Speaking Sphagnum — carolinevitzthumstudio

Caroline Vitzthum

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Speaking Sphagnum (2023), experimental writing, extracts out of chronological order from a total of 207 pages.

I have always had a fascination for moss. As a child, I would spend countless hours in the woods - kneeling, bending, and curiously inspecting these miniature forests, imagining what it would be like to be the size of an ant. I still remember the first time I set my eyes on a moss 40 times magnified – a moment that nearly made me cry. Realising the limitations of our (human) vision to truly appreciate something so intricate, fantastic, and fragile at the same time. Looking through the microscope felt as if a whole new world was opening up in front of me.

My interest in Sphagnum moss was initiated in spring 2022 when spending a three-month research period at The National Botanic Garden of Wales. I was working with the garden’s extensive dried botanical collections, when I came across a 19th century Sphagnum moss herbarium. I was immediately struck by its aesthetic qualities – delicate, star-shaped mosses, pressed and mounted onto sheets of pastel-coloured paper. I was intrigued to find out more about Sphagnum moss and soon recognised its immediate connection to one of today’s most threatened habitats on our planet: peatlands.

Speaking Sphagnum is an experimental piece of writing, interlacing a fictional voice written from the perspective of Sphagnum moss with my own personal memories. Speaking Sphagnum proposes a ‘language’, a mode of seeing, communicating, and appreciating the world of Sphagnum moss and the species, narratives, and relations coexisting with it. It presents an extract from a more extensive text I am currently working on and results from all the many conversations and encounters I have had over the past months with both humans and non-humans.