Trace Matter: A Slow Encounter with the Urban Soil

This hands-on workshop explores soil chromatography as a slow, analog visual technique to read the stories embedded in urban soils. By extracting color patterns from local earth samples, participants engage with the material and non-human world (microbes, minerals, histories) through attentive observation. Inspired by artistic research practice “berl-birl,” we pause to listen to what soil reveals when we stop extracting and start relating. Participants will create their own chromatograms while reflecting on slowness as a way to mend systems, deepen urban knowledge, and cultivate care in the age of acceleration.