Workshop: Symbiocene

Introduction ‘Symbiocene’
The Eohadeic period of the Hadean: Ladies and gentlemen, the earth is born and she will grow up to be a pearl of the universe. About four billion years later, the first actors are already on stage; Now the dance of life can really begin. Earth and its creatures have been through a lot. She and her laws still know how to shape life today; The living beings, in turn, also know how to shape the earth. In this relationship, it is give and take.

The earth thus gave birth to life, yet takes each one up again, whether they have offspring or not. This is why there is also a two-sidedness to the earth and nature: their laws and creations offer survival, but they also take everything from you when the time is right. The earth and its life is not just beautiful, pomp and circumstance. They are also brutal, each in their own way. The fluids keep changing.

That’s why people had to fight themselves to get a place on the podium. We have probably gone through our goals (conscious and unconscious) in such a way that we have forgotten that we have to give and take. Tribes in remote places of the world are still in this dance. With our Western capitalistic perspective, we can’t even imagine how challenging such a life must be. Is there a middle ground between their existence and our existence? Can we also display instead of just take? Can we pick up another dance with Mother Earth?
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Workshop – Fontys Tilburg (FLOT)
The issues mentioned during the introduction are some key concepts that fall under the concept of Symbiocene. During this workshop, third-year biology students at Fontys Tilburg (FLOT) looked through MS Teams at this two-sidedness of the earth and nature, as well as our human two-sidedness. We also looked at symbioses and mutualistic relationships.
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All this came together in the assignment for the students. In groups, the students had to come up with a possible relationship in the field of animals, fungi, plants, and micro-organisms. After this they had to criticize their idea themselves:
*what could be possible drawbacks to obstacles?
*What do the other organisms get out of this mutualistic relationship?
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It is challenging, to make a working and long-lasting window in relation to busy relationships with other life. Yet it is important to argue with these matters. It was a successful workshop, in which the students participated interactive and enthusiastic.