Effervescence At The Edges: Contours Of The Political In The Containers Of Fermentation

• In Event: Ferment as Method: Creating the Conditions for Transformative Relations - II

Abstract

In this paper, I wish to consider the role of the container in shaping ferments – both as the form that holds the process of fermentation, and also as the limit that allows fermentation to occur, to collapse, and sometimes even to explode. The very materiality of the container (earthen-ware and glass, plastics, recycled mason jars and jam bottles) is a matter of concern; as is the recipe that inhabits the container. It is the strength of the relations between the various ingredients of the ferment that will produce the effervescence to be negotiated at the edge of the container, letting it seep out into the world, or dive back into the space of queer (un)becoming. Ultimately, for me, this concern with containers offers the possibility to think about effervescence in a political context, especially in relation to community and activism in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. What lessons and insights can be gained from tracing social movements against the process of fermentation? In this paper, I put my own participation in solidarity building and local citizen activism networks in Davis, CA into conversation with fermentation to see what cross-pollinates, and what hybrid insights I can take back to both activism and to fermentation. This is not using fermentation as untethered metaphor, rather it is about thinking through the possibilities and the limits of this metaphor, by paying due attention to the materials and methods that make fermentation possible.

Author

• Anuj Vaidya