Critical companions

Since 2022, when I brought a small plant to NordiCHI conference for the first time, I explore plant participation in human context. Stanislav - who has a human name and a gender, joined me during all the parts of the conference, from talks to social happenings. In 2023, I have brought another jade plant, Vratislav, who joined me on my travels to Europe and CHI 2023. 

This is a written reflection on my activities is an excerpt from a chapter called Being with Plants through Collective Fabulation, Critical Companionship and Cohabitation, published in More-Than-Human Design in Practice (2024). It explains origins of the name and summarizes some of the relevant activities:

“When I visited one of my closest friends, just before I left her apartment, she came holding a small pot with a tiny money plant, as a gift for me. I was not surprised, as exchanging plants is a common practice among my friends group. I asked jokingly "Is there a name?" and she said "Stanislav". This shows how the naming and gendering of Stanislav and Vratislav was heavily grounded in the social context I found myself in – and this experience became the starting point for a more intentional exploration of companionship with plants at conferences. 

Carrying a plant around is an atypical activity at conferences. I often held Stanislav or Vratislav in my hand during coffee breaks or brought them with me when moving between rooms I also brought them to all social activities such as conference dinners or getting a beer in the evening. Their presence prompted others to approach me and inquire about “my plant”. I often set the scene by stating “This is Stanislav/Vratislav, my participant” and continued explaining how they connect to more-than-human design and my design work. These conversations sometimes led to deeper discussions connected to plants in design, such as if they are participants, living beings or materials in design; and the meaning of plants in pots we keep at home. 

As the conference progressed, caring for Stanislav/Vratislav became a collaborative effort. Many started to recognise him and inquired about how he was or how he enjoyed the conference, either to me or directly to him (though I always provided the answer). Eventually, if I did not have Stanislav in my hand, others would inquire about where he was. As it was difficult to constantly manipulate both him and other objects relevant to conference attendance (my phone, coffee mug, laptop, bag etc.), I often left him standing on a table where I asked the closest person standing by to keep an eye on him or ask another person to hold him. I could also observe changes in myself - during the five days, holding the pot with Stanislav in my hand became a habit, and I would sometimes tap one of the leaves as a type of calming behaviour.  

The moment when I received the plant/Stanislav, though seemingly so small, is of high significance to those who took part in it. First of all, my friend knows I love plants and this was an expression of her knowing me; by giving me this particular gift she knew it would make me happy. Next, sharing resources is an expression of our small community of friends, who care somehow for sustainability and who got used to sharing their belongings (instead of throwing them away). Finally, and here quite crucially, the name “Stanislav” can be found both in Polish (the native language of my friend) and Czech (my native language). It refers to our common cultural heritage, something we often jokingly refer to that has had an actual impact on us: being part of a Slavic nation and the same political unit (Soviet Union). Vratislav (my second plant) is also a money plant and I chose a Czech name with the same root, suggesting their relatedness. So even though I did not receive Vratislav as a gift, he is connected to Stanislav through their common story of naming them. 

The names additionally came with a gender. Money plants reproduce asexually, i.e. the plants do not have a particular sex. In the Slavic languages, every word is gendered; Stanislav is a man's name. I choose to keep the name related to gender. Though I (correctly) suspected that the majority of the conference participants speak English I will not have an intuitive understanding of this context, I decided to keep the male gender for the following reasons: when talking about them, it emphasises the agency that resides in the plant side off the relationship (in contrast to calling him “it” as an object), this aligns with more-than-human approaches of bringing marginalised agency to the front. In addition, other conference participants would often inquire about the reasons for his gender and it would allow us to dive into a concrete discussion about more-than-human design.”

Cited from Cerna, K., Rosén, A. P., Chen, Y., Tomico, O., & Sanders, D. (2024). Being with plants through collective fabulation, critical companionship and cohabitation. In More-Than-Human Design in Practice (1st Edition, pp. 16–29). Routledge.