Copy of My Companion Species

Playing games of Co-Monopoly with Onions

How we have consumed Onions in the human environment?

Note1. I’ve been spending time with my companion species which are onions. As you know, You can easily find onions everywhere, they are cheap, and they are very often used in cooking. I meet onions more than once in a day at a grocery market or in a refrigerator,

but I do not know about onions that much, except for it is suitable for a salad. But, they have a long history than you think. Onions cultivation is recorded in ancient Egyptian murals. And Onions were essential things, so it used to use a kind of currency or played a role as a valuable gift in the Middle Ages. However, Nowadays, the value of one onion costs about 20 Pence at Sainsbury’s.

Note2.

There is a Korean poem, ‘The Flower’ by Kim Chun-soo(1922 - 2004), translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid.

Before I call her name, 내가 그의 이름을 불러 주기 전에는

She was nothing 그는 다만

More than a gesture. 하나의 몸짓에 지나지 않았다.

When I call her name, 내가 그의 이름을 불러 주었을 때

She came to me 그는 나에게로 와서

And became a flower. 꽃이 되었다.

Like I called her name, 내가 그의 이름을 불러 준 것처럼

will someone please call my name 나의 이 빛깔과 향기에 알맞은

that suit my light and fragrance? 누가 나의 이름을 불러다오.

I, too, long to come to her 그에게로 가서 나도

and become her flower 그의 꽃이 되고 싶다.

We all long to be something. 우리들은 모두 무엇이 되고 싶다.

You, to me, I, to you, 너는 나에게 나는 너에게

long to become a gaze that won’t be forgotten. 잊혀지지 않는 하나의 눈짓이 되고 싶다.

Note3.

This poem shows that the meaningless object is becoming meaningful by calling her name. A gesture can reflect on nothing, and a flower shows a meaningful subject. In this poem, an object and a subject is not the master-servant relation, but the relationship of the intersubjective union. In other words, the desire for recognition is a mutual desire for who him/herself is to recognise his/her true identity.

I, as a human being, expected onions to grow properly as an ingredient of my salad, rather than come to me being valuable things before starting this project. Although it was nothing before I called their name, now I call them and I would like to learn how they look at the world. Thus the reason why I chose onions is learning how to interconnect with what I have usually passed.

Note4.

In this project, I will discuss what I have felt and what I have thought having time with my companion species rather than demonstrate some facts of onions.

I had been looking into their growth. My initial project was in terms of cultivation between being loved and being insulted. What I expected from onions is that one of the onions that I gave love should have grown up faster and well, and vice versa, the other onion which is being insulted should have grown slowly or even rotten.

Note5.

There are not any different growth, and they are growing similarly. I was disappointed with the different result from what I expected. However, I reconsidered its relationship between

myself and onions. It was in a relationship between an observer who was me and onions which were reacting for my require. I realised that it was not companionship, but mastership. So, I started over again with my companion, Onions.

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