(Re)Turning: Pulp, Bodies, Selves

“We might imagine re-turning as a multiplicity of processes, such as the kinds earthworms revel in while helping to make compost or otherwise being busy at work and at play: turning the soil over and over—ingesting and excreting it, tunneling through it, burrowing, all means of aerating the soil, allowing oxygen in, opening it up and breathing new life into it.“

-Karen Barad, “Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart”

***

When I read this earthly example of re-turning, I could not stop thinking about what it would be like to be an earthworm. This paper making workshop, which involves turning our hands in wet, mushy pulp, pondered this question: What do worms do? As we re-turned pulp in our hands, we thought about worms, soil, compost, tunnels, air, time, life, death. At the end, we observed our paper, emerging from processes of re-turning our recycled pulp, filled with flowers, cotton, linen, abaca, sensations, and time.

Barad (2014) explains that re-turning is not “reflecting on or going back to a past that was, but re-turning as in turning it over and over again– iteratively intra-acting, re-diffracting, diffracting anew, in the making of new temporalities…” (p. 169, emphasis added). As someone who often finds myself sitting at a vat of pulp, turning and re-turning, I find much value in these words.

Who benefits more? The artist, the water swooshing against the vat? The pulp smashing and slithering through the papermaker’s fingers? Can they really be disentangled from each other, or from the final piece of dried paper? Can they be separated in space or time?


[a drawing made by a workshop participant of a worm saying: I like dirt]
[a drawing made by a workshop participant of a worm on a roller skate playing in the dirt saying: I like dirt]
[a photo of hands swirling paper pulp around next to a bucket of torn paper scraps in water.]
[a photo of hands swirling paper pulp around next to a bucket of torn paper scraps in water.]
[a photo of Maria pressing a wet sheet of paper with a sponge while people watch. Her hair gets in her face.]
[a photo of Maria pressing a wet sheet of paper with a sponge while people watch. Her hair gets in her face.]
[a collage of various paper scraps neatly pressed together by a workshop participant, beginning to dry. There are blues, whites, warm yellows and many textures. The result is an artful form.]
[a collage of various paper scraps neatly pressed together by a workshop participant, beginning to dry. There are blues, whites, warm yellows and many textures. The result is an artful form.]
[A photo of the drying station. There are taped up quotes and things to consider while people iron their paper. A piece of tape reads: IRONIN STATION]
[A photo of the drying station. There are taped up quotes and things to consider while people iron their paper. A piece of tape reads: IRONIN STATION]
[A photo of a workshop participant working at the drying station. On the wall in front of them are various papers stuck to to it with readings, quotes, and pictures. The participant's head is bent down and working.]
[A photo of a workshop participant working at the drying station. On the wall in front of them are various papers stuck to to it with readings, quotes, and pictures. The participant’s head is bent down and working.]
[A photo of a piece of paper created by a workshop participant. There are rose petals artfully arranged and embedded into the pulp into the shape of a human face.]
[A photo of a piece of paper created by a workshop participant. There are rose petals artfully arranged and embedded into the pulp into the shape of a human face.]
[A photo of a piece of paper created by a workshop participant. The paper is purple with fibers and materials embedded throughout. It seems thin and delicate and ephemeral.]
[A photo of a piece of paper created by a workshop participant. The paper is purple with fibers and materials embedded throughout. It seems thin and delicate and ephemeral.]
[A photo of various people working at tubs of pulp. There are hands in blue, purple, and yellow pulps.]
[A photo of various people working at tubs of pulp. There are hands in blue, purple, and yellow pulps.]
[A photo of hands moving in pulps. Hands are dipping mold and deckles into the tubs to make paper sheets.]
[A photo of hands moving in pulps. Hands are dipping mold and deckles into the tubs to make paper sheets.]
[A photo of a hand sponging a piece of wet purple paper with a lime green sponge.]
[A photo of a hand sponging a piece of wet purple paper with a lime green sponge.]
[A photo of a worm re-turning soil drawn by a workshop participant. This worm is drawn to have strong, human-like features, and lifts up a mound that is labeled SOIL. Written text next to it says: EARTH WORM STRONG.
[A photo of a worm re-turning soil drawn by a workshop participant. This worm is drawn to have strong, human-like features, and lifts up a mound that is labeled SOIL. Written text next to it says: EARTH WORM STRONG.