“Becoming-Plant by Way of Bergson’s Method of Intuition” – Anthony Nestel

In her recent lecture for the TiM seminar series, Manuela Infante quoted plant philosopher Michael Marder with regard to the making of her piece Estado Vegetal (2017): “to recognize a valid ‘other’ in plants is also beginning to recognize that vegetal other within us” (Infante 2020). In order to make sense of the above quote, I will make an appeal to Bergson’s “divisions of life” (Grosz 2005, 215).

Life for Bergson is an absolute contingency: there is no precise explanation for why it unfolded in the forms – humans, animals, plants, etc. – it currently embodies on earth. Life, according to Bergson, has no evolutionary plan, purpose, function or goal. It is only in retrospect that any clear tendency or direction can be discerned. He distinguishes two tendencies/lines along which life unfolds: life as becoming-plant and life as becoming-animal. Bergson defines these becomings as tendencies for the very reason that they are never exclusionary. Regardless of their differences, plant and animal share a common origin, they deviate from one another more and more as duration unfolds, cultivating different goals and intentions. In this respect, these tendencies are in flux, orientations, directions, rather than attributes or static qualities (Bergson 1998). Consequently, following Bergson, animals always possess the inherent potentiality to actualize becoming-plant tendencies, or, in other words, animals have the capacity to become more plant.

Such a difficult endeavor, however, requires some overhuman effort. Bergson conceives this possibility as the overcoming of the human condition through his philosophical method of “intuition”. Intuition, according to Bergson, cannot be confused with empathy, sympathy or feelings; it is an accurate method, able to be sharpened and practiced, for the only purpose of grasping, catching duration. This method anticipates the intellect’s tendencies of representation and symbolization. It takes thus place through a temporary confusion since unlike the intellect, intuition emphasizes the essential interconnectedness of all actual and virtual tendencies in a continuously heterogeneous dynamic whole that is the cosmos. Through intuition, the practitioner can delve into this continuous movement or flow, which Bergson also calls duration or life. This is the main reason why Bergson claims that we all have access, on an everyday basis, to at least some forms or aspects of intuition. These derive from the subjective, personal inner continuity that consists of sensations, actions and affections within a subject. This experience of continuity, as Bergson argues, cannot be grasped by the intellect as changes in one yield changes, imperceptibly, in all (Bergson 2010).

Hence, in my understanding of Infante’s quote, following Bergson, to recognize the vegetal within us requires an impersonal plunge within the flow of life. This can only be done by setting aside our intellect. Therefore, as Infante would affirm, Estado Vegetal does not always or entirely make rational sense: the performance succeeds to actualize plant-becoming tendencies as part of its development and performativity. How that takes form, is unfortunately beyond the scope of this short blog post.

References

• Bergson, Henri. 2010. The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics. New York: Dover Publications Inc.
• Bergson, Henri. 1998. Creative Evolution. New York: Dover Publications Inc.
• Grosz, Elisabeth. 2005. The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely. North Carolina: Duke University Press.
• Infante, Manuela. “Plant-Based Dramaturgy.” Presentation, Tim seminar series “Knowledge in Making – Design by Doing”, Utrecht, November 18, 2020.