INSPIDERATIONS: CONNECTING WITH ARTHROPODS TO INSPIRE ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY

By
Valérie Chartrand
Baccalauréat ès arts, concentration en arts visuels, Université d’Ottawa, 1997

A THESIS SUPPORT PAPER SUBMITTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF FINE ARTS

EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN

2021

© Valérie Chartrand 2021

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Abstract
Through my practice, I consider how artists can communicate a sense of empathy, compassion,
and kinship with insects and arachnids that encourages thoughtful cohabitation and the adoption of
sustainable ecological practices.
The focus of my research is the loss of biodiversity and reduction in insect populations due to
climate change and human interference in insect life cycles. I evoke the decline in species primarily
through imprint techniques with insects and non-toxic materials. When working with insect bodies, I
only gather and work with found insects that have previously perished, and insect materials purchased
from ethical sources.
Reflections on killability of nonhumans and the looming ecological crisis caused by the loss of
species are a key part of my practice and of my approach in memorializing dead insects in a subtle,
poetic way. My passion for printmaking and my work with found insects lead to reflections on
environmental decline, as the resulting imprints convey presence through absence.
Through material research, ecological reflections, and attempts to establish kinship with
nonhuman animals, the explorations I undertook as part of my creative research have resulted in a
body of work documenting live arachnids and insects and memorializing fallen ones.

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Table of contents
Abstract

2

List of illustrations

4

Acknowledgements

5

Introduction

6

Context and methodology
Artistic context
Historical and theoretical context
Methodology and process
Materiality
Imprint
Observing and gathering
On working with insects

9
9
13
13
15
16
18
18

Ecology
Phototaxis
IntersecT

21
23
29

Empathy
Evoking empathy in the indoor biome
Spider empathy series - Spider drinking dishes
Spider empathy series - Spider narratives
Spider empathy series - Empathy portraits
Evoking empathy through significant experiences

33
35
36
38
44
46

Matter
Interconnections
Spider Nodes
Insect Nodes
Micro-environments
Copper, cyanobacteria and interconnections
Ecology, empathy and matter

49
50
50
53
55
58
59

Conclusion

59

Postscript

62

Endnotes

65

Works cited

68

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List of illustrations
Fig. 1 - Aganetha Dyck, Masked Ball series. Porcelain figurine and honeycomb. 2008.

11

Fig. 2 - Tomás Saraceno. Image from How to hear the universe in a spider/web: A live concert
for/by invertebrate rights. 2020.

12

Fig. 3 - Valérie Chartrand. Process photos of ceramic tiles with imprints of found insects.
Stoneware. 2019.

17

Fig. 4 - Valérie Chartrand. Swarm. Silk, cyanobacteria, guar gum. 8’x 2’. 2020.

26

Fig. 5 - Valérie Chartrand. Swarm with cyanotype capture in progress. Silk,
cyanobacteria, guar gum, mosquito netting, paper treated with cyanotype emulsion, UV
light. 2020.

27

Fig. 6 - Valérie Chartrand. Phototaxis 1-12. Cyanotype on photo paper. 7”x5”. 2020.

28

Fig. 7 - Valérie Chartrand. IntersecT - capture from web app. 5” x 5”. 2021.

30

Fig. 8 - Valérie Chartrand. Spider drinking dishes. Glazed porcelain. 1”-3” diameter. 2021.

37

Fig. 9 - Valérie Chartrand. Page from Gretchen and the Universe. Flip book with
augmented reality photos and video. 12”x 15”. 2021

42

Fig. 10 - Valérie Chartrand. The life of Bryan. Augmented reality book, hand-bound, inkjet
on lokta paper, chipboard, craft paper, watercolour paper. 12" x 15". 2021.

43

Fig. 11 - Valérie Chartrand. Empathy Portrait I. Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper. 12” x
18”. 2021.

45

Fig. 12 - Brandon Ballengée, Love Motel for Insects: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Variation.
Black Ultra-violet lights, steel, aluminum, fabric, native plants, invited insects. 18’ x 16’ x
14’. 2015.

48

Fig. 13 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections - spider node detail. Porcelain with naturally
occurring blue crystal. 2" diameter. 2020.

52

Fig. 14 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections- insect node detail. Soft ground etching of
insect body on copper. 2" diameter. 2020.

54

Fig. 15 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections- microenvironment detail. Wood, moss,
cyanobacteria, agar, copper, salt, vinegar, LED light. 4” x 3” x 1”. 2021.

56

Fig. 16 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections I. Copper, aluminum, porcelain,
salt, vinegar, agar, wood, cyanobacteria, moss, LED light (electricity self-generated by
the piece). 2’ x 2’. 2021.

57

Fig. 17 - Valérie Chartrand. Spider drinking dishes, detail with a curious cellar spider.
Glazed porcelain. 1"-3" diameter. 2021.

64

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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to have been able to pursue my creative research of the last two years in kinship
with natural wonders on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish),
Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations in
Vancouver; on Treaty One territory, land of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples,
and homeland of the Métis Nation in Winnipeg; and on the traditional unceded territory of the
Anishinaabeg Algonquin nation in Ottawa.
I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Cameron Cartiere for her helpful guidance
throughout this project and my defence committee, Julie Andreyev and Nancy Holmes for their
thoughtful insights. I would also like to express my appreciation to my instructors, grad office staff and
my cohort for so many stimulating learning opportunities. Thank you to Eleanor Morgan, Raynald
Harvey Lemelin, Brandon Ballengée, Brian Campbell, Abhas Misraraj and Nicolò Carpignoli for taking
the time to meet and answer my questions; to Aganetha Dyck, Thomás Saraceno and (again) Brandon
Ballengée for the inspiration and permission to use their images; and to Simon Fraser University
chemists Vance Williams, Byron D. Gates, Alexi L. Pauls, and Audrey K. Taylor for their preliminary
investigation of the spider inclusions.
Thank you to my friends and family for their ongoing support and a special thank you to all of
you who went over and above, collecting spiders found dried-up in basements, garages, and attics for
me.

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Introduction
All ecologies are more than human. They are as much the breath of a movement as they are the
flicker of a light and the sound of a stilling. They are earth and texture, air and wind, color and
saturation. In the context of an artwork, artfulness is how the complex relation between intuition
and sympathy comes into contact with a worlding that itself expresses the more-than of an
ecology in the making.
- Erin Manning, “Artfulness” in The Nonhuman Turn (83)

My artistic practice focuses on the loss of biodiversity and reduction in insect and arthropod
populations due to climate change and human interference in insect life cycles. I evoke the decline in
species primarily through imprint techniques with insects, arachnids, and non-toxic materials.
I began my artistic journey with insects by focusing on bees. Domesticated bees, with their
distinctive stripes, social behaviour, importance as pollinators and honey production, easily gather
favour from humans. We can anthropomorphize them and transform them into poster animals for the
ecological movement1. While working with bees, I learned about apiculture and became involved with
managing hives. This gave me an increased awareness of the impact and consequences of
domestication and the ecological ramifications of the introduction of foreign species of bees that are
taking over local pollinators’ forage.
My experience with bees motivated me to begin raising awareness of ecological issues, with a
broadened focus on many species of insects and other arthropods. As I moved forward to new
inquiries, I honed my focus on attempting to evoke empathy for species that are often vilified or
unnoticed. Globally, considerable resources are spent to control the presence of unwanted insects in the
environment with pesticides, traps, and bio-controls2. Artificial light, electromagnetic waves, urban

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infrastructure, pollution, and climate change resulting from human activity are also responsible for
plummeting insect numbers.
In February 2020, a group of conservation biologists released a warning to humanity about
insect extinction. In this piece, the scientists share what they “know about the drivers of insect
extinctions, their consequences, and how extinctions can negatively impact humanity” (Cardoso et al.
1). The Scientists' Warning to Humanity on Insect Extinctions also points out that “human activity is
responsible for almost all current insect population declines and extinctions” (Cardoso et al. 1). This
most recent warning builds on a manifesto published in 2017 by the Alliance of World Scientists that
was reiterating a warning to humanity originally issued in 1992 that “Our massive tampering with the
world’s interdependent web of life - coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation,
species loss, and climate change - could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable
collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly
understand” (Kendall 1).
Empathy and compassion for nonhuman animals seem to impact the level of concern
individuals have about environmental issues and the future of the planet. A research paper published
in the Journal of Environmental Education states in its conclusion: “The speculation here is that thinking
of other organisms, perhaps especially those about which one cares, can elicit a very powerful set of
emotional responses, including empathy, compassion, a sense of potential loss, and a desire to protect...
“(Dickinson 156). This empathy towards nature can manifest itself as biophilia (Wilson 1), solidarity
(Humankind 18) or kinship (Staying 2) with nonhumans.
Several studies demonstrate that of all nonhumans, invertebrates are the lowest on the human
empathy scale as they lack anthropomorphic qualities (Harrison 34) and often inspire negative

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perceptions (Kawahara and Pyle 143). As a response to the scientists’ warning in an article entitled
Solutions for Humanity on How to Conserve Insects, the first solution identified by the authors is
“developing [an] appreciation for insects”. The authors urge us to “develop a culture of improved
personal and collective responsibility towards promoting insect conservation as a necessary step for
our survival” (Samways 2).
Through my practice, I consider how artists can communicate a sense of empathy, compassion,
and kinship with insects and arachnids that encourages thoughtful cohabitation and the adoption of
sustainable ecological practices. Three main fields of inquiry have emerged from this question as it
became evident my creative research and my work results from iterative weaving between reflections
on matter, empathy, and ecology. These three pillars guide my theoretical readings, my methodology
and my material investigations.
This thesis support paper will be built around these three main pillars, set out like the main
frame threads of a spider web. Between the frame threads, I will weave radius threads, going back and
forth between the fields of inquiry. As I weave threads between ecological reflections, kinship with
nonhumans and material explorations, my process will echo Donna Haraway’s concept of string
figuring, which she describes as “passing on and receiving, making and unmaking, picking up threads
and dropping them. sf [string figuring] is practice and process; it is becoming-with each other in
surprising relays; it is a figure for ongoingness in the Chthulucene3 (3).”

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Context and methodology
Artistic context
My practice aligns with the contemporary ecological art movement. I share my interest in
interspecies connection and collaboration with artists such as Aganetha Dyck and Tomás Saraceno.
Like these artists, my work involves connecting with arthropods in the hope to evoke compassion and
encourage environmental stewardship.
I was fortunate to have Aganetha Dyck as a mentor through MAWA 4 in Winnipeg. For over
forty years, Aganetha’s work has focused on collaborating on sculptural work with live bees by
offering them objects on which to build comb. Her main goal over the years has been to raise
awareness of the “ramifications for all living beings should honeybees disappear from earth”
(Pedersen). Over time, she got to know the insects’ behaviours and was communicating with them
through her collaborations by introducing textures and forms and even by using queen bee
pheromones to guide them. I have also been guided and inspired by Aganetha’s mindful approach to
gently collaborating with insects and with the connection she established with them. The artist and the
bees are such close collaborators that when I asked her if I could include an image of her work in my
thesis, she referred to it as an “image of our work” (Dyck).
Tomás Saraceno has worked with spiders for over a decade and is the founder of an Arachnid
Research Lab. Saraceno’s work was initially focused mostly on structures built by spiders and has now
expanded to communicating with the creatures in various ways, including with a mobile app and
through jam sessions with musicians. Saraceno has acquired an understanding of the vibrations spiders
are sensitive to, normally to detect predators, prey, or mates. Saraceno’s jam sessions truly enable

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human-arachnid collaboration and dialog. The spiders react to musical vibrations through movements
that are recorded by sensitive microphones and amplified as a response to the musician. Saraceno’s
work with arachnids has resulted in many compelling pieces and these musical collaborations are the
ultimate expression of human-arachnid sympoeisis5. In an online event, Festival Hors Pistes, organized
by the Centre Pompidou in February 2021, philosopher Vinciane Despret said of Saraceno’s jam
sessions with spiders, that the sessions may not be the result of collaboration between musicians and
spiders but of interference in each other’s lives, which implies a sense of responsibility or
response-ability6. To this, Saraceno responded that it is a reminder of how much humans interfere with
other lives, especially with the lives of nonhumans, and that it is a reminder of the urgency of finding
an equilibrium in the interference we have with other species in the age of the Capitalocene (Avec qui
47:30).
Like Aganetha Dyck and Tomás Saraceno, when I work, collaborate 7 and communicate with live
insects, I am conscious of the need to do so with minimal interference and response-ability. I have
learned to notice nonhumans, to follow their lead and see where they will guide me. This approach
informs my making.

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Fig. 1 - Aganetha Dyck, Masked Ball series. Porcelain figurine and honeycomb. 2008. Photo credit: Peter Dyck.
Used with permission from the artist.

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Fig. 2 - Tomás Saraceno. Image from How to hear the universe in a spider/web: A live concert for/by invertebrate rights.
2020. Used with permission from the artist.

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Historical and theoretical context
Einfühlung, the German word for “feeling-into” (eventually translated as empathy in English) is
a concept that originally referred to feelings evoked by “nature, works of art or feelings and behaviours
of other persons” (Nowak 301). During the Romantic period, as the concept of Einfühlung was being
elaborated, Friedrich Vischer wrote that “artworks and nature manifest themselves as emotional beings
that can be felt with empathy” (Nowak 303). It is also during that period that nature became an
idealized monolithic entity, as Romantics believed that humans should “love nature as we love other
human beings” (Gorodeisky).
When trying to evoke empathy for the beyond human through artworks, I have had to question
my positionality with regard to empathy for nature and 19th century romanticism. The influences of
romanticism in art remain to this day and are important to acknowledge but as I assess the reality of
the crisis we are faced with, I align with philosophers and thinkers like Bruno Latour, Vinciane Despret,
Timothy Morton, and Donna Haraway in moving away from the once monolithic and idealized
concept of nature and join forces with nonhumans in the new ecology we have created. In Ecology
without Nature, Timothy Morton muses that “In a truly deep green world, the idea of Nature will have
disappeared in a puff of smoke, as nonhuman beings swim into view.” (Morton 204).

Methodology and process
The writings of artists, biologists, environmentalists, art historians and philosophers have
become a part of my process. This research often help me build on concepts, validate my work, and
push it further.8 As I started working with spiders, Donna Haraway’s concept of tentacular thinking,
linking things in sympoiesis, which emerged from spiders and string figures, became a source of

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inspiration. In her book, Staying with the Trouble, Haraway invites us to make kin with nonhumans and
to embrace sympoesis (“making-with”). Sympoiesis in nature refers to “collectively-producing systems
that do not have self-defined spatial or temporal boundaries”. In Haraway’s words: “Sympoiesis is a
word for worlding-with, in company”(58). Moving away from the term Anthropocene, Haraway
named the current era, the Chtulucene after a Western California spider, Pimoa chtulu. Haraway writes:
“spider is a much better figure for sympoiesis than any inadequately leggy vertebrate of whatever
pantheon”. With renaming the era, Haraway reminds us that “tentacularity is symchthonic9, wound
with abyssal and dreadful graspings, frayings, and weavings, passing relays again and again, in the
generative recursions that make up living and dying” (33). Artist Eleanor Morgan exemplifies this in
her approach to working with spider silk. The artist started by collecting spider silk for her work and
became attuned to the arachnid ways of making, letting them guide her creative research, becoming an
intermediary for the nonhuman world. Morgan writes: “Making is not only human; we are part of a
much larger mess of organisms that are, right now, making and unmaking forms, materials and
worlds” (XXI). By embracing tentacularity and sympoiesis as part of my methodology, I too
acknowledge my fascination with the interconnectedness of all things and with human and nonhuman
worlding.
My work is experimental and often undergoes many iterations. Materiality is an important
consideration as I select materials and techniques based on their characteristics and relation to the
inquiry I am pursuing. Non-toxic materials and natural pigments feature prominently in my work. My
research-creation methodology relies on a cyclical process of inquiry, beginning with gathering,
followed by material exploration and continuing through analytical reflection, readings, and research;
then production, further reflection, retroaction and repetition. This iterative cycle and the evolution of

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my work based interconnectedness between concepts and materials, could be seen as an ever-evolving
web of sympoiesis.

Materiality
When I started working with bees, I took an embodied deep-dive approach. I took a beekeeping
class and I followed the inspiration brought to my making by the insects. I created artwork with hive
boxes, beeswax, honey, and beekeeping tools. All of my material choices had a direct link to the
pollinators and to the messages I was trying to convey. I also collaborated with live insects by creating
beeswax bowls that, with Aganetha Dyck’s thoughtful guidance, I placed in hives to make vessels to
serve foods that would go missing without pollination.
I have taken these careful material choices and the embodied and gentle collaboration approach
to all of my new projects with other insects and arachnids. Over the course of my research at Emily
Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD), I have deepened my material explorations. This was
initially prompted by my discovery of inclusions that appeared to be blue crystals10 forming in the
abdomen of spiders fired in clay (see Fig. 2), as well as by the collection of cyanobacteria (or blue-green
algae) blooms on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The inclusions evoked the copper salt crystals I was
working with for electro-etching. Both copper and cyanobacteria have become key to my material
investigations. Together they deploy a harmonious pallet of blues and greens. Both are unstable and
change colour over time, and both are meaningful materials to tackle reflections around the current
ecological crisis.

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Imprint
Printmaking and imprint can convey absence or disappearance. An imprint creates an image
through the contact between an object and a surface. My passion for printmaking and my work with
found insects leads to reflections on environmental decline, as the resulting imprints memorialize
insects and evoke presence through absence. My work with imprint can also be seen as sampling and
memorializing dead insect specimens and preserving their likeness after death, based on the historical
practice of mortuary masks from the Middle Ages to the 19th century that were sampled directly from
the faces of the deceased.11 Imprint is an important part of my process of memorialization but can also
lead to mimesis. In an essay entitled “Contact Images”, art historian George Didi-Huberman reflects on
realistic depictions of insects created from the contact of their body to a surface using various
techniques. Huberman remarks that whether they evoke decomposition or cause anxiety, the resulting
images appear to touch the gaze.: “…they are images that impose a certain symptom of adherence on
optical distance, such that we can feel our seeing touched” (5).
My consideration of imprint extends to photography. In On Photography, Susan Sontag remarks
on the role of photography as imprint: “a photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image),
an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stencilled off the real, like a footprint
or a death mask” (120). The discovery of macro photography has allowed me privileged access to
arthropods and has become a tool to attempt to bridge interspecies scalar differences. With
photography, I am creating imprints in the form of digital assets that have led me to digital work with
web-based augmented reality. I am exploring augmented reality technically and conceptually as a tool
to attempt to bring arthropods to life on a different scale and to reveal the presence of nonhumans that
often goes unnoticed.

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Fig. 3 - Valérie Chartrand. Process photos of ceramic tiles with imprints of found insects. Through this
experimentation, I discovered the formation of blue crystals in the abdomens of the spiders I imprinted in
stoneware. 2019.

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Observing and gathering
Observing and researching cycles of life, death, and regeneration in the insect world is at the
core of my practice. I remain flexible, open to discoveries that can happen at any time, a hatching, a
fluttering that will take me on a new journey. Gathering perished insects, in and around human-made
structures, is also an important part of my process. In a recent podcast for the Magic and Ecology online
symposium organized by Cambridge University, Artist and animist Charlotte Rodgers likened her
artistic process of gathering to her practice of magic. The artist said that when practising magic and
going on a walk outside, “you look at things with the awareness that they have a message for you”
(Rodgers 5:23), and this changes your perspective on the world. As an artist, Rodgers takes a similar
approach: “and it's the same as if you're an artist, you walk doing the same walk, but you discover
something, and you think, oh that's just something that needs to be picked up, that wants to be taken
away, that needs to be put somewhere and maybe reassembled into something new” (Rodgers 5:51). As
an artist, I embrace this methodology of having unexpected encounters with nonhumans and, not
unlike the magician, allowing them to speak to me, to change my perspective on the world, to guide
my making.

On working with insects
As part of refining my methodology, it became necessary for me to reflect on working with live
insects, but also on one of the important source materials and inspiration in my work: dead insect
bodies. Because of the delicate nature of the materials and the messages around loss and
memorialization I am trying to convey, my methodology necessitates a respectful approach to working
with nonhumans, both live and dead. Unlike Damian Hirst, who focuses on death a central theme, and

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who had been responsible for the death of nearly 1,000,000 nonhuman animals in his work by 2017
(Goldstein), no insects have been killed for my work.
In When Species Meet, Haraway notes that “that killing is the most common form of human
interaction with animals” (335). Haraway sees a manifestation of the divide between humans and
nonhumans manifested in our ethical sense between what is killable and what is not. She refers to this
as “making beings killable” (When Species 80).
A change of perspective happens when we form an attachment to an animal, it becomes “less
killable”. Vinciane Despret in What would animals say if we asked the right questions writes that farmers
who establish a connection with animals by hanging photos of them in their homes and giving them
names know “that these very names anticipate a future sadness and the possibility of memory” (87).
Despret evokes Judith Butler in asking: “Why shouldn’t nonhuman lives count as ‘grievable lives’?”
(What Would Animals 86). Then, referring to Haraway, the philosopher encourages us to become
vulnerable and to grieve vulnerable lives. Despret advances that: “assuming a becoming vulnerable
together with and differently from animals, [is] one way of responding to Haraway’s proposition to
create stories with companion species” (What Would Animals 86).
Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass reflects on Indigenous languages and their grammar
that expresses ways of knowing that are inclusive of nonhumans. The biologist writes: “The language
reminds us, in every sentence, of our kinship with all of the animate world” (79). This perspective leads
us to recognize all beings “as persons, nonhuman persons vested with awareness, intelligence, spirit”
(226). This leads to the reminder that “Killing a who demands something different than killing an it”
(226).

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While awareness exists around the indifferent killing of nonhuman animals, obstacles remain to
get this same type of recognition for insects and invertebrates. Being at the bottom of the human
empathy scale makes these species more killable. Invertebrates are being neglected in conservation
efforts (Cardoso et al. 5), and the global use of pesticides is still one of the key drivers of pollution
(Cardoso et al. 3). These are used in agriculture and gardening but also increasingly in our homes
(Dunn 10), fuelled by entomophobia perpetuated by the pest control industry (Lemelin 7).
Even though the Tri-Council Policies on Ethical Conduct for Research are not concerned with
regulating the use of invertebrates used in research (Government of Canada), for my creative research, I
endeavour to observe and document live insects with care and respect and I only gather and work with
found insects that have previously perished, and insect materials purchased from ethical sources. This
is in line with ECUAD Professor and artist Julie Andreyev’s Compassion Manifesto, which “calls on
artists and designers to expand their consciousness—to learn about and pay attention to nonhumans
and our shared ecological being” (159).
The Compassion Manifesto also urges artists to adopt ethics of “maximum respect”, to attend to
“the continuities between humans, other animals, and plant life” (161). When working with live
nonhumans, I am always conscious of following their lead. When photographing insects, I do so
without interfering with them in their natural setting, whether it be in my home or outdoors. In some
rare cases, I use a glass or jar to gently capture an insect or arachnid and move it outdoors or in another
location in my home where it will be more comfortable. Whether I am working with domesticated bees,
capturing an insect in glass or a jar, or attracting insects with light to observe them, I am conscious of
my human interference, and of the need for this interference to be as respectful, gentle and minimal as
possible.

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Reflections on the killability of nonhumans and the looming ecological crisis caused by the loss
of insect species are a key part of my practice and of my approach in memorializing dead insects in a
subtle, poetic way by communicating their presence through their absence. These reflections also bring
awareness of the fragility of arthropod lives and of the gentleness and respect required when working
with live ones in the creation process. Through my creative research, I have come to acknowledge that
an important part of my goal to evoke empathy for invertebrates becomes changing perspectives from
nonhumans being killable to being grievable. By celebrating living invertebrates and by memorializing
fallen ones, grievability becomes the evidence that their nonhuman lives have value, that their loss is
significant12.

Ecology
Whether we call it Anthropocene 13, Capitalocene14, Plantationocene15, or Chtulucene16, the
current epoch has brought along a new ecological reality. As humans have changed the surface of the
earth drastically with pesticides, fertilizers, pollution, large-scale landscape overhauls, and by carrying
species across the planet. We have reached a point where we are having to adapt to new ecologies. In
the Feral Atlas, a digital publication by Stanford University, Anna Tsing and other scholars are
describing these as feral ecologies, “ecologies that have been encouraged by human-built
infrastructures, but which have developed and spread beyond human control” (Tsing). By creating the
atlas, the authors highlight the issues brought along by these new ecologies.
In Ecology Without Nature, Timothy Morton looks at the romantic notion of nature and its
depiction in art as an obstacle to ecological criticism. Morton reminds us do away with the construct of

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ideal nature and to recognize we are part of the ecologies we have created. Morton urges us to
acknowledge that “We [must] choose this poisoned ground. We will be equal to this senseless actuality.
Ecology may be without nature. But it is not without us” (205).
Similarly, in an article entitled “Love Your Monsters”, philosopher Bruno Latour refers to the
changes we have brought about in the ecology as monsters we have created and must learn to care for,
much like Frankenstein and his monster. Latour writes: “the breakthrough involves no longer seeing a
contradiction between the spirit of emancipation and its catastrophic outcomes, but accepting it as the
normal duty of continuing to care for unwanted consequences, even if this means going further and
further down into the imbroglios” (Love).
Doing the best we can in a realistic way aligns with Donna Haraway’s approach of “staying with
the trouble”. She writes: “I am not interested in reconciliation or restoration, but I am deeply
committed to the more modest possibilities of partial recuperation and getting on together. Call that
staying with the trouble” (10).
These reflections remind us that the romantic concept of nature no longer exists, that nature is
not a separate entity from us, it is us. We are now in a precarious situation that requires both the
conservation and restoration of forests, grasslands and fresh water areas crucial to avoiding the
disappearance of all species and at the same time, we have to acknowledge and care for the ecology in
its current state and the new emerging ecologies that have evolved in colonized landscapes where only
partial recuperation may be possible. With a majority of people living in urban and peri-urban areas, it
is more important than ever to get along with nonhumans in the world we have created. This includes
being mindful of feral ecologies and of life that has established itself in garbage hills, human-built
structures, and urban areas. My practice focuses on raising awareness of this new ecological reality and

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to encourage improvements on the conditions we have created by letting nature blossom and
arthropods thrive in urban areas. On the one hand, I gather perished insects and arthropods found in
buildings, on the pavement, under light posts, in swimming pools, and wherever I come across them in
human-made environments. These arthropods are documented and memorialized through imprint,
existing as trace, leaving future fossils of the species in decline. On the other hand, I also try to raise
awareness of the living species that surround us but often go unnoticed in urban areas. Below are two
pieces that revolve around the documentation of live insects and arthropods with a goal to raise
ecological awareness.

Phototaxis
Insects with positive phototaxis17 have evolved to use the moon as a navigational guide. Today,
these nocturnal insects are distracted by artificial lights that are interfering with their navigational
instincts and natural cycles. The Scientist’s Warning to Humanity on Insect Extinctions refers to light
pollution as one of the main drivers of insect decline (Cardoso et al. 3).
Phototaxis (initially entitled Swarm) has progressed over my time at ECUAD. It has become both
an immersive installation and a tool to create artwork in collaboration with nocturnal insects with
minimal interference. The first part of this project was inspired by reflections on light pollution and by
mayflies and cyanobacteria I gathered from lake Winnipeg. Mayfly nymphs spend a year underwater,
where their grazing is important to control the build-up of algae. Adult mayflies die in mass around
light sources, never accomplishing their goal and completing their lifecycle, negatively impacting the
ecosystem. I screen-printed a mayfly swarm on silk by using the found bodies of mayflies directly on
the screens to create my stencils, and developed a way of using cyanobacteria as ink. The results were

24

two eight feet silk pieces that are hung in front of a light. This simulated a swarm attracted by artificial
light.
As I was thinking about installing and documenting this piece, I installed the banners outside
over lights and mosquito netting. Once the swarm piece was outdoors, I realized that by using a UV
light, I could attract a live swarm to it, just like entomologists use the mothing technique with lit-up
tents to attract nocturnal flying insects with positive phototaxis. I had been using cyanotype in other
work and was aware my emulsion was sensitive to UV light. Using this approach, I tried capturing
images of moths on the piece using the cyanotype process.
The image produced by putting paper treated with UV-sensitive cyanotype emulsion behind a
moth that has landed on the fabric is the imprint, the trace of a momentary encounter. Depending on
the wattage of the UV light, the image of a moth can take from 5 to 30 minutes to expose. The long
exposure often captures subtle movements of the insect over time and yields an imprint that is ghostly
and poetic.
While attracting insects to Phototaxis may be perceived as a paradox, mothing is an important
entomological and citizen science activity and is encouraged by conservation societies to familiarize
people with moths without harming them.18 As part of an art installation, it raises awareness around
light pollution issues and allows for the observation of cyclical emergences and ephemeral moments
over time. It allows for gentle human/nonhuman encounters, for raising awareness about species that
may not be normally encountered, as well as for conversations around small gestures that can make a
big difference, such as turning off porch lights. Phototaxis, despite detracting moths momentarily from
their regular habits, does so in a very minimal way and is meant to be a gentle interference inspiring
response-ability from both the human and the insect. The cool LED light is only turned on for the

25

period of the observation. Moths are always free to go and do so after a short rest on the silk
(sometimes too short, causing their imprint to disappear from the cyanotype). I apply the cyanotype
treated paper on the fabric behind where the moth is resting without disturbing or touching it. Most
moths join the piece only for a short while, and once the light is turned off, all the moths leave the piece
and resume their regular activities. No moths perish in the process.
The first outdoor Phototaxis (Swarm) installation during the summer of 2020 was hung from a
tree branch in my backyard. As the concept evolved, following crits and discussions with my peers, I
started working on a standalone Phototaxis installation that could travel to allow me to set it up in
various environments and in a public setting for performances and educational opportunities. Over the
fall and winter of 2020-2021, the standalone Phototaxis installation evolved into a lamppost-like
installation with a light paper mâché globe with found cocoon inclusions that references the moon and
recalls the spheres of the IntersecT project, described further. I also reworked the fabric pieces and
added screen prints from moths bodies I had collected using homemade verdigris copper pigment in
addition to the screen printed mayflies using cyanobacteria ink. The copper pigment’s slight metallic
iridescence evokes powdery scales on moth wings and complements the cyanobacteria used for the
moths. Silk was chosen as a fabric because of the relevance of using the entomological fibre in this
context. The final Phototaxis piece uses only Peace or Ahimsa 19 silk, which is harvested from moths that
have emerged from their cocoons alive. The choice of cyanobacteria and copper as ink are a reflection
on the world out of balance.

26

Fig. 4 - Valérie Chartrand. Swarm (the first iteration of Phototaxis). Silk, cyanobacteria, guar gum. 8’ x 2’. 2020.

27

Fig. 5 - Valérie Chartrand. Phototaxis with cyanotype capture in progress. Silk, cyanobacteria, guar gum,
mosquito netting, paper treated with cyanotype emulsion, UV light. 2020.

28

Fig. 6 - Phototaxis 1-12. Cyanotype on photographic paper. 7" x 5". 2020. Photo: Adrienne Row - Smith | Firegrove
Studio

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IntersecT
Humans are increasingly disconnected from the natural world as they remain indoors and have
less opportunities to interact with nonhumans. According to research on rekindling experiences with
nature through citizen science, “Increasing the availability of nature in cities and encouraging people to
go outside is an essential first step, but an individual’s connection to the natural world may be reduced
to such an extent that nature may not even be noticed (Shwartz et. al qtd. in Schuttler et al. 2).
In response to this disconnection, I created IntersecT, an augmented reality web app that allows
users to view observations that have been recorded by citizen scientists through the iNaturalist
network within one kilometre of their location. iNaturalist is an international biodiversity database of
images of observations compiled by amateurs, citizen scientists, scientists, and naturalists. Users
around the world are encouraged to contribute to science by logging observations of the species they
encounter. In IntersecT, the observations that are pulled from the database appear over a camera view
of the user’s surroundings as spheres floating that differ in size based on geolocation proximity.
Clicking on those spheres allows users to view a photo of the insect or other arthropod and the species
name pulled from the iNaturalist database. Because IntersecT is connected to the iNaturalist database,
the user can also add their own observations in iNaturalist and view them as spheres in their
environment through IntersecT.

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Fig. 7 - Valérie Chartrand. IntersecT - capture from web app. 5”x5”. 2021.

31

The concept behind this project is to bring about an augmentation of the user’s environment that
uses user-generated content and web technology to uncover observations of creatures that otherwise
go unnoticed. Awareness that we are sharing our immediate environment with hundreds of small
beings is often the first step to observing the world around us and thinking about the impact we have
on this microfauna.
Technically, the project is an exploration of the open source web-based AR.js framework to
understand and push the limits of the technology. AR.js is web-based, free, and doesn’t require users
to download an app. iNaturalist is a database used in most countries around the world. Because it is
leveraging open-source technology that is available in networks worldwide, it is available to anyone
with a phone in their own local language.
IntersecT is the final piece I worked on as part of my creative research, and I consider this a work
in progress. Before I release the web app out publicly, I am using it as a tool for my own observations
and to create images that show the arthropod observation spheres in various contexts, evoking a sense
of alienness, of the unexpected creatures a user can encounter in their environment.

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Both the IntersecT and the Phototaxis projects were inspired by the state of ecology and by the
importance of bridging the divide between humans and nonhumans. Both projects establish
opportunities for immersion and for connection between humans and live insects or other arthropods
in their environment in an attempt to evoke compassion, kinship and empathy through art.
My reflections on ecology and art have led me to Félix Guattari’s final works, Three Ecologies and
Chaosmosis, in which he discusses ecosophy, a concept that can be defined as “an activist practice that
engages artistic production towards maximizing the incomparable and automodelizing traits of mental
ecologies with a commitment to ethically responsible negotiations of collective actions and large-scale
engagements, since subjectivity is intimately imbricated in mutually dependent bio- and
mechano-spheres” (Young 100). According to cultural theorist Gary Genosko, Guattari’s real
innovation was to define the relationship between art and ecology through the formation of
subjectivity. Genosko writes: “This is his [Guattari’s] most original contribution to the theorization of
ecology. Guattari's concern with the quality of subjectivity is what holds together art and ecology”
(Genosko 117). Guattari believes that art, whether it be music, performance art or visual art, is key to
the production of new modes of subjectivity. Ecosophy emboldens me to work towards the production
of work that aims to encourage new systems of values and a “new gentleness” (Chaosmosis 92) to help
tackle the ecological crisis at hand. The urgency to act on the ecological crisis communicated by
Guattari over twenty years ago has become even more relevant today, as the Doomsday Clock20 is
ticking urgently and warnings from scientists call for immediate action.

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Empathy
During my last year at ECUAD, we have seen the world come together to grapple with a global
pandemic. Emergency measures were put in place by many countries and people were asked to play
their part to help save human lives. As a result of emergency measures and human compassion for one
another, worldwide emissions decreased and wildlife returned to places it had been avoiding. Research
shows however that despite a drastic decrease in CO2 emissions in 2020, it would require ongoing
concerted global efforts to achieve noticeable reductions of the pollution level in the atmosphere
(Storrow). What would it take for humanity to show compassion and empathy for animals and insects
and to heed the other serious crisis warnings we have been given on climate change, nature loss and on
the impending mass extinction of species?
In The Politics of Nature, Bruno Latour advocates for a new political ecology that brings together
humans and nonhumans by building a common world by favouring “sciences conceived as ways of
socializing nonhumans” (235). Latour joins other thinkers such as Donna Haraway21 and Timothy
Morton22 who advocate that establishing kinship with nonhumans23 and giving them a voice is key to
address the current ecological crisis.
In Solutions for Humanity on How to Conserve Insects, scientists urge us to “seek to find nonhuman
charisma to provide us with essential new opportunities for moving forward on the entwined destiny
of insects and humans“ (Samways 2). In this mindset, scientists recommend improving the image and
representation of insects by suggesting that: “insect icons and flagship species will help us greatly in
the task of improving insect conservation globally” (Samways 2). When looking for this nonhuman
charisma and positive representation, empathy is key. Raynald Harvey Lemelin, a professor at
Lakehead University has made human perception of insects, and their empathy towards them, the

34

focus of his research. Lemelin has led research projects and wrote multiple papers investigating human
empathy for arthropods. Lemelin is also the editor of The Management of Insects in Recreation and
Tourism, in which the concept of empathy towards insects is examined from various perspectives.
According to Lemelin, there are various factors that negatively impact the empathy of humans towards
insects such as entomophobia, nature deficit disorder, and anthropomorphism (The Management 6). The
book highlights, through various essays, some key approaches to establishing interspecies connections,
notably: overcoming anthropomorphic differences, bridging scalar differences and tapping into
significant childhood experiences.
A major obstacle to empathy with nonhumans is widely believed to be anthropomorphism.
According to research by Kawahara and Pyle summarized in The Management of Insects in Recreation and
Tourism“, it may be difficult for humans to relate to insects because they differ in morphology and
behavior” (143). Lemelin also refers to research along this way of thinking, "Despite this quest for
knowledge there is a general assumption in human-animal studies that preferred animals are those
perceived to be most human-like” (12). Lemelin goes on to mention that popular culture further
perpetuates this belief: “In situations where we do incorporate insects into our popular culture (A Bug's
Life, Fern Gully, Bee Movie), we anthropomorphize these creatures into human-like protagonists, thereby
reinforcing the notion that we can only admire creatures most like us” (13). Lemelin believes that these
notions are further reinforced by the pesticide industry promoting alienness and entomophobia (13).
With all these beliefs and notions intensifying the divide between the species, Kawahara and Pyle
assert that multiple studies confirm that: “Unfortunately, among birds, mammals, amphibians, fish and
arthropods, the latter receive the lowest humanistic and naturalistic scores and the highest negativistic
score” (143). This is also reflected in a recent study on empathy and compassion that finds that “the
emotional perceptions we can feel for a member of a given species seems to be largely related to its

35

ability to arouse anthropomorphic projections (attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to
non-human entities)” (Miralles 1). Anthropomorphism can be seen as inevitable and necessary in
animal studies (Bekoff 124). Marc Bekoff quotes Stephen Jay Gould’s assertion: “we are human and
cannot avoid the language and knowledge of our own emotional experience when we describe a
strikingly similar reaction observed in another species” (qtd. in Bekoff 125). In the case of arthropods,
however, their lack of anthropomorphic features and reactions fails to elicit positive emotional
responses from humans and this makes them “doubly othered as both animal and insect” (Kosut 247).

Evoking empathy in the indoor biome
During this past year of pandemic confinement, my focus inevitably turned to indoor ecology.
During that time, I read two books about the life of nonhumans indoors: The Living House by George
Ordish from 1960 and Never Home Alone, From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the
Natural History of Where We Live, written in 2018 by Rob Dunn. Rob Dunn is a professor of applied
ecology at North Carolina State University who has worked with collaborators worldwide on an
inventory of over 200,000 species of insects and arthropods that have settled in our homes. Even before
the pandemic, Dunn wrote: “We now live in a world defined by the walls of our houses and our
apartments, which are more connected to hallways and other homes than to the outdoors. In light of
this shift, it seems as though we should make it a priority to know which species are living indoors
with us and how they affect our well-being” (1). Dunn also asserts that “the indoors is one of the
fastest growing biomes on our planet, and it’s now bigger than some outdoor biomes” (10) and calls for
encouraging the biodiversity in these biomes: “we need to rewild our homes; we need to let the
wilderness back in, albeit a little selectively” (93).

36

Spider empathy series - Spider drinking dishes
When I relocated to Ottawa from Winnipeg in the fall of 2019, a small female Bronze Jumper
(Eris militaris) moved in with us, taking refuge on a kitchen chair. I immediately felt like I was
establishing a connection with the spider and I named her Charlie. After relocating Charlie to a
succulent plant by the window, I lost track of her until three months later, her little dried up carapace
fell down from the blinds and bounced on the window sill. I had failed her.
Spiders living in a house can go several weeks without food, but they need water regularly. As a
gesture of hospitality inspired by Charlie’s death, I have started giving water to all house spiders. In
some areas, I spray webs with a mist of water every few days. For other wandering species, I was
initially leaving little bottle caps with water and I eventually decided to create porcelain Spider drinking
dishes with reliefs of found spiders.
The reliefs are created by pressing clay in the imprints of the porcelain spider nodes I created
previously. The resulting relief is very detailed and serves as a memorial to so many spiders that were
found dried up in basements and attics after going for too many days without water. The edges of the
dishes have an organic shape and are porous and unglazed, making them easy to climb. The inside of
the dishes are shallow and finished with a food-safe glaze that is tinted with copper carbonate, a
copper salt that echoes the colour of the spider crystals. One of the reliefs was created from Charlie’s
imprint, a reminder of her grievability.

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Fig. 8 - Valérie Chartrand. Spider drinking dishes. Glazed porcelain. 1”-3’ diameter. 2021.

38

Spider empathy series - Spider narratives
The documentation of my indoor biome that was set in motion by my connection with Charlie
the spider expanded to four other species of spiders that inhabit my home. This led me to document
and write narratives about three of the species, focusing on one individual which I would establish a
connection with. In “Minding insects: scale, value, world”, entomologist Adam Dodd confirms that
“encapsulating insects in narratives is indeed a useful method with which to establish or encourage
‘connections’ to insects” (26).
In addition to the narrative, a factor that is key in establishing relationships with smaller beings
is overcoming differences in scale. Dodd speaks of the need to overcome what he calls “scalar
anthropocentrism” to establish connections with the insect world (27). Scalar anthropocentrism is the
impression that we cannot have meaningful interactions with something that is at a completely
different scale, such as “the infinitely little” (Michelet qtd. in Dodd 27). Dodd explains, “In the absence
of opportunities for responsive, social interaction with insects, our fascination with them is principally
derived from how they appear to us when we look at them” (27). The invention of microscopes has
contributed to a shift in how insects are perceived. Dodd says: “The visual preeminence of insects as
seen through the microscope tends to leave a mark upon the observer in the form of a mental image;
once an insect has been seen in greatly magnified detail, it is thereafter perceived with such detail in
mind, even when witnessed with the naked eye. This allows new evaluations, not only of the insect’s
form but also of its behaviour, its dignity and its virtue” (30). Dodd notes an interesting shift in culture
at the time during which humans overcame scalar distances: “This was the historical period that gave
birth to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when amateur microscopy reached its zenith, and lay folk

39

were everywhere were amazed by the elaborate complexity of the novel, a miniature world beneath
their very feet that, even within itself, seemed to have its giants and miniatures” (27).
These reflections on scale confirmed my human impression of connecting to the world of the
small much more effectively through lenses, through looking into the creature’s eyes. The passion I
developed over the last few years for insect and arachnid photography has allowed me privileged
access to arthropod worlds and has become a tool to attempt to bridge our human/nonhuman scalar
differences. Macro photography, whether it be with a digital camera or even a phone, has increased my
familiarity and connection to the world of the small.
As I felt a connection being established with the spiders, I felt compelled to give them human
names. Sune Borkfelt, a researcher in animal studies writes about naming: “it can be argued that as we
have, historically, come to regard other animals with greater complexity (and consider, for instance,
that they might be able to think or feel), it has become more common to use human names for them”
(122). Nonhuman animals we form an attachment to become less killable. Borkfelt writes: “For the
individual animals we choose to name, even if they are not conscious about it, being named can mean
the difference between life and death” (122). A name can even get an animal empathy on a broader
scale: “We regard an animal with a name differently and sometimes an individual animal with a
name—even a fictitious animal—may function as an ambassador and change perceptions of an entire
species” (122).
To further bridge the human/nonhuman divide, I opted to share my experience and
documentation through three flip books enhanced with an augmented reality framework to share
images I had gathered over time.

40

In the spring of 2020, I witnessed the hatching of spiderlings in my studio and documented this
until all the spiders eventually left the web a few weeks later. I kept a short daily journal and
documented the grass spiders (Agelenopsis sp.) with video, photography and microscopy. This became a
narrative entitled The Life of Bryan. In the summer of 2020, I found a triangulate cobweb spider (Steatoda
triangulosa) in my living room who had egg sacs that were about to hatch. I relocated the spider and the
egg sacs to my studio where we are happily cohabiting. This became a narrative entitled Gretchen and
the Universe.
While grass and cobweb spiders brought me feelings of compassion and empathy, yellow-sac
spiders (Cheiracanthium sp.) immediately triggered dread. My lack of familiarity with the species, their
red eyes and fangs, their speed and behaviour, the perceived threat of their venom, or of them running
through the house while I was sleeping at night, made me toss and turn and gave me nightmares. For
the first time, I felt the discomfort of arachnophobia. Spiders cause phobias in many people but can
also be the source of what entomologist Jeff Lockwood terms “the negative sublime”, which is the thrill
of attraction to things that scare us (Lockwood 37). This encouraged me to get to know one of the
yellow-sac spiders, and I found that familiarization helped to slightly alleviate my fear and to have a
newfound admiration for them. Lemelin, in a co-authored study on human-spider entanglements,
writes that through education and awareness, “it may be impossible to completely eliminate fear, but it
should be possible to alter the attitudes of many people from fear to cautionary acceptance, respect, or
even admiration through education and familiarization” (Lemelin and Yen 222). As I acknowledged
my fear and attempted to familiarize myself with the yellow-sac spider, I created a narrative entitled
Julia and the Negative Sublime.

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All three narratives for Bryan, Gretchen and Julia have become flip books that use a similar
storytelling approach. The simple narrative is told from the first-person perspective of someone who is
not a scientist and who expresses their feelings for the subjects observed. Simple line drawings and
background photographs are used to illustrate the books. These illustrations and photos allow a reader
to follow and understand the stories without requiring any additional content. An additional layer of
augmented reality has been added to the books. Augmented reality brought up with our phones to
discover the spiders, to bridge scalar differences and to discover what we don’t normally see or pay
attention to is a parallel to how phones allow us to discover the world, to magnify things, to view them
in much greater detail, and get new information about them at our fingertips. This allows us also to
notice a very real part of the world that we either don’t notice or that we consciously decide to block
out. Adam Dodd refers to “the insect world” as a mythical space that has come to “function as a
conscious metaphor for the unconscious mind”. A world that is “both here and there, with us,
surrounding us, beneath or behind our lived, conscious reality, influencing our lives in ways of which
we are normally only vaguely aware of” (Dodd 31). Dodd recognizes that “Modern domestic spaces,
in particular, are largely defined by their selective inclusion of nonhuman organisms and successful
exclusion of insects” and that this can lead to the belief that if we can’t see the insects in our
environment, they are not there24 (Dodd 32). The lack of attention to insects may also come from the
reduction of experiences with nature, which as a study on human and nature connections can lead to
“an individual’s connection to the natural world [to] be reduced to such an extent that nature may not
even be noticed” (Shwartz et. al qtd. in Schuttler et al. 2). Turning on this additional augmented reality
layer with close-ups of spiders in an indoor setting is an attempt of bringing back the “mythical space
of the insect world” that “actually refers to a reality more real than the space we inhabit both physically
and cognitively” (Dodd 32).

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Fig. 9 - Valérie Chartrand. Page from Gretchen and the Universe. Flip book with augmented reality photos and
video. 12” x 15”. 2021.

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Fig. 10 - Valérie Chartrand. The life of Bryan. 2021. Augmented reality book, hand-bound, inkjet on lokta paper,
chipboard, craft paper, watercolour paper. 12" x 15". Photo: Adrienne Row - Smith | Firegrove Studio

44

The augmented reality framework I am using to create that additional layer in the books
(A-Frame and AR.js) is web-based, free, open source and does not require users to download an app.
The first book I created uses number code recognition and the last two leverage non-fungible tokens
(NFT)25 for image recognition to trigger the augmented reality layer. This framework is the same
technology that allowed me to develop the IntersecT web app. I see the importance of leveraging this
technology because it is easily and freely available to artists and their audiences. In January 2020, I
presented a workshop for artists interested in using Web technology to create augmented reality
experiences through Video Pool in Winnipeg.

Spider empathy series - Empathy portraits
In the last year, I also took many photos of the jumping spiders in my biome. Just like with
Charlie, I felt an immediate connection to the three species of jumping spiders living around my home.
Jumping spiders can be extremely curious and interactive. This is due to their vision that is as sharp as
a dog’s and their hearing that can detect sounds from over three meters away. They are constantly
assessing their environment for prey or mates and are curious about all movements and sounds. This
behaviour can lead to engaging moments of interaction between humans and spiders. The spiders’
two prominent eyes make them easier to anthropomorphize than spiders with eight eyes of the same
size which immediately look alien. By sharing some of these photos with my cohort during crit
sessions and on social media, a lot of people who would not normally connect with spiders responded
very positively. This resulted in a series called Empathy Portraits with a focus on the jumping spiders in
and around my home.

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Fig. 11 - Valérie Chartrand. Empathy Portrait I. Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper. 12” x 18”. 2021.

46

The jumping spider photos prompted some people to share childhood experiences during which
they connected with arachnids as children. Early childhood is seen as a key period to developing
empathy for nonhumans by various researchers. In “Collecting, owning and observing insects”,
Kawahara and Pyle hypothesize that connections with nature and insects are formed in early
childhood. “While children are often perceived as being interested in animals at all ages, there is a time
when their interest will heighten. From an entomological perspective, we could almost conclude that
all kids are born entomologists until they learn not to be” (142).

Evoking empathy through significant experiences
Even though it may be more significant during childhood, research shows that no matter the
age, “people who have greater experiences of the natural environment may express greater affective
connection to it than those with less experience” (Berto 3).
It is in this line of thought that both the Phototaxis and IntersecT projects were created, to
establish opportunities outdoors in urban and peri-urban environments for immersion and for
connection between humans and arthropods in their environment by establishing connections and
experiences akin to citizen science.
Phototaxis attracts insects like an entomologist's mothing installation would for scientific
observations. Artist, ecological advocate, and biologist Brandon Ballengée also uses the insect light tent
principle not only for scientific investigations but as the basis for his ongoing Love Motel art pieces to
raise awareness and create temporary points of interaction and empathy between humans and
arthropods26. In Phototaxis, I am referencing fallen insects that were very likely detracted from their life
cycles by light pollution with screen prints of their found bodies on silk as well as allowing an

47

opportunity to document live insects landing temporarily on the silk with cyanotypes. The observation
and documentation create the opportunity for an immersive experience and is leveraging citizen
science techniques, putting humans in contact with species they may not have encountered otherwise.
IntersecT also allows for an immersive experience by allowing the discovery of citizen science
observations that are directly pulled from the iNaturalist database. This raises awareness about insect
species in a person’s immediate surroundings. The web app also encourages a user to document their
own observations in iNaturalist, to contribute to the database and see them become part of the IntersecT
augmented reality layer.
Research shows that citizen science has the potential to reverse extinction of experience with
nature by encouraging people to go outside and to notice natural species in their immediate
environment (Schuttler et al. 7). In Solutions for Humanity on How to Conserve Insects, scientists remind
us that “with possible exception of concern over the loss of bees and pollination services, civil society
in general does not see ‘the use’ of insects, which is where insect icons, popular media, natural history
clubs, education, and citizen scientist activities can all play a major role” (Samways 14). It is my goal to
establish an experience similar to those encountered through citizen science activities with both
IntersecT and the Swarm through the documentation, the familiarization and the connection to
nonhuman animals in our immediate environment.
From accepting to share our homes with arachnids with the Spider drinking dishes, to overcoming
anthropomorphic differences with the Spider narratives to bridging scalar differences with the Empathy
portraits to tapping into significant childhood experiences with immersive pieces, the work attempts to
establish a connection between species that can eventually lead to compassion, kinship and empathy.

48

Fig. 12 - Brandon Ballengée, Love Motel for Insects: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Variation. Black Ultra-violet lights, steel,
aluminum, fabric, native plants, invited insects. 18’ x 16’ x 14’. 2015. Photograph by Matt Steele. Used with
permission from the artist.

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Matter
As I was pursuing my inquiries, I also wondered how artists could communicate a sense of
empathy through their manipulation of materials, of matter. This led me back to the German romantic
concept of Einfühlung (literally “in-feeling”, translated in English as empathy). On Einfühlung,
Georges Didi-Huberman says: “Empathy is so important in this context only because it designates a
process in which inorganic forms are incorporated into organic forms, in which “life” is projected onto
the “thing”'' (The Surviving 256). In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari echo this when they
write about Worringer’s concept of the organic form: “The organic does not designate something
represented, but above all the form of representation, and even the feeling that unites representation
with a subject (Einfühlung, "empathy")" (498).
Ecologist and philosopher David Abram, in a February 2021 presentation for the online
symposium on Magic and Ecology at Cambridge university, also captured the concept of feeling into
matter but took it a step further towards materialism by reminding us of our commonality with other
bodies. Abram said “We are composed of the same stuff as the rest of this earthly world and so my
body, by its very nature, has a capacity to feel-into, to resonate with, to be infected by and sometimes
become possessed by any other body that I encounter whether it be the body of an oak tree, of a spider
spinning its web, or the body of a boulder covered with crinkly black and red lichens” (Abram 14:20).
From an artistic perspective, new materialism leads to reflections about the interconnection of
bodies whether they be human or nonhuman, organic or nonorganic. In my practice, this has impacted
my reflections on matter and the selection of materials that come to play in my work. In these
reflections around interconnections and matter, I join vital materialists in embracing what Jane Bennett
refers to as a certain “methodological naïveté” through which they find a “sense of a strange and

50

incomplete commonality with the outside” that “may induce vital materialists to treat nonhumans
—animals, plants, earth, even artifacts and commodities—more carefully, more strategically, more
ecologically” (Bennett 36).

Interconnections
Interconnections is a series of pieces that has developed as a result of my creative research of the
last two years. My material explorations and my readings have led to the development of a networked
assemblage of components that generate electricity and undergo ongoing material transformations. It
is the result of reflections around the interconnections between species in the web of life and around
key inorganic and organic components in our environment being essential but also detrimental when
out of balance. Interconnections is a network that connects porcelain spider nodes, copper insect nodes
and microenvironments made of organic material, cyanobacteria and copper. The piece aims to frame
the current ecological crisis as well as document and memorialize disappearing species.

Spider Nodes
The Interconnections project started with the gathering of perished insects, spiders and
cyanobacteria. During my first term at ECUAD, I was encouraged to work with a medium that was
new to me. This led me to experiment with the creation of ceramic tiles with imprints of found insects.
Through this experimentation, I discovered the formation of blue crystals in the abdomens of the
spiders I imprinted in stoneware. The discovery of copper crystals in spiders fired in clay, distilling
creatures to their crystalline essence, impacted my making and inspired me to follow a new path.
Through reflections on spiders, webs and on Donna Haraway’s concepts of tentacular thinking and
sympoiesis, my square clay tiles evolved into circular nodes that would become part of a network. I

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continued gathering perished spiders over the last two years to create porcelain nodes with spider
imprints and the resulting blue crystals.
As I was investigating crystals, my material research brought me to read Jane Bennett’s Vibrant
Matter. What Jane Bennett calls “thingpower” manifests itself in the inorganic: “even the humblest
forms of matter and energy have the potential for selforganization beyond the relatively simple type
involved in the creation of crystals.” In my work, what initially began as a reflection on blue (likely
copper) crystals formed in the abdomen of spiders fired in clay, moved to reflections around copper
being the core of the spider’s blood molecules, to copper being an essential trace mineral in humans
(“we are walking, talking minerals” (Bennett 31)), to copper conducting electricity, and to copper
crystals growing from electrolytes in contact with the metal.

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Fig. 13 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections - spider nodes. Porcelain with naturally occurring blue inclusion.
2” diameter. 2020-2021.

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Insect Nodes
For my printmaking practice, part of setting up a non-toxic studio at home involved moving
away from strong acids and chemicals normally involved in the etching process. Electroetching
involves passing a weak electrical current between a positive and a negative electrode through an
electrolyte solution to etch a plate. My preference is to etch copper plates using a copper sulphate
solution. Copper sulphate in its crystalline form is very similar to the blue spider crystals. The link
between the spider pieces and the other copper components of my practice developed into the idea of
connecting etched copper nodes to the spider pieces through copper threads. As I was directing my
work towards nodes and networks, I focused on memorializing found insects by etching their imprints
on copper circles/nodes and using the copper plates themselves in my work rather than using them for
printmaking.
With the development of the concept of nodes and interconnectivity, the idea of working on a
battery surfaced. I realized that the etched copper insect circles, paired with aluminum and an
electrolyte could become cells that generate electricity. I viewed the concept of this electrical network as
a physical manifestation of insects that are indispensable to ecological networks and that over time are
disappearing as their lights extinguish. By creating a small-scale version of an electrical network with
Interconnections, I also thought of Jane Bennett’s reference to the power grid as an example of an
assemblage that results in a “action and responsibility that crosses the humannonhuman divide” (41).
Bennett describes an electrical power grid as “a material cluster of charged parts that have indeed
affiliated, remaining in sufficient proximity and coordination to produce distinctive effects” (41)
resulting from humans and nonhuman elements.

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Fig. 14 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections, insect node detail (moth). 2020-2021. Copper. 2" diameter. Photo:
Adrienne Row - Smith | Firegrove Studio

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Micro-environments
Following my reflections on environmental changes and cyanobacteria, I started by encouraging
blue-green algae to bloom on substrate to create what I called micro-environments. The first
experimentation was on paper pulp and evolved to growing the cyanobacteria on agar circles. The
pieces on agar referenced Petri dishes and resulted in micro-environments with a topographic relief.
While I was experimenting with electrolytes to generate electricity with copper pieces, I ended up with
fungus-like or lichen-like crystal growths from salt and vinegar on copper. I pushed this investigation
further by growing the crystals with copper inclusions on branches and bark with lichen (a symbiont of
cyanobacteria and fungi), with cyanobacteria and other organic material to create three-dimensional
micro-environments. The transformation of these pieces is never complete, it keeps developing with
the similar green and blue colour palettes of the copper and cyanobacteria and the crystalline structure
evolving slowly over time. The pieces are like microcosms hosting bacteria and minerals that can be
essential and beneficial or harmful and toxic when out of balance.
The investigations that led to Interconnections allowed me to further my reflections on my
established practice and to uncover copper in crystalline and metallic forms as a common thread that
weaves through my artwork. My material research with copper in its different forms allowed me to
discover its range as a pigment and its conceptual importance for me as an artist focused on
environmental issues.

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Fig. 15 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections I. 2020-2021. Copper, aluminum, porcelain, salt, vinegar, agar, wood,
cyanobacteria, moss, LED light. 4” x 3” x 1”. Electricity generated by the piece. Photo: Adrienne Row - Smith |
Firegrove Studio

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Fig. 16 - Valérie Chartrand. Interconnections I. 2020-2021. Copper, aluminum, porcelain, salt, vinegar,
agar, wood, cyanobacteria, moss, LED light. 2' x 2'. Electricity generated by the piece.

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Copper, cyanobacteria and interconnections
From spider crystals to electroetching with blue copper sulphate crystals, to growing
microenvironments, first with cyanobacteria and eventually with copper crystals, both copper and
cyanobacteria became key to my material research. Together they deploy a similar pallet of blues and
greens. Both are unstable and change colour over time.
In an essay about what he calls the Cyanocene, author Dorion Sagan writes about cyanobacteria
as the origin of the greening of the planet: “The green beings spread across the surface of the planet in a
kind of green fire that has still not stopped burning” (Sagan M169). Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae
is 3.5 billion years old and has been responsible for important changes on the surface of the planet but
was also essential to our evolution as it was responsible for the addition of oxygen in the atmosphere.
With climate change, cyanobacteria is a growing threat to many ecosystems. Out of balance,
cyanobacteria can be toxic, it can overtake bodies of water and kill them by changing the PH and with
its decomposition, removing the oxygen in the water.
Copper as a micronutrient is essential to most living things. It is in the core of the blood cells of
spiders and many other arthropods. It is essential for the human brain to function. Copper has
antimicrobial, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Copper connects us to various networks, is used
for electrical and data wires and for pipes connecting us to water sources. Burning fossil fuels,
particularly coal, release copper pollution. Copper in high concentrations in the environment is toxic.
Cyanobacteria require copper micronutrients for photosynthesis but in large quantities, copper
will kill cyanobacteria. Copper is an algaecide used to remove cyanobacteria from water bodies and
surfaces. Copper and cyanobacteria serve as a metaphor for inorganic and organic components in our
environment being essential, but also being detrimental when out of balance.

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The use of copper and cyanobacteria as materials, as examples of vibrant matter, allow me to
generate microcosms of an environment out of balance and serve as the support and backdrop to reflect
on climate change and the disappearance of species.

Ecology, empathy and matter
In Staying With the Trouble, Haraway refers to matter as an essential ingredient for worlding and
evocatively states that “Matter, mater, mutter make me —make us, that collective gathered in the
narrative bag of the Chthulucene— stay with the natural cultural multispecies trouble on earth” (121).
In Vibrant Matter, Jane Bennett uses speculative storytelling to arrive at her considerations on
matter. Bennett writes: “One moral of the story is that we are also nonhuman and that things, too, are
vital players in the world. The hope is that the story will enhance receptivity to the impersonal life that
surrounds and infuses us, will generate a more subtle awareness of the complicated web of dissonant
connections between bodies, and will enable wiser interventions into that ecology” (Vibrant 24).
These threads of thought, like radius threads of a spider web, tie my reflections on materials and
matter back to the generation of empathy for nonhumans and to ecological considerations around our
collective trouble.

Conclusion
Through material research, ecological reflections, and attempts to establish kinship with
nonhumans animals, my creative research has resulted in a body of work documenting live arachnids
and insects and memorializing fallen ones. My work has focused on observations in urban and
peri-urban environments, and in indoor and outdoor biomes. I have also pushed my research on

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conceptual and material choices and experimentation, leading to new conscious material choices that
will persist as a new vocabulary in my practice. As a strategy at this stage in my work, I am focusing on
sharing my own sense of empathy with insects and arachnids by infusing it as visual poetry into my work in the
hope to inspire opportunities for positive encounters, to instill wonder and to change human perception of
arthropods from killable to grievable.

Communicating the value of arthropod lives and encouraging people to get to the stage of
compassion, empathy and grief is one step, but to have significant impact on ecological issues,
solutions proposed by scientists involve communicating the instrumental value of insects in “the
language of policymakers and environmentally responsible large corporate landholders” (Samways 2).
This ties into Guattari’s tri-ecological vision and the belief that artistic creation can be a means to work
towards new modes of subjectivity that can eventually translate into policy changes. As I revisit my
initial question with ecosophy in mind, I wonder if some of the answers I seek could lie in reaching the
three ecological spheres defined by Guattari: to reach the psyche/personal for a sense of empathy,
compassion and kinship with insects and arachnids, to reach the socius/cultural to encourage
thoughtful cohabitation and to eventually impact and reach the environmental sphere through the
adoption of sustainable ecological practices.
It is important to note that I feel that I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities that
have opened up during my MFA research. I see the interest to continue my investigations like artists
such as Eleanor Morgan who pursued her research on spider silk, a material she had discovered
through her practice. Through her PhD work, the artist looked at how “forms and materials made by
nonhuman animals affect human making” and it also resulted in a book, Gossamer Days: Spiders,
Humans and Their Threads.

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During the Centre Pompidou’s Festival Hors Pistes in February 2021, Vinciane Despret, in
conversation with Tomás Saraceno, described spider webs as the most intimate part of the spider,
coming from inside its body and becoming its extended cognition. To paraphrase, Despret said that the
spider itself becomes an umwelt, that it extends its body, connecting to a lot of other beings, and that in
that sense, each spider comes with a pluriverse, a web of relationships (Avec qui 35:00). This left me
thinking that, when bridging the human/nonhuman divide, the artist, like a spider (or becoming-with
spider), opens the most intimate part of themselves by sharing their artistic creations, which can lead to
the formation of a web of relationships.
Moving forward with my practice, there is no end to the inspiration I see around me as I follow
insect life cycles and emergences, and let the observations guide me while trying to capture a glimpse
of the fleeting and the ephemeral. With tentacular thinking and sympoeisis as my carrier bag27, I feel
well-equipped to take on new investigations as I follow the seasons.

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Postscript
Whether they have seen my artwork online, or in person during my thesis exhibition at Gallery
101 in Ottawa, I have heard from several people that it has led them to think about their small
housemates differently and to be more hospitable to them. I saw this as a step towards compassion and
empathy that can lead to further action in larger spheres to help the impending extinction of species.
But ambivalence also surfaced when discussing the presence of uninvited nonhumans in one’s
home. In conversation with ambivalent visitors, I found myself referring to Rob Dunn’s concept of
rewilding our homes “albeit a little selectively”(93) more than once. According to Jacques Derrida,
human hospitality can rarely be unconditional. In Hostipitality, Derrida writes: “it is the law of the
household <where it is precisely the patron of the house – he who receives, who is master in his house
[...] who defines the conditions of hospitality or welcome; where consequently there can be no
unconditional welcome, no unconditional passage through the door>”(4). When it comes to insects in
our home, there is normally no invitation, only visitation. According to Derrida, “the distinction
between invitation and visitation may be the distinction between conditional hospitality (invitation)
and unconditional hospitality, if I accept the coming of the other, the arriving [arrivance] of the other
who could come at any moment” (16). Unconditional hospitality for the visitors who arrive without
notice may be the key to becoming more empathetic and aligned with ecological thinking. In a
reflection about Derrida and ecological philosophy, Michael Marder remarks that “ecology refrains
from defining the conditions of hospitality and extends to all its ‘unconditional welcome’”(158).
The Spider drinking dishes are an expression of unconditional hospitality for more-than-humans.
It is an act of generosity with no expectation of anything in return. As I installed my thesis show at
Gallery 101, I discovered a family of cellar spiders (Pholcidae sp.) who spent three weeks interacting

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with the dishes in various ways. The piece brought visitors, both human and arachnid, together, giving
us a chance to think with and become with the smaller beings in our environment.
The interest of the cellar spiders and their interaction with the dishes was unexpected, and I saw
this as a step towards my art practice becoming a praxis of care. As I move forward towards new
work, I am emboldened to continue striving for unconditional hospitality in my home and in my yard,
and to lead by example to engage publics to start caring more locally to, hopefully, eventually have an
impact globally.

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Fig. 17 - Valérie Chartrand. Spider drinking dishes, detail with a curious cellar spider. 2021. Glazed porcelain,
1"-3" diameter.

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Endnotes
1. Many organizations use iconographic images of bees to inspire broader ecological conservation
initiatives and the protection of pollinators. https://www.beesmatter.ca/learning-center-infographic,
https://alwaysbeeloved.com/en/2018/08/13/if-we-die-were-taking-you-with-us/. Dreamworks’ Bee
Movie is an example of ecological messages delivered through anthropomorphized bee characters.
https://www.dreamworks.com/movies/bee-movie.
2. The global pest control market is experiencing constant growth, especially in North America
https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2021/03/30/2201686/0/en/Global-Pest-ControlMarket-Projected-to-Surpass-31-782-1-Million-Growing-at-4-8-CAGR-till-2027-Exclusive-COVID-19-Im
pact-Analysis-237-pages-Report-by-Research-Dive.html
3. The Pimoa cthulhu spider is at the origin of Haraway’s reflections about the current era that she refers
to as the Chtulucene rather than the Anthropocene in Staying with the Trouble. Haraway writes:
“‘Chthulucene’ is a simple word. It is a compound of two Greek roots ( khthôn and kainos ) that
together name a kind of timeplace for learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying in
response-ability on a damaged earth” (2).
4. Mentoring Artists for Women’s Arts
5. Donna Haraway’s term for making-with (Staying 5)
6. Haraway refers to response-ability as “collective knowing and doing”, an ecology of practices
(Staying 34).
7. Whether arthropods can be true collaborators is worth questioning. As in the conversation I
reference between Vinciane Despret and Tomás Saraceno, what we perceive as a collaboration may be
closer to a mutual interference in one another’s lives, which implies a sense of response-ability from
both parties.
8. Writings by thinkers and biologists such as Donna Haraway, Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Robin
Wall Kimmerer and EO Wilson have helped my work develop conceptually. As my creative research
progressed, I delved into philosophy and reflections around interconnectedness and ecological
concerns by Timothy Morton, Bruno Latour, Vinciane Despret, Jane Bennett, Félix Guattari and Gilles
Deleuze. I also draw inspiration from the work of French art historian and philosopher Georges
Didi-Huberman who looks at imprint as the origin of image creation and explores parallels between
perspectives on art and observations on certain insects such as moths and walking sticks in a series of
essays.
9. Neologism combining “sym”, with, and “chtonic”, belonging to the Chtulucene, used as a synonym
to sympoetic.
10. The analysis of the blue inclusions found in the abdomen area of spiders fired in clay is pending,
their crystalline structure or composition has not been confirmed, but their appearance led me to refer
to them as spider crystals for the time being.
11. Georges Didi-Huberman refers to the practice of mortuary masks as creating “a resemblance through
contact guaranteeing life beyond the grave for the face of the dead” (“une ressemblance par contact
garante de vie outre-tombe pour le visage du mort”) (Ressemblance 59).
12. Delving deeper into Judith Butler’s concept of grievable lives, I turned to Frames of War in which
she discusses photography and grieving in relation to loss and states that “the photograph, through its
relation to the future anterior, instates grievability (96)” and that “if we are shaken or "haunted" by a

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photograph, it is because the photograph acts on us in part through outliving the life it documents; it
establishes in advance the time in which that loss will be acknowledged as a loss” (97). This is inspiring
me to continue my exploration of photography and prints of arthropods in relation to grievability.
13. Many thinkers, including Donna Haraway and Heather Davis question the use of the term
Anthropocene and propose other alternatives. Davis writes “The Anthropocene is a disturbing concept.
Imported from Geology to signify a proposed new epoch when humanity is the primary geologic
agent, its life within the humanities, arts and social sciences has been a troubling one” (Davis 63).
14. Capitalocene was a term acquired and defined by Haraway to speak of the role of capitalism in
extraction and in the geological transformations of the Anthropocene. (Staying 50)
15. Plantationocene is another term proposed by Haraway. “There is a way in which the
Plantationocene forces attention to the growing of food and the plantation as a system of multispecies
forced labor. The plantation system speeds up generation time. The plantation disrupts the generation
times of all the players. (Mitman 5)
16. See endnote #3.
17. Phototaxis refers to motion caused by light. Organisms with positive phototaxis move towards it,
while those with negative phototaxis move away from it.
18. As one example, the Butterfly Conservation Society has published a fact sheet on mothing without
harm to the moths
https://butterfly-conservation.org/sites/default/files/moths-count-factsheet-1-how-to-start-mothing.
pdf
19. Ahimsa, Sanskrit for noninjury, is a principle of nonviolence towards all living creatures.
(Britannica)
20. The Doomsday Clock was started by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and
represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe since 1947. In 2021, the clock is set at 100
seconds to midnight. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
21. In Haraway’s words: “We need to make kin symchthonically, sympoetically. Who and whatever we
are, we need to make-with—become-with, compose-with—the earth-bound (thanks for that term,
Bruno Latour–in-Anglophone-mode)” (Staying 102)
22. Morton writes in Humankind: “It’s not just that you can have solidarity with nonhumans. It’s that
solidarity implies nonhumans. Solidarity requires nonhumans. Solidarity just is solidarity with
nonhumans” (189).
23. As defined by Jane Bennett, nonhumans can include “animals, plants, earth, even artifacts and
commodities” (36) (including technological “others”). In the context of this paper, my focus is
nonhuman animals.
24. According to Dodd, the concept of the insect world is “a symbolic constructs predicated on what's
Slavoj Zizek has discussed at length as fetishistic disavowal, which follows the structure of: “I know
very well that [insects are all around us] but I choose to act as if I don't know it” (Dodd 32).
25. Non-fungible token (NFT) technology assigns a unique digital token to a media asset, in this case,
an image.
26. Brandon Ballengée combines art and science in ways that inspire environmental actions. I
discovered Ballengée thanks to my thesis supervisor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design
professor Cameron Cartiere, and I see many parallels in his work and mine. See his work, Love Motels
for insects https://brandonballengee.com/projects/love-motels/.

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27. Haraway, referring to Ursula Leguin’s Carrier Bag of Fiction, writes: “Sympoesis is a carrier bag for
ongoingness, a yoke for becomingwith, for staying with the trouble of inheriting the damages and
achievements of colonial and postcolonial naturalcultural histories in telling the tale of still possible
recuperation” (125).

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