Soil

“Soil is not just a habitat or medium for plants and organisms; nor is it just decomposed material, the organic and mineral end product of organism activity. Organisms are soil” (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017, 189).

“At the heart of Earth‘s Critical Zone there is soil, a porous living layer that bridges rock and sky; a vital connecting force upon which human life utterly depends” (Banwart 2020, 89).

“For me, soil is this amazing canvas where you are setting the scene for the beginning of an ecosystem” (Fernando Laposse, quoted in Somerset House 2025, 9:36).

References

Banwart 2020

Banwart, Steve. “Domesticating Soil in Earth’s Critical Zone.” In Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth, edited by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, 89–93. Karlsruhe, Germany: ZKM/Center for Art and Media; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020.

Puig de la Bellacasa 2017

Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Somerset House 2025

“Soil: The World at Our Feet.” Somerset House, 3 March 2025. YouTube, 16 min., 6 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byMWmtVEe3c.TK.