‘Body’ in Words of Weather: A Glossary

A glossary of weather that maps terms for a political ecology of experience.

Words of Weather: A Glossary accompanies the ‘Weather Engines’ exhibition and workshop programme curated by Daphne Dragona and Jussi Parikka.

Open-weather contributed the entry ‘Bodies’.

Why speak of bodies? The scholar Daisy Hildyard proposes that each human has two bodies. Your first body is the body “you live in, made out of your own personal skin.” This is the body that sleeps and wakes, goes to the corner shop for milk or eats breakfast standing up in the kitchen. Your second body “is not so solid as the other one, but much larger.” This second body is your own existence as a force on the climate, a change in bio-, atmo- and geospheres, and any number of other processes that are a part of these changes.

In other words, to speak of bodies rather than processes or events is to find another grammar for responsibility.

Extract from ‘Bodies’ by open-weather. All quotes from Daisy Hildyard, The Second Body (London: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2017)