist story of the soils of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Guibert, Eric and Tostevin, Alec 2022. The fictional soils of a ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene: A new materialist story of the soils of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Journal of Landscape Architecture. 17 (2), pp. 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2022.2156104

Tower Flat
Guibert, E. 2021. Tower Flat.

On the Usefulness of Modern Animism: Co-Creating Architecture with Soils as Ontopolitical Practice
Guibert, E. 2021. On the Usefulness of Modern Animism: Co-Creating Architecture with Soils as Ontopolitical Practice. GeoHumanities. 7 (1), pp. 176-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904785

Rituals of Architecture: Using Ecosystems as Co-Designers
Guibert, E. 2020. Rituals of Architecture: Using Ecosystems as Co-Designers.

Letter from the soils I have designed with
Guibert, E. 2020. Letter from the soils I have designed with. in: Bremner, L. and Cook, J. (ed.) Monsoon [+ other] Grounds London Monsoon Assemblages. pp. 39-50

Landscape Gestures
Guibert, E. 2019. Landscape Gestures.

Letter from the soils we have designed with
Guibert, E. 2019. Letter from the soils we have designed with.

Emergent meadow watercolours
Guibert, E. 2019. Emergent meadow watercolours.

The Literacy Library
Guibert, E. 2018. The Literacy Library.

Setting and Tweaking: the architect as improvisatory choreographer of ecologies
Guibert, E. 2018. Setting and Tweaking: the architect as improvisatory choreographer of ecologies. CA2RE Conference. Ghent 07 - 09 Apr 2017 KU Leuven.

The Gardener Architect: designing with the emergent natures of places
Guibert, E. 2017. The Gardener Architect: designing with the emergent natures of places. PhD thesis

ADAPT-r exhibition in London (AMBIKA P3)
Guibert, E. 2016. ADAPT-r exhibition in London (AMBIKA P3).

Timeframework, diversity and etiquette: Fostering collective Knowledge creation in conferences through design and practice
Guibert, E. 2015. Timeframework, diversity and etiquette: Fostering collective Knowledge creation in conferences through design and practice. Constructivist Foundations. 11 (1), pp. 108-110.

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The Ontopolity of Feral Landscapes: An anthropology of tools negotiating relationships between other-than- human and human collectives

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