Åsa Sonjasdotter: Opening historical time

This project examines the historical connection between fascist ideology and the development of lens-based technologies of film and photography within breeding programs towards uniform life forms. It traces the historical beginnings of Swedish and German institutes for plant breeding, and their precursory role for the establishment of institutes for eugenics. Though national breeding and distribution programs have been thoroughly researched (Saraiva 2016; Bonneuil and Thomas 2010), visual representations of purified life forms invented at these institutes are less studied, despite their driving role in shaping the vision of purified life. The study of such representations opens historical time for critical fabulation (Hartman, 2008) towards possible other paths for sensory and social relations of breeding and cultivation in landscapes today marked by uniform life.