Sensing Place(s) in the Humilocene: Explorations in Ecological Storytelling

This chapter focuses on telling more-than-human stories in and of multispecies urban settings, drawing on a specific initiative by Vilnius City Museum designed to change the hierarchical representation of relations between humans and other species. It begins with critical reflections on walking as a method shared by human ecology and creative ethnology, and a theoretical excursus on ethnologically understanding the sense of place. As the museum awaits a move to a purpose-built precinct, two provisional exhibitions, de-centring the human from the mainstage, tell the story of residents of the city from a multispecies perspective. As well as humans, animals, plants, and microbes are presented in a deep-time perspective that includes extinct species. The approach is holistic rather than piecemeal, and the rationale is non-linear. Reflecting on this example, and drawing on the empirical, analytical, and spiritual encounters the other contributors to this book are offering, this chapter considers new relationships with nature that might overcome the failed binaries by replenishing a deep sense of place as a fundamental component of liveable futures.